Newgarden apologizes for disqualification incident at St. Petersburg
By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio
Two-time NTT IndyCar Series champion Josef Newgarden insisted Friday he is neither a cheater nor a liar, denying he intentionally manipulated the push-to-pass system in his Team Penske car en route to victory in the season-opening street race in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Josef Newgarden. Photo by Joe Skibinski | IMS Photo)
Newgarden’s victory in the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 10 was wiped from the record book by sanctioning body INDYCAR on Wednesday _ first disqualification by the series in 29 years. The reigning Indianapolis 500 champion, Newgarden addressed the festering issue prior to the opening practice for Sunday’s Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix powered by AmFirst at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala.
“I want to deeply apologize to our fans, our partners, my teammates, the competitors that I race against. Anybody that’s in our community,” Newgarden said during an emotional 25-minute presser. “I’ve worked my entire career to hold myself to a very high standard, and clearly I’ve fallen very short of that in this respect. It’s a difficult thing to wrestle with. It’s a very embarrassing thing to go through.”
Newgarden said INDYCAR’s decision to disqualify his result in the No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet was “absolutely” the right option. Teammate Scott McLaughlin’s No. 3 Chevrolet also was DQed, while teammate Will Power’s No. 12 Chevrolet was assessed a 10-point penalty.
Newgarden’s DQ handed a belated victory to Pato O’Ward, driver of the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. Power was awarded second with Colton Herta of Andretti Global third in the No. 26 Honda. Pole-sitter Newgarden was dropped to 26th, with McLaughlin finishing 27th and last on the 1.8-mile temporary circuit.
“It’s crushing,” said Newgarden, a 33-year-old native of Hendersonville, Tenn. “I’m going to look back on it, too, and say I don’t want that win on my books, either. I’m glad they’re taking it away. If it was tainted, I don’t want to be near it. Unfortunately it is. I can’t reverse that in time. It’s good what’s happened.”
Team Penske has maintained the push-to-pass system on its three Chevrolets was used during a test session and mistakenly not replaced before the season began. The illegal push-to-pass system remained on the cars for three races _ including a non-point event in Thermal, Calif. _ until it was discovered last weekend before the prestigious Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. Six-time series champion Scott Dixon won the event in the No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, while Newgarden finished fourth.
INDYCAR rules prohibit use of the system on starts and restarts, and the button a driver controls from the cockpit is not supposed to work on those occasions. Onboard videos clearly showed Newgarden using push-to-pass to gain position on at least one restart on the Streets of St. Pete.
Newgarden added he thought the restart rule implemented with the Thermal exhibition race in March extended into the regular season _ and that push-to-pass could be used “immediately on restarts” at Long Beach.
“You guys can call me every name in the book. You can call me incompetent, call me an idiot…call me stupid, whatever you want to call me _ but I’m not a liar,” Newgarden said. “The story that I know, which is the truth, is almost too convenient to be believable. So to answer your question, no, I didn’t leave St. Pete thinking we pulled something over on somebody. I didn’t know that we did something wrong until this week.”
The issue surfaced Sunday in Southern California when a glitch knocked push-to-pass out on all cars except the three Team Penske entries. INDYCAR ordered the team to correct the systems before the race.
Newgarden said team-owner Roger Penske _ who also owns the series and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway _ “did not take it well. I was interrogated at first. I’ve not met somebody with higher integrity than that man, and I mean that.”
Mark Miles, CEO of INDYCAR and Penske Entertainment, said there was no conflict between Roger Penske and the sanctioning body. “What was really important to us was there was never any question of any interference,” Miles said. “We could be objective and handle the data in the same way we would have handled it for any other team.”
INDYCAR President Jay Frye said the series will begin locking a logging unit onto cars immediately after qualifying, blocking teams from making any changes in push-to-pass before a race.
“It’s very hard to police intent or to evaluate intent,” Frye said. “So at the end of the day it is about data. It’s on us. We didn’t catch it at St. Pete. We’ve put mechanisms in place we think should prevent it from happening again.”
Ironically, Newgarden’s dominant win at St. Pete was the centerpiece of Friday night’s premier episode of “100 Days to Indy,” an insider’s look at the series and its star drivers on the CW Network.
Newgarden said he was unsure of what he would have to do to regain the respect and the trust of his open-wheel peers. “I don’t know that anybody’s going to believe what I’ve told you here today. And that’s OK,” Newgarden said. “It’s a crazy set of circumstances to try to wrestle with. It’s certainly not going to come with words. I’ll just try and earn it through action.”
O’Ward, the revised St. Pete race-winner, declined to place blame solely upon Newgarden. “I can guarantee you, it’s not just Josef in this,” O’Ward said. “Obviously what he did was wrong, but I truly feel like him taking the fall for something that he needs a team of people to help with _ he can’t do it alone _ I think it’s a bit unfair to him.”
Newgarden later responded on-track by leading the opening practice with a best lap of 1-minute, 6.7045-seconds/124.130 mph in his No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet. Newgarden recorded the lap on Firestone Firehawk alternate tires despite spinning off-track in Turn 15 of the 2.3-mile/17-turn natural-terrain road-course. Newgarden spun early in the 75-minute session after running wide, triggering a red flag.
“It’s definitely the best medicine in the world for someone like me,” said Newgarden, referring to hot-lapping. “It’s great to be out here, just getting to turn laps. I was a little bit off my game in the beginning, for sure. I dropped a wheel and made a mistake and threw away a set of tires, which was unfortunate. We just kept going. We came up with a new plan and I think the positive thing is the car was really fast, even when I made the mistake.”
