Josef Newgarden has accepted responsibility for the improper use of push-to-pass (P2P) during IndyCar’s season opening in St. Petersburg last month, which resulted in his victory being disqualified after the issue was discovered at Long Beach.
Newgarden was found to have used the P2P three times during restarts, when it was intended to be turned off. Scott McLaughlin, a Team Penske driver who used it illegally once, was also disqualified from third. Will Power received a points reduction for having full-time P2P activated on his automobile, although not using it.
The Penske vehicles’ ability to use P2P when it should have been dormant has been traced back to a software mistake by the team, and McLaughlin is assumed to have accidentally clicked the button out of habit. Newgarden’s use was intentional, and he claims it was due to a misunderstanding of the rules.
“I believe it is critical at this time to examine the facts of what occurred, which are very evident. There is no doubt that we broke the regulations in Saint Petersburg. “I used push to pass at an unauthorized time twice on two different restarts,” he stated on Friday, the first time he addressed the issue publicly.
“There’s really nothing else to it except that those are the rules, and we didn’t follow them.” For me, the most crucial aspect is that there is just one person in the car. It’s only me. As a result, I am solely responsible for using the push to pass correctly. It is my job to know the laws and regulations at all times and to ensure that I get them correct. In this aspect, I failed my team horribly. Complete failure on my part to get that right. You know, it’s my responsibility as the leader of the No. 2 vehicle to avoid blunders like that. You can’t make a mistake at this level in such scenario.
“There isn’t place for it. There is no room for such a mistake anywhere, especially at the highest level of motorsport. And I don’t want to hide from it. It’s an unpleasant predicament to be in, especially given what has happened. It’s discouraging in a variety of ways. And there is nothing I can say to change the facts of what transpired. It’s quite evident. That’s why I believe the facts are most crucial right now. That is what actually important. I believe that the truth is also vital, and that both of these things can coexist. So, if there is anything I wanted to say… I sincerely apologize to our fans, our partners, my colleagues, the rivals I race against, and anybody else in our community.
“I’ve spent my entire career holding myself to an extremely high level. And evidently, I have come far short in this regard. Once again, I cannot express how difficult it is to deal with. It’s a really embarrassing procedure to go through, and I hope we can go ahead from here. I mean, that’s all you can do: try to find a way forward after the fact.”
Newgarden repeated that his use of the P2P at St. Pete was intentional, but claimed he had no idea he was doing anything wrong until the series brought the matter to the team’s attention at Long Beach. Instead, he claims he was mistakenly led to believe that the series had changed restart processes for P2P connections.
“The tricky part about this whole situation is that I didn’t realize I had done anything wrong until Monday after Long Beach.” “It’s the first time I’ve heard that I broke the rules,” he explained.
“You guys call me every name in the book. You could call me incompetent. You can call me an idiot, an a**hole, stupid, or whatever you want, but I am not a liar. And the story, which I know is true, is almost too convenient to believe. So, no, I did not leave St. Petersburg believing we had pulled anything off on someone. I didn’t realize we did something wrong until this week.
“I understand what occurred. I understand why that happened, but I don’t believe it’s really plausible. Even when I try to repeat the tale back, I don’t think any of us believe it will be credible to anyone, but it is the truth. So, no, I didn’t realize I had done something illegal in St. Petersburg. The fundamental difference with the No.2 car, which is vital to understand, is that we convinced ourselves that there was a rule change to restart, specifically with overtaking. And you ask, “How did you come up with this?” This has never happened before. This was only introduced with the Thermal Exhibition Race. It’s the only time in my IndyCar career that we’ve had a valid legal alteration to the push-to-pass system that allows it to be used at a time other than at the alternate start/finish line. It was also going to be useful during qualification.
“There was a lot of talk about it, and we really genuinely felt and convinced ourselves that at St. Pete, the regulation was that you could utilize it right away on restarts. You do not need to wait till the alternate start/finish line. It will be available instantly. I even asked the team to remind me of this so I wouldn’t forget.
The issue surfaced during Sunday morning’s warmup practice at Long Beach, when it was discovered that Penske’s drivers were using P2P when it should have been inaccessible to the entire field owing to a technical fault with race control. This was corrected, but Newgarden entered the Long Beach race assuming that the restart rules had changed. He acknowledges that he attempted to employ the technique again at the Long Beach start.
“The weirdest element of the story is the software issue that no one was aware of. “It just strengthened that belief,” he continued. “So you travel into St. Pete and Thermal, where there is a real difference and everyone is utilizing it. And then you get to Long Beach and it’s still in the car. The warming is the first time we’ve heard about this software bug or mistake. And the funnier part is that even after learning about the software issue that no one was aware of and it was resolved, I continued to believe that the procedural variation in restarts applied to Long Beach. I tried to do the same thing while leading the race at Long Beach. I even hit the button — I came over the radio and said, ‘Hey, guys, the overtaking isn’t working properly.’
