Team Penske was found by IndyCar to have “manipulated” the push-to-pass system such that it was functional on starts and restarts, in contravention of the series’ rules.
Both original race winner Josef Newgarden and podium finisher Scott McLaughlin used ‘the button’ on restarts and hence were disqualified, while team-mate Will Power did not and his penalty was a loss of 10 series points.
Furthermore, all three entries were fined $25,000 and will forfeit all prizemoney associated with the race.
The bombshell is particularly awkward for IndyCar given Roger Penske owns both the series and the race team in question, although he has been at arm’s length from the latter since buying the former in late-2019, and disqualification is the maximum penalty allowed in IndyCar’s rulebook for the type of breach established (Rule 9.2.2 Race Procedure Penalties).
“Very disappointing,” he wrote in a text message to America’s The Associated Press.
“I am embarrassed.”
Thus far, Penske himself, team President Tim Cindric, McLaughlin, and now Power have all made comments regarding the breach, while Newgarden has not.
Power stressed in his social media post that, “I want it to be known that I did nothing wrong and followed the rules,” although his #12 car was still in breach of series regulations.
McLaughlin’s situation is somewhat different, although his social media statement featured similar themes.
“I have the highest level of integrity and it is important to protect both my own reputation and that of the team,” wrote the New Zealander, in part.
In explaining why he used push-to-pass on a restart lap, which he would ordinarily be incapable of doing, he put it down to a habitual application at the exit of Turn 9.
“I hit the button out of habit, but I did not pass any cars nor did I gain any time advantage,” wrote McLaughlin.
“The data, which INDYCAR has, confirms all of this information.”
That assertion would seem at odds with this line in IndyCar’s press release:
“It was determined that the No. 2 [Newgarden] and the No. 3 [McLaughlin] gained a competitive advantage by using Push to Pass on restarts while the No. 12 did not.”
Indeed, on the restart from what would be the final Caution of the race, McLaughlin passed Colton Herta for third place at Turn 10.
At the time, that appeared to be a product of enjoying alternate tyres versus Herta’s primaries and, in the words of the man himself, that he “just sort of threw the Dr Divebomb cap on.”
Whether that Turn 9 application to which McLaughlin admitted occurred immediately prior to that Turn 10 pass, or upon a restart from one of the earlier two Cautions of the race, is not clear, and IndyCar’s statement does not provide such specifics.
Logically, though, it would seem the more likely given IndyCar establishing a “competitive advantage” was gained; when the restarts occurred; and the fact that McLaughlin along with two others (Newgarden and Pato O’Ward) passed Herta on the first restart, McLaughlin passed no one on the second restart, and then made a pass on the third and final restart.
In any case, what is also not clear is how deployment of push-to-pass, which provides additional revs and turbo boost, did not cause Car #3 to “gain any time advantage.”
McLaughlin also described the illegal deployment of push-to-pass as a “very brief” application which he put at 1.9s.
However, IndyCar allows an average of 1.5s of push-to-pass per lap at St Petersburg, that being the total, 150-second allocation divided by 100 laps of racing (per Rule 14.19.13 of the IndyCar rulebook; for reference, maximum time per push at St Petersburg is 15 seconds).
Even accounting for Caution laps, restart laps, and the first lap of the race, that average is less than 1.9s, and one might also reasonably expect push-to-pass being used at least at the exit the final corner and exiting Turn 3.
McLaughlin would run out of push-to-pass before the end of the race if only he hit the button every time he exited Turn 9, although perhaps his “habit” is only in instances where he has cars in close proximity in front and/or behind.
He is now last in the series standings on five points, having suffered gearbox problems at Long Beach, while Newgarden is 11th.
The season continues this weekend at Barber Motorsports Park.
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