O’Ward placed second at 1:06.7875/123.975 mph in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. O’Ward also went off-track during the session while exploring the limits of tire grip.
“I love driving around this place,” said O’Ward, a native of Mexico with family ties to San Antonio. “It’s a track I really enjoy and always have. It’s high-commitment. We’re just going to try to get the car a little bit better (for Saturday) and see if we can get it done in qualifying.”
Two-time series champion Power _ who was docked 10 points as part of the St. Pete penalty for having override programing code on his car _ was third at 1:06.7914/123.968 mph in the No. 12 Verizon Business Team Penske Chevrolet.
“A very solid day to start the weekend here at Barber,” Power said. “We continue to have speed in the Verizon Chevy, and this is a place where we have been very successful as a team. The biggest thing here is to have trust in your car because you have to be committed each and every lap. I love racing here and look for good things the rest of the weekend.”
Herta was fourth at 1:06.8002/123.952 mph in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda fielded by Andretti Global, while Christian Lundgaard completed the top-five at 1:06.8972/123.772 mph in the No. 45 Hy-Vee Honda fielded by Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
Defending Barber race-winner McLaughlin ended up ninth at 1:07.0935/123.410 mph in the No. 3 Good Ranchers Team Penske Chevrolet. “Pretty good day,” McLaughlin said. “Car feels alright. I think we’re a little shy on aero-balance. Once we cram that into the No. 3 Chevy, we’ll be just fine.”
Christian Rasmussen was quickest of six rookies in the field, 13th overall at 1:07.4418/122.773 mph in the No. 20 Guy Care Chevrolet fielded by Ed Carpenter Racing.
Up next is practice at 12:15 p.m. (EDT) Saturday, followed by NTT P1 Award qualifying at 3:30 p.m. Live coverage of the 90-lap/207-mile race is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. Sunday on NBC, Peacock, INDYCAR LIVE and the INDYCAR Radio Network.
Jacob Abel led Friday’s opening practice for the INDY NXT by Firestone Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park via an uncommon margin for the INDYCAR development series.
Abel paced the 21-driver field with a top lap of 1-minute, 11.9990-seconds/115.002 mph in the No. 51 Abel Construction entry. He was more than a half-second quicker than his closest pursuer, fellow-series veteran James Roe of Andretti Global, who ended up second at 1:12.5148/114.184 mph in the No. 29 TopCon car.
Abel’s advantage over the field was even more impressive considering he turned his best lap on his final trip around the 2.3-mile/17-turn natural terrain road-course on used Firestone Firehawk tires.
“It’s fantastic,” Abel said. “Basically after St. Petersburg, it was the start of another offseason for us. Last year, St. Pete went really well and Barber not so much. So, this year St. Pete went well, so we’re going to make Barber go well, too. A lot of work in the past six weeks to keep in it.
“No new tires there. So, we’ll see what she does on new tires for qualifying. I’m feeling pretty good about it.”
Qualifying is scheduled to start at 2:35 p.m. (EDT) Saturday, preceded by a practice at 11:05 a.m. Both sessions will be streamed on INDYCAR LIVE and available on the INDYCAR Radio Network. The 35-lap/80.5-mile/55-minute race is booked for 11:05 a.m. Sunday, with live coverage on Peacock and the INDYCAR Radio Network.
Point-leader Nolan Siegel was third at 1:12.8955/113.587 mph in the No. 39 HMD Motorsports entry, followed by rookie Bryce Aron at 1:13.1150/113.246 mph in the No. 27 Jaguar Land Rover Chesterfield entry fielded by Andretti Global. Series veteran Josh Pierson completed the top-five at 1:13.1425/113.204 mph in the No. 14 HMD Motorsports car.
The 45-minute session featured one red flag, to tow in the stalled No. 26 Copart/Novara Technologies entry of Andretti Global driven by series veteran Louis Foster.
NTT IndyCar Series Point Standings _ 1, Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing, 79; 2, Colton Herta, Andretti Global, 77; 3, Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing, 67; 4, Pato O’Ward, Arrow McLaren, 64; 5, Will Power, Team Penske, 59; 6, Felix Rosenqvist, Meyer Shank Racing, 55; 7, Alexander Rossi, Arrow McLaren, 48; 8, Kyle Kirkwood, Andretti Global, 47; 9, Rinus VeeKay, Ed Carpenter Racing, 48; 10, Marcus Ericsson, Andretti Global, 37;
11, Josef Newgarden, Team Penske, 34; 12, Romain Grosjean, Juncos Hollinger Racing, 32; 13, Santino Ferrucci, A.J. Foyt Racing, 31; 14, Augustin Canapino, Juncos Hollinger Racing, 29; 15, Kyffin Simpson, Chip Ganassi Racing, 29; 16, Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 29; 17, Linus Lundqvist, Chip Ganassi Racing, 26; 18, Tom Blomqvist, Meyer Shank Racing, 23; 19, Pietro Fittipaldi, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 23; 20, Marcus Armstrong, Chip Ganassi Racing, 23;
21, Christian Lundgaard, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 20; 22, Callum Ilott, Arrow McLaren, 19; 23, Theo Pourchaire, Arrow McLaren, 19; 24, Jack Harvey, Dale Coyne Racing, 18; 25, Sting Ray Robb, A.J. Foyt Racing, 18; 26, Christian Rasmussen, Ed Carpenter Racing, 16; 27, Nolan Siegel, Dale Coyne Racing, 10; 28, Colin Braun, Dale Coyne Racing, 10; 29, Scott McLaughlin, Team Penske, 5.
