Washington (AFP) – Reigning Indianapolis 500 champion Josef Newgarden apologized on Friday for an IndyCar cheating scandal that led to him being stripped of a victory in March’s season opener at St. Petersburg.
Newgarden said he had no knowledge his car had been manipulated to allow improper use of a “push-to-pass” power boost button and thought a rule change allowed him to use the overtake button on starts and restarts — what was in fact a violation of IndyCar rules.
“I want to deeply apologize to our fans, our partners, my teammates, the competitors that I race against,” he said Friday.
“I used push to pass at an unauthorized time twice, on two different restarts. There’s really nothing else to it. 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. I hope we can find a way forward after this.”
The 33-year-old American made his first comments since a technical inspection last weekend at Long Beach showed three Penske Racing cars, including his, had been tweaked to allow the restart violation.
Newgarden called the situation “embarrassing” and “demoralizing” and could see why no one would believe him about knowing nothing about the scandal until punishments were imposed Monday.
“I didn’t leave St. Pete thinking we pulled something over on somebody. I didn’t know that we did something wrong until this week,” he said. “I don’t think any of us believe it will be believable to somebody. But it’s the truth. I want to be held accountable for what I did and the actions I took, and I want to tell people the truth.”
Team Penske, owned by IndyCar series owner Roger Penske, said the improper “push-to-pass” system was used for an engine test before the season and mistakenly kept on the cars into the campaign.
A technical inspection found the alterations and that led to punishments for the three-car team, including $25,000 fines for each driver.
Newgarden, who had been the season points leader, was stripped of his victory in March’s season-opening IndyCar Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
Teammate Scott McLaughlin of New Zealand was disqualified from his third-place finish on the Florida streets for hitting the button for 1.9 seconds, a move he said came from habit.
“He’s truly hitting it out of habit, which does happen,” Newgarden said. “I hit the thing 29 times.”
Australian Will Power, the third Penske driver, did not use the overtake button improperly and thus kept his fourth-place finish from St. Pete but was stripped of 10 points in the season title chase.
“While I accept the penalty, I want it to be known that I did nothing wrong and followed the rules,” Power said in a statement.
Newgarden says he realizes it will take time to restore trust with rival drivers.
“I don’t know how you do that,” Newgarden said. “I don’t know that anybody’s going to believe me. Certainly not going to come from words. It’s just going to take repetitive action. However long it takes, how many years, if I’m given the time, I’ll just try to earn it through action.”
‘It wasn’t taken well’ – Newgarden said he spoke with car owner Roger Penske about the matter.
“It wasn’t taken well,” Newgarden said of Penske’s reaction.
Newgarden called his penalty fair.
“The integrity of the series is absolutely paramount. The series has to hold everybody accountable,” he said. “They’ve done the right thing by trying to throw the book at us, and they should.”
Newgarden fought back tears as he pondered the cheating storm around him ahead of defending his Indy 500 crown in May.
“I’m still happy,” he said. “I’m excited. It should be good.”
New Zealand’s Scott Dixon, who won in Long Beach, replaced Newgarden atop the season points table with 79 ahead of Sunday’s race in Birmingham, Alabama.
Power is fifth on 59 with Newgarden 11th on 34.
© 2024 AFP
