Josef Newgarden’s IndyCar Disqualification: What other IndyCar drivers are saying
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – When Andretti Global driver Marcus Ericsson saw the news that IndyCar had disqualified Team Penske driver Josef Newgarden six weeks after his apparent victory in the March 10, Firestone Grand Prix, he thought it was “fake news.”
“I thought IndyCar got hacked on its Social Media channels,” Ericsson said to a question posed by NBCSports.com. “It was a big shock, for the whole paddock. I had not heard anything about it. It came completely out of the blue for me.”
It was a wild day of emotion and commentary long before any cars took the track at Barber Motorsports Park for this weekend’s Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix – the third race of the 2024 IndyCar Series season.
It began with an emotional Newgarden choking back tears, accepting full responsibility for using the “push-to-pass” system when he shouldn’t have in the season-opening race. That gave the Team Penske driver an “Unfair Advantage” over his competitors.
If not for a technical glitch in the team’s data systems after Sunday morning warmup at Long Beach on April 21, the manipulation of the push-to-pass system would have gotten unnoticed.
Once IndyCar officials discovered what was going on, the harshest penalties in years were assessed to the three Team Penske driver. Newgarden became the first driver since Al Unser. Jr. in 1995 to be disqualified. His car did not pass technical inspection at Portland that day.
Team Penske appealed, and the victory was reinstated after the 1995 season concluded.
As for Newgarden’s DQ, Team Penske has already said it accepts IndyCar’s decision and will not appeal.
Newgarden’s Team Penske teammate, Scott McLaughlin, was also disqualified. A third Team Penske driver, Will Power, was not disqualified, but was assessed a points penalty.
Naturally, that was the topic of conversation for much of the day at Barber Motorsports Park near Birmingham, Alabama.
Here is some of what rival IndyCar drivers said about Newgarden’s disqualification:
PATO O’WARD
Arrow McLaren Racing
Awarded the race victory with Newgarden’s disqualification.
“It was definitely disappointing to see because those are teams and drivers that you look up to and you're like, ‘Hey, these guys are the benchmark.’ Maybe we were the benchmark one weekend, but we were stolen out of a better result because of X, Y, and Z.
“But we know that we're racing fair and square, and we do it to win races. Everybody's here to win races and I think a gray area is one thing, but there were rules. There is a rule on this, so you can't really say it's a gray area.
“I'm confident in the team that's behind me. We race with integrity, and we know the rules. We know the rules that are at our disposal, and we take advantages of whatever we can within those rules. Sometimes it's tough to look at it in one way or another, but the point there's only one way to look at it and that is the rule, and you can't just break it and expect it to get away with it.
“I’m thankful for Long Beach Warmup.”
COLTON HERTA
Andretti Global
Herta was asked if he believes Newgarden’s explanation that the push-to-pass rules had been changed to allow its use on the starts and restarts of a race.
“No. That's bullshit. That's wrong. No. He knows. But if he thought that, why didn't he push it at the start? He didn't push it at the start. He pushed it on the restarts. You would think when everybody stacked up the most, you would push it. So that's a lie.
“I could believe that St. Pete was a mistake. I could totally believe that. Their hybrid testing car right was probably a different chassis and they probably just took that whatever the coding is I don't know exactly how it works but they probably implemented it. I believe that and that that's possible.
“But what's not possible is to go to Long Beach again with it with the intent to use it again.
““I know that the team would have told us if that was, I know that they would have made a huge point about it, that you can use it on the starts. I know that it probably would have been said in the driver's meeting too.
“Like hey, the rules have changed, remember you can use it now.
“It just would have been mentioned.
“If you think ‘Penske Perfect’ and all that like you would think they would have mentioned it too.
“At the end of the day, it's a Penske problem. Even though they took advantage of it and that's wrong. It shouldn't have been in the car to begin with.
“I think some of what Josef said wasn't true, I don't believe it, and so maybe what he said is true about it taking a little bit, but we'll see.”
SCOTT DIXON
Chip Ganassi Racing
6-time NTT IndyCar Series Champion
“It's good IndyCar stepped up. I think they were in a situation where they had to. It's good that it was dealt with in the way that it was.
“Hopefully that deters some situations down the road.”
Dixon was asked if he believed the explanation that the software had been left in Newgarden’s car since the most recent test of the Hybrid Assist device?
“No,” he said. “Every team did a hybrid testing. It's not a part of code that you needed to change for hybrid testing. So, I don't I don't know where they're going with that one.
“It's hard to speak for him, but that's been the norm for the last 10 years. We did initially have, I think, OT on starts and restarts back in the day. But we specifically went to what we did to eliminate the waste of OT for races because everybody would use it.
“I think that might even go back to when you only got 15 pushes of it and you would use one on a start or restart, then you're eliminating most of them, especially when you had a lot of cautions, but I don't know where you'd get that idea.
“I haven't dived into it too much and it’s relevant.
I guess maybe they're lucky in some ways that they got caught when they did before the race in Long Beach.
“It’s not a good look. The issue you have is separation of Church and State, you've got a team that owns the series owns one of the engines that's raced in it.
“Yeah, it a tough one to deal with. I don't think there was any other option.”
ALEX PALOU
Chip Ganassi Racing
Two-time NTT IndyCar Series Champion
“I was shocked and interested about what was going on. I think it was a shocking moment for everybody to learn what it was, who did it and in which conditions did it.
“I think the paddock is pretty pissed to the team. I don't know, it depends on how strong mentally they are. I'm sure it's not easy.
“I wouldn't like to be in that position.
“I think the toughest part is when you see the other teams and other drivers and they look at you differently, that's the hardest thing and especially when there's so many people and everybody looks at you the same way and it's repeatedly, constantly, so they keep on remembering. you without saying anything.
“I think that's the toughest part it's not the end of the world.
“I mean it's bad but it's not they nobody killed anybody.”
MARCUS ERICSSON
Andretti Global
106th Indianapolis 500 Winner
“It’s not great for the series. It's problematic for sure. You like to think the best of everyone, so that's what I would like to think. But it's hard to understand how it happened and it's even harder to understand how it didn't get noticed during St. Pete and especially after.
“I could understand that in some ways but also like the way Penske runs things and the way I think Josef does things it's hard to believe that they've missed on something like that as a significant thing.
“But if that is what they say you know you have to believe what they're saying right.
“It's a bit hard to understand.
“The integrity to the series super important, for sure. I think everyone would agree on that, including Josef and Team Penske. That's why it's problematic, obviously. I think it's good that IndyCar was very harsh, but they were very strong penalties for what happened.
“Everyone wants to push boundaries, but you need to be within the rules That's the way we have to go racing so I don't think I need to remind anyone in my team about that. It's not something I'm worried about for sure not.
“I'm hoping that we can move on and focus on the racing. I think that it's not going to be good for anyone if we talk about this for the rest of the year and have that as a focus.”
Follow Bruce Martin on Twitter at @BruceMartin_500
