Will Power was furious in St. Louis, reprimanding Josef Newgarden for the chaos at the restart of Saturday’s race at World Wide Technology Raceway with nine laps left to go.
After leading a race-high 117 of 260 laps, Power was fourth behind Newgarden, teammate and polesitter Scott McLaughlin and Andretti Global’s Colton Herta. As the field rolled through Turns 3 and 4 in anticipation of the green flag, Newgarden continued to run at a significantly slower pace than he had on the five previous restarts.
The pace was so slow that McLaughlin’s nose was pressed tightly against Newgarden’s gearbox as the frontrunners rallied. When the green flag came out again, others further back in the field reacted quicker than those at the front. This in turn set off a chain reaction that saw Power run over from behind by Alexander Rossi, who eventually came up for air in the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet.
After the accident, the two parked together on the inside wall between the race track and the pit lane. Romain Grosjean of Juncos Hollinger Racing and Jack Harvey of Dale Coyne Racing also sustained damage in the accident, which led to a red flag.
Shortly after the incident, Herta shouted over the radio: “That’s unfair of Newgarden” and at the same time called for a penalty, which, however, was never given.
Power, meanwhile, climbed out of the cockpit of his race car, walked over the inside wall and gave Newgarden the middle finger, leading the field into pit lane as the race was stopped due to the debris scattered all over the front stretch from the accident.
Power immediately blamed Newgarden (the leader) as the cause.
“Where do you go? Between (Turn) 3 and 4, he just waited, then he took off and stopped. He took off, he stopped,” he said. “I knew that was going to happen as soon as I looked, because he looked again. I knew I was going to get wrecked. Man, disappointing. We had such a good car. We just got to the last 10 laps the last two races and got unlucky.”
“We’re going to keep fighting and see if we can get the Verizon Chevy up there. It’s pretty difficult from here. I don’t know why. I don’t know why they just keep backing up and not moving forward. I don’t understand it.”
Newgarden won the race, his fifth on the 1.25-mile oval, while Power finished 18th. Going into the weekend, Power was second in the championship standings – just 49 points behind leader Alex Palou. The early exit dropped Power to fourth place with four races remaining, 66 points behind Palou (443-377).
Newgarden: “I tried to come as late as possible”
When asked about the restart in the post-race press conference, Newgarden said the start was definitely too late.
“I tried to start as late as possible, which is not true – sometimes people start very early, sometimes in the middle, sometimes pretty late and sometimes very late,” the Indianapolis 500 champion said. “It’s not much different than the restarts I’ve done before. I’ve done a lot of restarts from the front. It’s not much different than other restarts that were late.
“I don’t know if I would change much. If anyone, especially on our team, looks at the data, they will see a very consistent speed.”
Newgarden, who led for 17 laps, was shown a replay of the restart during the red flag and reiterated his point.
Josef Newgarden, Team Penske Chevrolet
Photo by: Perry Nelson / Motorsport Images
“It looked like it turned green just before I left, just briefly,” he said. “I’m talking about half a second or a second.”
“If it’s just that little difference in timing. If the race control turns green and I didn’t start for just one second, I think people tried to jump, which we’ve had a problem with, to be honest. We’ve had a problem with jump starts for the last two years. It’s a constant topic at the drivers’ meeting.
“If there’s just one small mistake, I think people are very nervous on these restarts and trying to get the run right. It looked like it was mistimed at the back, at least for one person, and that caused a problem.
“For me, that’s the last thing I want to happen at the end. I don’t want to cause a wreck. I didn’t try to do that. That wasn’t my intention. I don’t know if I would do much differently, because that would be a fresh start.”
“I drove through at the same speed. The next time I just drove through a little earlier. It looked like the green light a little too early was the big mistake. That’s my opinion when I see it from the car, just live. Yes, that’s how I saw it.”
IndyCar’s stance on the restart
After the race, IndyCar provided background on race control’s decision not to penalize Newgarden. It was mentioned that he had reached the end of the restart zone and accelerated not when race control activated the green condition, but almost simultaneously when Newgarden accelerated. The procedure was considered standard in case the leader does not accelerate within the designated zone to continue the race. According to IndyCar, the speed of Newgarden’s No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet was consistently 80 mph, which was always monitored by race control via live telemetry.
McLaughlin, who finished second behind Newgarden as part of a one-two finish for Team Penske, gave insight into what he experienced on the restart.
“My strategy all year has been to stay as close to the guy in front of me as possible,” said McLaughlin, who led 67 laps this weekend. “Most people do it that way because they limit the accordion effect they have. I was right behind Josef’s gearbox.”
“It’s not my job to judge that. That’s an IndyCar thing. Personally, I think he restarted very late. That was probably more of the problem. I just wish we had done a restart like we did last time because I think we potentially could have gotten a first, second, third or first, second or fourth place for the team.
“It’s not my place to judge. In my view, that shouldn’t have happened. But I’m not driving car number 2, and nobody else is.
“Ultimately, we all make decisions. He thought this was the right restart. It’s a failure for everyone behind us. He won. It doesn’t matter much to him. Will is out, and a few others too.
“Yeah, I guess it’s a shame about the spectacle at the end.”
