IndyCar
Scott McLaughlin wins first career pole position for Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg
ST. PETERSBURG, FL (Pittsburgh Racing Now) – Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin won his first career NTT INDYCAR SERIES pole position for Sunday’s season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding.
McLaughlin’s fast lap of 59.4821-seconds, as time was running out in the fast six shootout, was 0.1237-seconds faster than teammate Will Power.
“I love qualifying, you’ve got to put it all on the line,” said McLaughlin. “The Dex Imaging Chevy was just awesome, super proud of everyone. I felt like we showed some speed last year and I was just getting better and better as the car went on and I think rolling out with a car that suited me from the get-go is important.”
Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta turned the third fastest lap at 59.7104-seconds followed by Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay’s 59.8102 in fourth.
Andretti’s Romain Grosjean recovered from an incident in the morning practice to qualify fifth fastest at 59.8116 and Meyer Shank Racing’s Simon Pagenaud will start sixth.
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon, Marcus Ericsson and Alex Palou along with Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Graham Rahal and A.J. Foyt Racing’s Kyle Kirkwood were the drivers who failed to make it out of the second round and into the Fast 6.
“In practice we were P20 so we’re definitely moving in the right direction,” said Dixon. “I mis-timed the sequence of the tire. Firestone brought a grippier red (alternate tire) this year, which for me is a lot more fun, but you’ve got to be careful how to get the peak out of it and I mis-timed the peak.”
Alexander Rossi, Christian Lundgaard, Helio Castroneves, Callum Ilott, Felix Rosenqvist, Jack Harvey and Tatiana Calderon were the drivers from group one that failed to advance to the second round of qualifying.
Dalton Kellett, Pato O’Ward, Conor Daly, Takuma Sato, Jimmie Johnson and rookies David Malukas and Devlin DeFrancesco were the cars from Group 2 that failed to make it out of the first round of qualifying.
O’Ward was one of several drivers who had issues throughout the day in Turn 9. O’Ward slapped the outside wall exiting the turn, sending him to pit road with a bent toe link.
Dixon said he caught the wall with the tire in Turn 9 and said he was surprised the hit didn’t damage the suspension. Kirkwood caught Turn 9 with the floor of his car and was surprised his car wasn’t damaged. In the morning practice session Jack Harvey and Alex Palou both had incidents in Turn 9 where both cars sustained heavy damage but were repaired in time for qualifying.
Sunday morning starts with a half-hour warm-up for the INDYCAR Series at 8:45 a.m. followed by the IndyLights race at 9:30 a.m. followed by the USF 2000 race at 10:45 a.m.
Driver introductions start at 11:50 a.m. with the green flag dropping at 12:30 p.m. for the 100-lap event.
LEEDS, AL (April 28, 2024) Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin put an emotional week in the rear-view mirror by winning Sunday’s Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix presented by AmFirst.
McLaughlin employed a three-stop, flat-out pedal to the floor strategy while several others attempted a two-stop strategy. McLaughlin’s move paid off with the victory, his second in-a-row at Barber.
McLaughlin, who led 58 of the 90 laps after earning the NTT P1 Award in qualifying Saturday, took the lead for the final time on Lap 76 after his final pit stop.
“Definitely one of my best drives in terms of execution and just knocking out the laps,” said McLaughlin, who had his third-place finish at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding stripped earlier in the week for illegal push-to-pass software and using it. “Very happy we could advance to the checkered flag there and bring home a W for Team Penske and for Roger (Penske).”
Will Power made it Team Penske 1-2 by finishing second in the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet, 1.3194 seconds behind McLaughlin.
“It was a hard-fought 1-2 for Penske,” Power said. “We were certainly fast, but obviously a lot of strategy played into that. We were able to use our speed to come out in front again.”
Chip Ganassi Racing rookie Linus Lundqvist rounded out the podium by finishing third in the No. 8 American Legion Honda, the best finish of his young career.
“Man, it was amazing,” said Lundqvist of his sixth career start. “I think for the first time ever I was not on the save fuel strategy. I was not the one being passed, which was nice.”
The next race for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES is the Sonsio Grand Prix on Saturday, May 11 on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, which kicks off the Month of May activities at IMS culminating in the 108th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge on Sunday, May 26 on the IMS oval.
