Will Power was left angry after crashing out of Saturday night’s IndyCar Series race at Gateway following a controversial restart by Team Penske team-mate Josef Newgarden.
After leading a race-high 117 of 260 laps, Power lined up fourth behind leader Newgarden, fellow team-mate and polesitter Scott McLaughlin and Andretti Global’s Colton Herta with nine laps to go.
As the field rolled through Turns 3 and 4 in anticipation of the green flag, Newgarden continued to patrol at a dramatically slower pace than seen previously throughout the five previous restarts.
Once the green flag returned, others further back in the field were quicker to react than those at the front, which triggered a chain reaction that saw Power getting hit from behind by Alexander Rossi, who ended up briefly airborne in the #7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet.
The crash took out the pair, while Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Romain Grosjean and Dale Coyne Racing’s Jack Harvey also received damage as a result of the incident, which brought out a red flag.
Shortly after, Herta called over the radio and stated, “that’s dirty by Newgarden” while also calling for a penalty that never happened.
Power climbed out of the cockpit of his race car and walked across the inside wall and flipped off Newgarden, who was bringing the field down pitlane as a result of the debris littered across the frontstretch that led to the race stoppage.
“The leader. Whoever was leading,” Power said, of who should be to blame. “Where are you supposed to go? Like, in between [Turns] 3 and 4, he just waited then he went and stopped. He went, he stopped.
“I knew that was going to happen as soon as I checked up because he checked up again. I knew I was going to get pounded. Man, disappointing. We had such a good car. Like we just get to the last 10 laps of the last two races and have bad luck.
“I don’t know why. I do not know why they would just keep backing up and not going. I do not understand it.”
Newgarden's side of the story
Newgarden went on to win the race, his fifth at the 1.25-mile oval, while Power ended up 18th and in the championship is now fourth and 66 points behind leader Alex Palou with four races remaining.
When asked about the restart in the post-race press conference, Newgarden gave his perspective.
“It was definitely late,” said Newgarden. “I was trying to go as late as I could. Sometimes people go really early, sometimes they go in the middle, sometimes they go kind of late, and sometimes they go really late.
“It's not that different of a restart I've done before. I've done a lot of restarts from the front. It's not that different from other restarts that have gone late.
“I don't know that I'd change much. If anyone, especially on our team, wants to look at the data, you're going to see a very consistent speed.”
Newgarden, who led 17 laps, saw a replay of the restart while under the red flag and furthered his point of view.
“What looked like happened is it went green momentarily before I went, just momentarily,” he said. “I'm talking like half a second or a second.
“If it's just that slight difference in timing, if race control goes green and I haven't gone yet for just a second, I think people were trying to jump, which we've had a problem with, to be honest. We've had a problem with jump-starts the last two years. It's a constant topic in the driver meeting.
“If there's just a slight miscue there, I think people are very on edge on these restarts trying to get the run. It looked like it miss-timed in the back, at least with one individual, and that's what caused a problem.
“From my side it's the last thing you want to happen at the end. I don't want to create a wreck. I was not trying to do that. That was not my intention. I don't know that I'd do much different because it's how I would do a restart.
“I did the same speed. The next time through I just went a little sooner. It looked like the green going slightly early was the big miscue. That's my take seeing it from the car, just going off live.”
IndyCar doesn’t penalise Newgarden
Following the race, IndyCar provided background on race control’s decision to not penalise Newgarden.
It was mentioned he reached the end of the restart zone and had not accelerated as race control activated the green condition, almost simultaneously, as Newgarden accelerated.
The procedure was viewed as standard should the leader not accelerate within the designated zone to allow the race to resume. According to IndyCar, the speed of Newgarden’s #2 Team Penske Chevrolet was constant at 80mph, which was always monitored via live telemetry.
McLaughlin: Late restart avoidable
After finishing runner-up to Newgarden as part of a Team Penske 1-2, McLaughlin gave insight to what he witnessed through the restart.
“My strategy all year in some ways has been to be as close as I can to the car in front,” said McLaughlin, who led 67 laps. “Most people are like that because you’re limiting the concertina effect that you have. I was right up Josef’s gearbox.
“It’s not up to me to review. It’s an IndyCar thing. Personally, I think he restarted very late. That was probably more the problem. I just wish we did a restart like we did on the last restart because I think we potentially could have had a first, second, third for the team, or first, second, fourth.
“It’s not up to me to judge that. From my perspective, it didn’t need to happen. But I’m also not driving the #2 car, and no one else is but him.
“Ultimately, we all make decisions. He thought that was the right restart to make. It sucks for everyone behind us. He got the win. Doesn’t really matter for him. Will is crashed out, and a few others.
“It sucks I guess for the spectacle at the end.”
