Star driver Josef Newgarden fights back tears, accepts blame for breaking rules in Indycar scandal

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Reigning Indianapolis 500 champion Josef Newgarden blinked back tears Friday as he accepted blame for manipulating the pushto-pass system in his season-opening Indycar win that has since been stripped, calling it an embarrassment. The two-time series champion insisted he is "not a liar" and didn't intentionally break the rules.

Newgarden gave an emotional 25-minute news conference at Barber Motorsports Park in his first public comments since Indycar punished him Wednesday by taking away his March 10 victory at St. Petersburg, Florida — the first disqualification by the series in 29 years.

"I want to deeply apologize to our fans, our partners, my teammates, the competitors that I race against," Newgarden said. "Anybody that's in our community. I've worked my entire career to hold myself to a very high standard and clearly I've fallen very short of that in this respect. It's a difficult thing to wrestle with. It's a very embarrassing thing to go through."

Newgarden said the disqualification and stripping of the win was "absolutely" the right decision by the open-wheel series whose owner, Roger Penske, also runs Newgarden's team and is one of the giants in motorsports. The decision has thrown Indycar into turmoil as it prepares for next month's showcase Indianapolis 500.

"It's crushing. I'm going to look back on it, too, and say I don't want that win on my books, either," Newgarden said, his voice wavering. "I don't want it. I'm glad they're taking it away. If it was tainted, I don't want to be near it. Unfortunately it is. I can't reverse that in time. It's good what's happened."

Team Penske teammate Scott Mclaughlin, who finished third, also was disqualified while fourth-place finisher Will Power was docked 10 points though he wasn't accused of any wrongdoing. The Penske drivers were fined $25,000 because the manipulated systems were on all three cars.

The team has maintained that the push-topass system on its three Chevrolets was used in a test session for upcoming hybrid engines and then mistakenly not replaced before the season. It remained on the cars for three races and onboard videos clearly show Newgarden using push-to-pass to gain position on at least one restart at St. Petersburg.

Newgarden said he believed the restart rule implemented with the Thermal race in March extended into the season so push-topass could be used "immediately on restarts."

"You guys can call me every name in the book, you can call me incompetent, call me an idiot ... call me stupid, whatever you want to call me, but I'm not a liar," Newgarden said. "The story that I know, which is the truth, is almost too convenient to be believable. So to answer your question, no, 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."

Indycar prohibits the use of the system on starts and restarts and the button isn't supposed to work on those occasions. The issue was discovered Sunday in California when a glitch knocked push-to-pass out on all cars except the three Penske entries. Indycar ordered the team to correct the systems before the Long Beach race.

Penske, Newgarden said, "did not take it well. I was interrogated at first."

"I've not met somebody with higher integrity than that man, and I mean that," Newgarden said, adding that he met with Indycar President Jay Frye on Thursday and could tell that Frye also found Newgarden's explanation implausible. Team Penske President Tim Cindric, who has denied any intentional wrongdoing, declined a request for an interview Friday.