Penske Teammates at Odds Over Late Race Restart at Gateway

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

MADISON, Ill. – There will be some fences to mend at Team Penske after the conclusion of Saturday’s Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.

It was shaping up to be battle between all three of the Penske drivers, Josef Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin, and Will Power before everything came to a head on a restart with nine laps to go with Newgarden and McLaughlin running 1-2 and Power aiming to get in the mix from a few positions back after leading a race-high 117 laps on the evening.

Newgarden slow rolled the restart, which caused those behind him to jump a split second before he did, leading to calamity.

Alexander Rossi would wind up ramping off the rear wheel of Power’s Chevrolet, sending it airborne momentarily before coming back down to Earth, sending both drivers into the inside wall where they would come to a halt.

In addition, Romain Grosjean and Jack Harvey would also be collected in the chaos, which brought out the red flag.

Both Power and Rossi were able to climb from their respective machines, with Power jumping over pit road as the leaders, namely Newgarden were coming down to stop due to the red flag. Power made his frustration know to his teammate, throwing him the bird as he rolled by.

Power was visibly agitated as he walked away, laying the blame squarely at Newgarden’s feet for the incident.

“The leader. Whoever was leading,” Power said of who should be to blame. “Where are you supposed to go? Like, in between [Turn] 3 and 4, he just waited then he went and stopped. He went, he stopped.

“I knew that was going to happen as soon as I checked up because he checked up again. I knew I was going to get pounded. Man, disappointing. We had such a good car. Like we just get to the last 10 laps in the last two races and have bad luck.

“We’ll keep fighting and see if we can get the Verizon Chevy up there. That’s pretty tough now from here.

“I don’t know why. I do not know why they would just keep backing up and not going. I do not understand it.”

Newgarden explained that it may have been a split-second miscue between the time he accelerated for the restart and when the green was flown, but he would make a point to sit down and talk with Power so they could sort their differences out going forward.

“I know Will pretty well. I get that he’s upset,” Newgarden said. “He got wrecked out of the race. He’s a championship contender. When you get run into, especially after the night he had, he had a great night, a fast car, he drove super well. He led two-thirds of this thing. Imagine how he feels. I get it. I get that he’s upset.

“I think he’s going to try to place blame wherever he directly sees it right off the bat. He gets hot quick. I think when you calm down and look at it, it’s probably not going to be exactly what he thought it was in the moment.

“But the point is, he’s going to be upset ’cause this is not good for his night in the championship. Believe me, the last thing I want to happen is for Will to get hit. I can tell you that right now.

“If I go and sit with my boss tonight, he’s going to look at me and say, Did you do a good job tonight? I want him to think I did a good job every single night that I see him.

“I wouldn’t change much from my procedure. It’s not that different than what I’ve done in the past. I hate that Will got caught out in a situation tonight, someone running into him. It’s not fun.”

While he wasn’t technically a part of the incident, McLaughlin explained from his point of view that it was a combination of events that led to everything going wrong at that moment for Power and the others behind he and Newgarden.

“I guess my strategy all year in some ways has been to be as close as I can to the car in front. Most people are like that because you’re limiting the concertina effect that you have. I was right up Josef’s gearbox,” McLaughlin said.

“It’s not up to me to review. It’s an INDYCAR thing. Personally, I think he restarted very late. That was probably more the problem. I just wish we did a restart like we did on the last restart ’cause I think we potentially could have had a first, second, third for the team, or first, second, fourth.

“It’s not up to me to judge that. From my perspective, it didn’t need to happen. But I’m also not driving the 2 car, and no one else is but him.

Ultimately, we all make decisions. He thought that was the right restart to make. It sucks for everyone behind us. He got the win. Doesn’t really matter for him. Will is crashed out, and a few others.

“Yeah, it sucks I guess for the spectacle at the end.”