Announcement from Team Penske:
Team Penske Suspends Cindric, Three Others
Tag: Team Penske
Slow Thoughts -Barber
Photo by Kyle Mcinnes
Team Penske needed a strong showing. Indycar needed a good race. Both got what they needed yesterday afternoon in the Children’s of Alabama Grand Prix.
After a week embroiled in controversy, Team Penske came out strong on Friday as Josef Newgarden led the first practice. Saturday Scott McLaughlin and Will Power swept the front row in qualifying and finished in that order yesterday.
The race behind the leaders was probably the most entertaining race I have seen at Barber. Turn five was the scene of side-by-side action, seldom gentlemanly, but very exciting. The sand trap got quite a workout.
There was some good racing in the middle of the pack. Scott Dixon made a great over and under move to pass Josef Newgarden coming out of turn five. Uncharacteristically, they were racing for fifteenth place.
The cautions were spaced far enough apart to keep things interesting as teams tried different pit strategies. In the end, McLaughlin led 42 laps and beat Power by just over a second.
The star of the race was the third member of the podium, rookie Linus Lundqvist, who earned his first career Indycar podium. It will not be his last this season.
McLaren Follies
At some point, the most popular team in the paddock needs to produce consistent race results. Pato O’Ward qualified well, but went off track trying an optimistic move in turn five, then was penalized for avoidable contact with Pietro Fittipaldi, and finished 23rd after starting fourth.
Alexander Rossi lost a wheel on lap 47 and finished 25th.
Herta to the Top
Colton Herta had a great, if quiet run to eighth place after starting 15th. The finish was enough to give him the points lead by one over Will Power.
Defending champion Alex Palou is third, just three points behind.
Newgarden trails Herta by 53 points, the amount he was docked from St.Pete.
Notes
Barber announced its best crowd in more than 10 years this weekend, 86,000 over the three days. Yhe event has grown since my first time there in 2012. With that that growth has come a creeping corporate presence, which has squeezed some vantage points for fans. A free grandstand on the backstretch is now just two small sections.
I know it’s a way to generate money, but tracks need to consider where they put their suites.
The tram system was the most efficient I have ever seen it. It appeared the track had extra tram s running. After the race yesterday, I had to wait for the third tram to arrive to board, but my wait was less than 10 minutes. I got back to my parking are on the other side of the track in less than 15 minutes.
The scoring pylon worked well for the most part, but the thing that annoyed me was the IndyNXT standing were displayed as positions 28-36. I found it frustrating to follow who was where below 10th.
On to IMS
Wednesday begins the greatest month of the year. Indycar begins wioth theSonsio Grand Prix on the road course May 11, and the 108th running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 26th.
Thanks for following along here this past weekend. It was difficult to cover given the limited cell service, but a story like P2P scandal is why I originally wanted to be a journalist.
Newgarden: ‘I’ve Fallen Short”
In an emotional press conference at Barber Motorsports Park this morning, Josef Newgarden gave his side of the story about the illegal use of Push to Pass at St. Pete..
Newgarden began by explaining why he had not issued a statement like his teammates did.
I didn’t want to put out a statement or try and
do an interview over the phone or something like that. I
thought it was really important to get in front of everybody
and have an opportunity to chat.”
He wnet on to say that it was his responsibility to not make mistakes in the car.
“For me, what’s really important about that, too, is there’s
only one person sitting in the car. It’s just me. So that
responsibility and the use of the push to pass in the correct
manner falls completely on me. It’s my responsibility to
know the rules and regulations at all points and make sure
I get that right. With that regard, I failed my team
miserably. A complete failure on my side to get that right.
It’s my job as the leader of the 2 car to not make mistakes
like that. You cannot make a mistake at this level in that
situation. There’s no room for it. There’s no room for that
type of mistake anywhere, certainly not at the top level of
motorsports. I don’t want to hide from that.
For me, it’s an embarrassing situation to have to go
through, to see what’s transpired. It’s demoralizing in a lot
of ways. There’s nothing that I can say that changes the
fact of what happened. I mean, it’s pretty clear.”
