IndyCar Paddock Casts Doubts on Penske Explanation for St. Pete Violations – Motorsports Tribune

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – And now for the rest of the story.

Ahead of Sunday’s Children’s of Alabama Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park, Team Penske has been busy trying to put out the fires after two of their three cars were disqualified for tampering with the Push to Pass system in the season-opening race in St. Petersburg.

But many in the NTT IndyCar Series paddock aren’t buying the explanations that have been put forth for the team’s transgressions.

Across the board from Andretti Global to Chip Ganassi Racing to Arrow McLaren, the thought that a software glitch inadvertently installed on the Penske machines at the start of hybrid testing last fall is the linchpin in this whole ordeal is falling on deaf ears.

Colton Herta, who was one of the drivers to lose a position to one of the Penske cars on a restart as a result of the added Push to Pass was one of the more outspoken on the issue when the series rolled into Barber on Friday.

“The biggest thing is it’s a Penske mess up, right? It’s not the driver’s fault that was in the car, but it is the driver’s fault that they used it and were gonna use it again in Long Beach,” said Herta. “They were all fine with it in Long Beach. Nobody said anything. And I find it hard to believe that anybody would have a hard time feeling 50 extra horsepower in the car. So, any excuse that they have is bullshit.”

Herta added that he and fellow Andretti driver Kyle Kirkwood noticed something was amiss after St. Pete when reviewing a replay of the race, but shrugged it off as being a performance gain somewhere else and not an outright manipulation.

“I said, man, look at this. Like, did Chevy really gain this much in the off season? Looks like he’s on push to pass,” Herta recalled of his conversation with Kirkwood about it. “I get a better exit and he still like closes up to me and you know, you’d have some sort of strip slipstreaming effect, but not really at St. Pete on the front straight. It’s pretty, pretty short. And I sent it to Kyle and he’s like, ‘Dude, it looks like he’s on overtake.’ We were like, ah, no, couldn’t be that.

“It was.”

Herta added that the P2P violation may have simply been a mistake, but with it dating back to the start of hybrid testing in August 2023 and the same software being in place through the season opener and on to Long Beach is not helping to sell the case that it was just a…