INDIANAPOLIS, IN (April 24, 2024) Scott Dixon and the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing team are leading the NTT INDYCAR SERIES Championship standings after Team Penske was penalized for violating the series ‘push-to-pass’ parameters.
INDYCAR disqualified Josef Newgarden’s win and Scott McLaughlin’s third place finish in the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and docked Will Power 10-Championship points for the infractions.
Dixon’s epic win in this past Sunday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach vaulted him into second position in the Championship standings, 12-points behind Newgarden. That changed following Wednesday’s penalties.
Dixon now holds a 2-point lead over Andretti Global’s Colton Herta and a 12-point lead over teammate and reigning INDYCAR Champion Alex Palou.
Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward sits in fourth position, 15-points back, following his elevation to winner at St. Pete. Power sits in fifth position, 20-points behind Dixon despite the 10-point reduction.
Dixon heads into this weekend’s Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix powered by AmFirst at Barber Motorsports Park having never won at the picturesque 2.3-mile, 17-turn road course in Birmingham Alabama.
“Barber has been interesting,” said Dixon, a six-time series Champion. “Second six times. Never won there. The goal was always to try and step on the top step again.”
Dixon is hoping a recent test will help him park the No. 9 Honda in victory lane.
“We had a really good test at Barber,” added Dixon. “Only probably half of the grid did, so it will be interesting to see how that applies.”
The first 75-minute practice session gets underway on Friday from 2:40 p.m. to 3:55 p.m. and will be live-streamed on Peacock.
McLaughlin is the defending race winner.
INDIANAPOLIS, IN (April 24, 2024) Team Penske is in hot water for violating NTT INDYCAR SERIES rules regarding push-to-pass and Josef Newgarden has been stripped of his win in the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding.
Team Penske was in violation of the following “Push to Pass” parameters:
- Rule 14.19.15. An indicator to enable Push to Pass will be sent via CAN communication from the timing and scoring beacon on board the Car to the team data logger. This signal must be passed on to the ECU unmodified and uninterrupted during all Road and Street Course Events.
- Rule 14.19.16. Race Starts and any Race Restart that occurs before the lap prior to the white flag or prior to three minutes remaining in a timed Race Event will have the Push to Pass system disabled and will be enabled for a given Car once that Car reaches the alternate Start/Finish line.
The issue came to light at this past weekend’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach when INDYCAR officials discovered the possible violation during the morning warmup. The Series made sure the advantage that was discovered could not be implemented during Sunday’s race.
The series then began an extensive review of data from the St. Petersburg race, which revealed that Team Penske manipulated the overtake system so that the No. 2, 3 and 12 cars had the ability to use Push to Pass on starts and restarts. According to the INDYCAR rulebook, use of overtake is not available during championship races until the car reaches the alternate start-finish line.
It was determined that Newgarden’s No. 2 and the No. 3 of Scott McLaughlin gained a competitive advantage by using Push to Pass on restarts while the No. 12 of Will Power did not. McLaughlin was stripped of his third-place finish and Power was docked 10-Championship points. All three entries have been fined $25,000 and will forfeit all prize money associated with the Streets of St. Petersburg race.
The integrity of the INDYCAR SERIES championship is critical to everything we do,” said INDYCAR President Jay Frye. “While the violation went undetected at St. Petersburg, INDYCAR discovered the manipulation during Sunday’s warmup in Long Beach and immediately addressed it ensuring all cars were compliant for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. Beginning with this week’s race at Barber Motorsports Park, new technical inspection procedures will be in place to deter this violation.”
Team Penske issued a statement where President Tim Cindric blamed the violation on software that was not removed following a test session.
“Unfortunately, the push-to-pass software was not removed as it should have been, following recently completed hybrid testing in the Team Penske Indy cars. This software allowed for push-to-pass to be deployed during restarts at the St. Petersburg Grand Prix race, when it should not have been permitted. The No. 2 car driven by Josef Newgarden and the No. 3 car driven by Scott McLaughlin, both deployed push-to-pass on a restart, which violated INDYCAR rules. Team Penske accepts the penalties applied by INDYCAR.”
Newgarden’s disqualification handed the victory to Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward elevated PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon to the top of the Championship standings.
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