In a sometimes quivering voice, often sounded sounding frustrated and bothered by the vents of the week, Newgarden accepted the consequences of what happened and is ready to move on.
“But it doesn’t matter what the intent was… if you broke a rule, you have to suffer the consequences,” he said.
Newgarden doesn’t believe there was any intent on the team’s part to gain an advantage.
“It actually baffled me that anyone could be doing this… there was no checks and balances system in place (to prevent this,)” he explained.
Newgarden issued an apology.
“If there’s anything I wanted to come say, too, I want to
deeply apologize to our fans, our partners, my teammates,
the competitors that I race against, anybody that’s in our
community. I’ve worked my entire career to hold myself to
an incredibly high standard. Clearly I’ve fallen very short of
that in this respect.
Once again, I mean, I can’t overstate, it’s a difficult thing to
wrestle with. It’s a very embarrassing process to go
through. I hope we can find a way forward after this.
That’s really all you can do after the fact.
I wanted to come here and state that.”
Notes
I felt Newgarden sounded very sincere and contrite. You could tell that this incident has truly bothered him.
I am still puzzled how an elite team like Penske, which always presents a buttoned-up image, can display such ignorance of the nrules, or think there was a rule change without some form of communication from Indycar.
Indycar PR dropped the ball by not making this conference available for streaming to the general public. I’ve received several messages from people wanting to know where they could watch it. This issueis very important to the fans, and the series should have realized that.
All the King’s Horses
It is not a happy time for Indycar. A plethora of off-season drama- the delayed hybrid, contract disputes, a change in venue for the season finale-seemed to be brushed aside with record crowds and successful events at St. Pete and Long Beach. Yet, something seemed off.
St. Pete was a snoozer of a race, dominated by Josef Newgarden and Team Penske. I was amazed at the way Newgarden pulled away at the start of the race and the restarts. Now I know why.
The Thermal debacle was annoying, but at least it is out of the way.
Long Beach was a very good, compelling race on many levels, and I thought, “Here is some momentum Indycar can build on with another race next weekend. The euphoria crashed with a loud thud yesterday.
Team Penske, one of the gold standard teams of the series, received fines totaling $75,000 and two driver disqualifications, including Newgarden’s win at St. Pete. Will Power was docked 10 points.
The issue- Using push to Pass at prohibited times-on starts and restarts.
While the team and one driver has accepted the penalty, I didn’t see any acceptance of responsibility for the problem. Team Penske’s owner, Roger Penske, also owns the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indycar Series, compounding the issue.
Foer the mechanics of what happened, I refer you to Marshall Pruett’s excellent stary in Racer magazine at the link below:
How Team Penske took push-to-pass beyond the limit https://racer.com/2024/04/24/how-team-penske-took-push-to-pass-beyond-the-limit/…
Besides the egregiousness of the violation, two things disturb me even more. How did Race Control, with all the technology at their fingertips, miss this during the race? I am a former official, and I did miss a call or two in my time, and I get that. But something as black and white as this, which surely appeared on a monitor somewhere in the booth, should have been noticed.
If it weren’t for a glitch in the P2P software last weekend which exposed Penske’s override of the system, the transgression would not have been caught. It could have continued all season.
Some people have called for a review of the entire 2023 season, but I think we need to worry about the present. We can’t rewrite history.
I’m baffled as to why no one on the pit stand received any kind of sanction. I would think a one or two race suspension is in order here for a couple of crew chiefs.
If there is a positive in yesterday’s news, it is that race officials have put to rest the notion that they show favoritism to Team Penske. It is better that this infraction was caught and dealt with now. Can you imagine if a disqualifying rules violation was noticed two weeks after the final race of the year and a series championship was taken away from a driver?
I don’t think I’ve ever been more frustrated as an Indycar as I am now, nor have I ever been as sad for the series as I was yesterday after I learned all the woeful details.
There is a lot of work to be done to try to get the series back on its feet,
Indycar needed a good show last Sunday, and it delivered. This weekend, instead of riding what should have been a wave of momentum, the series has to prove itself all over again. We need an even better show Sunday, with 100% transparency from race officials.
