Pato O’Ward has been declared the official winner of the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg after an announcement by the NTT IndyCar Series. The series found that all three Team Penske entries, driven by Josef Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin, and Will Power, violated the Push to Pass rules during the race. As a result, Newgarden and McLaughlin have been disqualified, and Power has been penalized with a loss of 10 championship points. The team will also forfeit their prize money and pay a fine of $25,000.
The violation occurred when Newgarden and McLaughlin used the onboard Push to Pass boost system during restarts, which is against the rules. IndyCar officials discovered irregularities with Team Penske’s system during practice in Long Beach and further investigation revealed that the system had been used in an unauthorized configuration at St. Petersburg. Power, however, did not use the system during the restart periods and was only penalized with a loss of 10 points.
IndyCar President Jay Frye emphasized the importance of maintaining the integrity of the championship and stated that new technical inspection procedures will be implemented to prevent such violations in the future. The disqualification has had a significant impact on the overall points standings, with Newgarden dropping from first to 11th and McLaughlin falling from 10th to 29th. O’Ward, on the other hand, has climbed from sixth to fourth in the standings and has been retroactively awarded his fifth career IndyCar win. Scott Dixon is now the new points leader heading into the next race at Barber Motorsports Park.
Team Penske responded to the penalty announcement, acknowledging that a configuration used in their hybrid testing was mistakenly left active for the race. The team expressed their acceptance of the penalties imposed by IndyCar and explained that the push-to-pass software allowed for its deployment during restarts, which was not permitted. They apologized for the oversight and assured that measures will be taken to prevent such incidents in the future.