Various members of the paddock have questioned the integrity of Team Penske after IndyCar officials stripped Josef Newgarden of his victory in the season-opening round in St. Petersburg for illegal use of the push-to-pass system.
Scott McLaughlin was also disqualified from his third-place finish for similar infractions as team-mate Newgarden.
Will Power also had access to the same overtake capability, but IndyCar's data did not find him guilty of using it in a wrongful manner. Still, he was docked 10 points for, with all three fined $25,000 each and forfeited their prize money.
The results did not change until 45 days after the event, which came after officials found the issue during the warm-up session ahead of the Grand Prix of Long Beach.
It was revealed the issue was due to a software coding change during hybrid testing that was not removed when the 2024 season began.
The 30-minute meeting outside featured all the team owners, with the lone exceptions of Arrow McLaren, who had Team Principal Gavin Ward present for McLaren CEO Zak Brown, who is in Monaco for Formula E.
Uniquely, Team Penske President Tim Cindric, who handles the majority of the organization’s duties as Penske is the owner of the IndyCar Series and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, did not attend.
Post-meeting reactions
Michael Andretti stated the meeting “went well” but did not appear to learn much from it.
“No, not necessarily learned a lot,” Andretti said. “Just good talking session among everybody.”
When approached about the meeting, Chip Ganassi smiled and said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Ed Carpenter was the last to leave and shed the most light on the subject.
“It was a private conversation that I think we all appreciated and getting on with this weekend and season,” Carpenter said.
When asked if any of it was positive based on the recent controversy, Carpenter said little.
“I mean, it's obvious what we were talking about in there but what we talked about in there, from my standpoint, it's going to remain in there,” Carpenter said. “Sorry, can't give you more.”