INDYCAR Announces St. Petersburg Penalties
Editor’s Note: I will have some thoughts later. This is Huge News. Up dated points at end of article.
| INDIANAPOLIS (Wednesday, April 24, 2024) – INDYCAR has announced penalties for Team Penske, including disqualifications for the No. 2 (driver Josef Newgarden) and No. 3 (Scott McLaughlin) and a 10-point penalty for No. 12 (Will Power) from the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding on Sunday, March 10 on the Streets of St. Petersburg. Team Penske was in violation of the following “Push to Pass” parameters: Rule 14.19.15. An indicator to enable Push to Pass will be sent via CAN communication from the timing and scoring beacon on board the Car to the team data logger. This signal must be passed on to the ECU unmodified and uninterrupted during all Road and Street Course Events.Rule 14.19.16. Race Starts and any Race Restart that occurs before the lap prior to the white flag or prior to three minutes remaining in a timed Race Event will have the Push to Pass system disabled and will be enabled for a given Car once that Car reaches the alternate Start/Finish line. According to the rulebook, the violation is considered a Race Procedure Penalty (9.2.2.), which includes the right to reposition the Driver/Car in the posting or results, with a disqualification (9.2.2.6.) that includes the forfeiture of points and awards. During the Sunday, April 21 warmup session ahead of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, INDYCAR discovered the team’s possible rules violation. An extensive review of data from the race on the Streets of St. Petersburg revealed that Team Penske manipulated the overtake system so that the No. 2, 3 and 12 cars had the ability to use Push to Pass on starts and restarts. According to the INDYCAR rulebook, use of overtake is not available during championship races until the car reaches the alternate start-finish line. It was determined that the No. 2 and the No. 3 gained a competitive advantage by using Push to Pass on restarts while the No. 12 did not. Additionally, all three entries have been fined $25,000 and will forfeit all prize money associated with the Streets of St. Petersburg race. “The integrity of the INDYCAR SERIES championship is critical to everything we do,” INDYCAR President Jay Frye said. “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.” Due to the disqualification penalty of the No 2, the No. 5 entry of Arrow McLaren driven by Pato O’Ward is now credited with the win on the Streets of St. Petersburg. An updated official final results from the St. Petersburg race is available here with updated 2024 season standings available here. Members may contest the imposition of the penalties detailed in the review and appeal procedures of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES rulebook. |
Updated points:
1. Dixon 79
2. Herta 77 (-2)
3. Palou 67 (-12)
4. O’Ward 64 (-15)
5. Power 59 (-20)
6. Rosenqvist 55 (-24)
7. Rossi 48 (-31)
8. Kirkwood 47 (-32)
9. VeeKay 40 (-39)
10. Ericsson 37 (-42)
Newgarden is now 11th, Mclaughlin 29th.
Revised Box score:
Statement from Team Penske:
Champions Power, Team Penske Share Honorsat Victory Lap Celebration
From Indycar
| Lundqvist, HMD Motorsports with Dale Coyne Racing Saluted for Indy Lights Title INDIANAPOLIS (Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022) – Will Power and Team Penske stepped into the spotlight again as the 2022 NTT INDYCAR SERIES champions Saturday night during the Victory Lap Celebration at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. Power clinched his second series championship with a third-place finish in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet last Sunday at the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at Weather Tech Raceway Laguna Seca. He won his first title in 2014 with Team Penske. Australia native Power prevailed by 16 points over teammate Josef Newgarden, delivering Team Penske its record-extending 17th INDYCAR SERIES championship. Team Penske President Tim Cindric accepted the Championship Owner Award. Newgarden and Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing also were saluted for finishing second and third, respectively, in the standings. Power led the 2022 season with five NTT P1 Awards for pole, earning the NTT P1 Award as the best qualifier of the season. It’s the fifth time in his career he has won this award. Power also made history last weekend by winning his 68th career pole, breaking a tie with fellow legend Mario Andretti for the all-time INDYCAR SERIES record. Team Penske’s technical team also was honored with two awards. Kyle Moyer won the Team Manager of the Year Award for the fifth time. It’s the sixth time a Team