“I said that throughout the entire first lap since it was not working. I’m not sure why in your right mind you would do that. I did not fabricate a plot to conceal the truth. The truth is, we got that jumbled up, and it became intertwined with a mistake, resulting in some extremely incredible storylines. However, the reality remains that I used it unlawfully. I was not allowed to. And I can’t change that. Whatever I say next will not change the facts. And it pains me that it doesn’t. I wish I could go back in time and undo this, but I can’t.”
Aside from Newgarden’s ignorance about the regulations, the second fundamental flaw in the procedure was the presence of the code in the electronics chain on the Penske vehicles that enabled P2P to be readily available in the first place.
“On Sunday morning in Long Beach, I said, ‘Oh, well, we had an issue.'” “I’m learning about this an hour before the race,” he explained. “Nobody panicked. There was no comprehensive investigation into this. I still had no idea there was anything wrong—certainly not from St. Pete. So, you know, we repair all of that. We get through the race. When I saw there was a true problem here, I thought, ‘How is this possible? Who protects this stuff? And then I find out later that anyone could have done this at any time. So it’s also not complicated. It’s quite simple. When you break down what happened, it’s quite straightforward. And it surprised me that anyone could have done it. There were no checks and balances in place. And I’m not trying to point fingers at anyone. It doesn’t absolve us of anything. But I was surprised to discover that there was no safety in place. It was merely that this might have happened at any time and nobody knew about it.
“Nobody truly believed we had done anything wrong. Nobody was seeking for something inaccurate. It does not appear out of nowhere like a silver bullet. It’s simple, especially now that you understand how the software works; it’s something on the team side that is literally incorporated into your dashboard options. There is a digit there that literally transmits this signal. I don’t think that’s what we were aiming for.”
Newgarden also addressed how the abnormality at St. Pete was not detected in the data analyzed by the drivers and engineers.
“That’s not data that you look at after the race,” he went on to say. “I didn’t go over any of that things after the race. I mean, we had a good weekend. I completed my notes. I watched the race again. I made no assumptions about what was wrong or what was different. I mean, there is a reason Will didn’t use it. The only person in the automobile who believed the rules had changed was in the second car. There’s a reason Scott used it for barely 1.9 seconds. I mean, he’s simply punching it out of habit, which happens. I believe I hit the object 29 times (in 2023).
While Newgarden is eager to demonstrate his responsibility for the issue, he also acknowledges that he must work to restore the faith of some of his opponents.
“I don’t know how you do that,” he said. “It’s important to state. I believe it’s the truth. I’m not sure anybody will trust what I’ve told you here today. And that’s okay. I mean, it’s a weird collection of circumstances to try and reason through. It’s not going to come from words, you understand? It’ll only require repeated action. All you can do is repeat the action, and I hope to be able to stand on it in the future. So, no matter how long it takes or how many years it takes, if I’m given the opportunity, I’ll simply strive to earn it via action.
“I saw (IndyCar president) Jay Frye for the first time yesterday; he invited me to come visit him, and I believe he was just being kind. I believe he wanted to be a buddy. I also gave Jay the narrative, like, ‘Jay, this is what occurred.’ The saddest part was that no one did it on purpose. Even after I told Jay the story, I could tell by his expression that he was having trouble believing it. I am like, what are you going to do? If this guy can’t believe it, how can anyone else? I can’t change that. So, after today, I’m not going to worry about it because I have no influence over it.”
While the disqualification at St. Petersburg leaves Newgarden in a bad position in terms of title hopes, he believes the series was correct in stripping him of the victory.
“I do believe the integrity of the series is absolutely paramount,” he went on to say. “You know, the series needs to hold everyone accountable regardless of the circumstances or intent, and they did the right thing by attempting to throw the book at us. They should. It doesn’t matter what the intention was. If you break a rule, you should face the penalties, and this series must respect that standard. It makes me proud to be a part of a series that accomplishes this; that is a series I would like to be a part of. So I believe the penalty is reasonable. It is crushing. I mean, I’m going to look back and say, ‘Well, I don’t want that win on my books either.’ I do not want it. I am delighted they are taking it away. If it’s tainted, I don’t want to be around it. Unfortunately, it is.
“We hold ourselves to a very high standard. I mean, everyone knows that. We have no room to diverge from that. So it doesn’t matter if you made a mistake on purpose or not, right? It is not acceptable whether it was done by accident or intentionally. So, regardless of the circumstances, dealing with it is difficult. I can’t speak for Roger [Penske], but from my perspective, I believe we hold ourselves to a very high standard, and I certainly fell short of it, and I apologize to anyone we offended with it. I can’t say much more than that. I’m sorry this happened.”
