Reigning Indy 500 champion Newgarden faced the press for the first time at Barber Motorsports Park today, just days after the revelation that he and Team Penske team-mate Scott McLaughlin had been disqualified from the season-opening St. Petersburg race for breaking IndyCar’s push-to-pass rules at restarts.
Penske’s Tim Cindric revealed that an illegal line of code was to blame for the system being available, while Newgarden told journalists a new spin on the story – that he believed he was able to use his overtake button at restarts, as per the exhibition race at Thermal Club which followed the St. Pete event.
In an emotional half-hour session in front of the media, during which his voice wavered on several occasions as his integrity was questioned, Newgarden said he wanted to tell “the truth” about what happened and why.
“I didn't want to have anything prepared, I didn't want to rehearse anything,” he said. “Of course, I thought about it. How could you not?
“I've been thinking about this non-stop for 48 hours. I woke up at 3am this morning, I couldn't fall back to sleep. I was like, man I got to be rested to go speak to these guys.
“The truth is easy. It's so easy to just tell the truth. I wanted to do that today.”
Source: Autosport