Penske executive has won. Pennzoil presented Trevor Lacasse with the Chief Mechanic of the Year for the first time, the sixth time a Team Penske mechanic has earned this award. Power’s No. 12 Verizon Team Penske crew also won the Firestone Pit Performance Award for earning the most cumulative Pit Stop Performance Award points during the 2022 season. Team Penske drivers Power, Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin delivered nine of Chevrolet’s series-leading 11 victories this season, helping Chevy win the Manufacturer Award for the seventh time since it returned to the series in 2012 and the first time since 2017. Jim Danahy, U.S. vice president, Competition Motorsports Engineering for Chevrolet, accepted the award on behalf of his team .Christian Lundgaard was honored as the 2022 NTT INDYCAR SERIES Rookie of the Year. Lundgaard, from Denmark, scored one podium finish, two top-five finishes and seven top-10s in the No. 30 Honda fielded by Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. He edged David Malukas of Dale Coyne Racing with HMD by 18 points in the standings for first-year series drivers. Success in Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires also was honored this year at the Victory Lap, as in 2022 INDYCAR took over execution and promotion of the series that provides the last step of preparation for drivers aspiring to race in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES. Linus Lundqvist was honored as champion after a dominant season for HMD Motorsports with Dale Coyne Racing. Lundqvist, from Sweden, won a series-high five races in the No. 26 HMD Motorsports with Dale Coyne Racing entry and clinched the Lights championship with a race to spare, ending with a 92-point advantage over Sting Ray Robb. Lundqvist also received a painting representing his 2022 championship season created by noted motorsports artist Jim Swintal, also a longtime INDYCAR SERIES race official. Swintal has painted these works for Lights champions every year since 1991.Andretti Autosport teammates Robb and Matthew Brabham also were honored for finishing second and third, respectively, in the standings. HMD Motorsports with Dale Coyne Racing owners Henry and Daiva Malukas accepted an honor for their championship-winning team this season in Lights. Hunter McElrea received the Rookie of the Year Award in Indy Lights. McElrea, from New Zealand, drove to two victories, seven podium finishes and three poles in the No. 27 Andretti Autosport entry en route to finishing fourth in the series standings. Newgarden and Lundqvist also received the AiM Sports Move Award for their respective series, presented to the driver judged to have made the most dramatic pass of the year. |
Grid Penalties for Newgarden and Kellett
From Indycar:
INDYCAR Announces Portland Grid Penalties
INDIANAPOLIS (Friday, Sept. 2, 2022) – INDYCAR officials have announced a six-position starting grid penalty for the entries of No. 2 Team Penske and No. 4 A.J. Foyt Enterprises for unapproved engine changes following the Saturday, Aug. 20 race at World Wide Technology Raceway.
The teams were in violation of:
Rule 16.2.3.2 A fifth (5th) Engine is eligible to earn Engine Manufacturer points if a Full Season Entrant has completed the Full Season Entrant Engine Mileage with its first four (4) Engines. Otherwise, a fifth (5th) or more Engine does not earn Engine Manufacturer points and will be considered an Unapproved Engine change-out.
According to Rule 16.6.1.2, the penalty is a six-position starting grid penalty on road and street course events and nine positions at oval events and will be served at the series’ next event, which is the Grand Prix of Portland Sunday, Sept. 4 at Portland International Raceway.
Ferrucci on Standby for Newgarden
News bulletin from Team Penske:
MOORESVILLE, NC – Team Penske has announced that Santino Ferrucci will be on standby for INDYCAR SERIES Championship contender Josef Newgarden heading into this weekend’s race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
Newgarden was released from MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center earlier this morning and returned to his home in Nashville. Per series protocols, Newgarden will be reevaluated by the INDYCAR Medical Team on Thursday to determine his status for the Gallagher Grand Prix. Should Newgarden not be able to race, Ferrucci will take the wheel of the No. 2 PPG Chevrolet.
Ferrucci has 43-career INDYCAR SERIES starts with four of these occurring at the IMS road course where he has two top-10 finishes. His career best IndyCar finish is fourth, on four occasions, and he has made three starts in 2022, with two top-10 finishes.
Update on Josef Newgarden
The Pit Window by Mike Silver 