{"id":388261,"date":"2024-04-26T10:01:01","date_gmt":"2024-04-26T10:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=388261"},"modified":"2024-04-26T10:03:53","modified_gmt":"2024-04-26T10:03:53","slug":"aussie-champs-denial-in-bombshell-cheating-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=388261","title":{"rendered":"Aussie champ's denial in bombshell cheating scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian star \ufeffWill Power<\/a> said he was unaware of any manipulations to Team Penske\u2019s push-to-power system until after last weekend\u2019s IndyCar<\/a> race at Long Beach and never illegally used the mechanism.<\/p>\n

Team Penske is under heavy scrutiny following the March 10 season-opening race at St. Petersburg, Florida<\/a>, in which Josef Newgarden was stripped of the victory and Scott McLaughlin<\/a>, who finished third, was also disqualified.<\/p>\n

Power finished fourth and while his result was not thrown out, he was docked 10 points and all three Penske drivers were fined $38,200.<\/p>\n

Stan Sport is the only place to watch the 2024 IndyCar Series.<\/strong><\/em> All the action streaming ad free, live and on demand<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Will<\/p>\n

Power has not been accused of any wrongdoing by IndyCar but was punished because the manipulated systems were found on all three Penske cars following Monday (AEST) morning's warmup in California.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was disappointed to learn about the penalty that we received this week from IndyCar,\u201d Power wrote on social media.<\/p>\n

"There was an oversight by our team and I was unaware of the situation until it was brought to our attention following Long Beach.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Calls for major NRL change after sickening collision<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> AFL stars at odds over radical extra-time call<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Demetriou asks players 'to take ownership' after drubbing<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/C6MBUVhuwhQ\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAs per the rules, I did not utilise the P2P capabilities during any start or restart during the St. Petersburg race,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I accept the penalty, I want it to be known that I did nothing wrong and followed the rules.\u201d<\/p>\n

Team Penske has maintained that the push-to-pass system on its three Chevrolets was utilised in a test session for upcoming hybrid engines and then mistakenly not replaced before the start of the season.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/StanSportAU\/status\/1783337665405861997?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

It remained on the cars for three races and Newgarden's onboard videos clearly show the reigning Indianapolis 500 winner illegally using push-to-pass to gain position on at least one restart.<\/p>\n

McLaughlin said he used the system for less than two seconds and gained no positions on the track.<\/p>\n

He said he pushed the button out of habit.<\/p>\n

\"Will<\/p>\n

IndyCar prohibits the use of the push-to-pass system on starts and restarts and the button isn't even supposed to work on those occasions.<\/p>\n

The issue was discovered on Sunday in California, when a glitch in the system knocked push-to-pass out on all cars except the three Penske entries.<\/p>\n

IndyCar then examined the units, found them to be illegal, and forced the team to correct the systems before the race.<\/p>\n

\"Scott<\/p>\n

Roger Penske, who owns the race team, IndyCar and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, told The Associated Press<\/em> \u201cI am embarrassed\u201d by the scandal.<\/p>\n

Newgarden has yet to address the issue but a news conference has been added to his schedule at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama.<\/p>\n

IndyCar has yet to present the data that proves Newgarden manipulated his way to the victory.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The disqualification dropped him from first to 11th in points and the scandal hit right before Saturday night's (AEST) Season 2 debut episode of \u201c100 Days to Indy<\/em>\u201d in which Newgarden is the star.<\/p>\n

Newgarden, in addition to being the reigning Indy 500 winner, is a two time IndyCar champion and in a contract year with Penske.<\/p>\n

He's believed to be chasing a pay raise that would put him in line with the extensions recently signed by Colton Herta and Pato O'Ward, drivers with lesser credentials than Newgarden.<\/p>\n

O'Ward was named the St. Pete winner following the disqualifications in Arrow McLaren's first victory since 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australian star \ufeffWill Power said he was unaware of any manipulations to Team Penske\u2019s push-to-power system until after last weekend\u2019s IndyCar race at Long Beach […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":388263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388261"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=388261"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":388268,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388261\/revisions\/388268"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/388263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=388261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=388261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=388261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}