Newgarden fights back tears, accepts blame for breaking rules

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Reigning Indianapolis 500 champion Josef Newgarden blinked back tears Friday as he accepted blame for manipulating the push-to-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 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.

“I want to deeply apologize to our fans, our partners, my teammates, the competitors that I race break 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.

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