Source: Joe Skibinski/Penske Entertainment / other
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Will Power is denying any wrongdoing in the scandal that has shaken Team Penske this week.
The team has been penalized for what many have called “cheating” as all three of their drivers either used or had access to Push-To-Pass during the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg during points of the race during which they shouldn’t have.
Josef Newgarden, who won the race initially, and Scott McLaughlin were disqualified from the race. Will Power was not disqualified. In fact, he was promoted to a runner-up finish behind Pato O’Ward, who is now scored as the race winner.
But, Power was deducted ten drivers championship points. The reason Power was not disqualified like his teammates is because he did not use any Push-To-Pass on starts or restarts despite having the ability to do so
“There was an oversight by our team and I was unaware,” Power said in a post on X. As per the rules, I did not utilize the P2P capabilities during any start or restart during the St. Petersburg race. While I accept the penalty, I want it to be known that I did nothing wrong and followed the rules.”
New findings have shown that Newgarden and McLaughlin both used Push-To-Pass during restarts. Newgarden in particular used it three times.
Team Penske president Tim Cindric said this week that oversight was due to software being left installed on each of the three cars from hybrid testing that had happened in one of the practice sessions leading up to the St. Pete race.
That software was still on the Penske cars during the warm-up at Long Beach, during which PSP was enabled for the cars, but IndyCar noticed that all but the Penske cars were having issues with it. This prompted a look into the P2P system during which IndyCar officials discovered the oversight on Penske’s part.
McLaughlin has since released a statement as well accepting the penalty given to his team, but Newgarden has been loudly quiet (pardon the oxymoron) throughout this whole endeavor.
He will break that silence on Friday. IndyCar released an updated schedule for the press for Friday in which they have added an extra media availability feature Josef Newgarden by himself. This is clearly to address the PSP scandal with the media.
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Will Power Denies Wrongdoing, Josef Newgarden To Speak With Media Friday On P2P Scandal was originally published on wibc.com
