Josef Newgarden Stripped of Win, Penske Penalized After St. Petersburg Violations

Following the the NTT IndyCar Series race at St. Petersburg on March 10, INDYCAR has announced penalties surrounding Team Penske, with Josef Newgarden being stripped of his season-opening win.

Newgarden and Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin were retroactively disqualified, while fellow teammate Will Power received a 10-point penalty. 

Additionally, all three entries have been fined $25,000 and will forfeit all prize money associated with the Streets of St. Petersburg race.

According to INDYCAR, Penske violated push-to-pass parameters, saying the team manipulated them during the event.

McLaughlin had initially finished third in the race.

Ahead of the warmup session on April 21 for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, INDYCAR discovered the team’s potential rules violation.

After review of data from St. Petersburg, INDYCAR officials determined Penske manipulated the overtake system so that its three cars had the ability to use the push-to-pass feature on starts and restarts.

“The integrity of the IndyCar Series championship is critical to everything we do,” INDYCAR President Jay Frye said in a release. “While the violation went undetected at St. Petersburg, INDYCAR discovered the manipulation during Sunday’s warmup in Long Beach and immediately addressed it ensuring all cars were compliant for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

“Beginning with this week’s race at Barber Motorsports Park, new technical inspection procedures will be in place to deter this violation.”

Power was only docked 10 points rather than being disqualified because officials deemed that he did not gain an advantage on the restarts.

“Unfortunately, the push-to-pass software was not removed as it should have been, following recently completed hybrid testing in the Team Penske Indy cars,” Tim Cindric, Penske president, said in a statement. “This software allowed for push-to-pass to be deployed during restarts at the St. Petersburg Grand Prix race, when it should not have been permitted. The No. 2 car driven by Josef Newgarden and the No. 3 car driven by Scott McLaughlin, both deployed push-to-pass on a restart, which violated INDYCAR rules. Team Penske accepts the penalties applied by INDYCAR.”

Pato O’Ward is now credited with the St. Petersburg win after initially finishing second.