IndyCar clears Newgarden of blame for late red flag incident – ​​Motorsport Week

NTT IndyCar Series officials have confirmed that the chaos at the late restart that resulted in a red flag was not due to Josef Newgarden's driving at the front of the field.

As the field lined up for the restart with ten laps to go at World Wide Technology Raceway, everyone was following Newgarden's pace, trying hard to guess when he would pull away.

The two-time champion waited until the end of the mandatory restart zone to give the drivers behind him on the back straight less time to overtake.

Just as Newgarden accelerated, chaos reigned behind him as the field piled up and Alexander Rossi was thrown into the air over the rear of Will Power's machine.

Suspicions immediately arose that Newgarden had accelerated incorrectly or waited too long to get the field up to speed, causing the drivers behind him to collide, mistakenly believing they were back in the race.

Power had a similar thought and gave his teammate the middle finger after he got out of his wrecked car.

IndyCar released vehicle data from Newgarden's restart after the race, the same information that led the company to conclude his conduct did not warrant a penalty, helping to clarify the incident.

A series official confirmed that the No. 2 car's speed did not deviate from 80 mph before it accelerated cleanly, and that its acceleration and the waving of the green flag occurred nearly simultaneously.

The green flag is waved by default when the leader reaches the end of the restart zone, regardless of whether he has accelerated or not. In this case, both events occurred almost simultaneously.

Newgarden also explained his position after the race: He deliberately waited as long as possible before accelerating, but did nothing that would have intentionally caused problems for those behind him.

“I tried to come as late as possible,” Newgarden said. “Sometimes people come very early, sometimes in the middle, sometimes quite late and sometimes very late.”

“This isn't much different than the restarts I've done before. I've done a lot of restarts from the beginning. This isn't much different than other restarts that were late.

“I don't know if I would change much. If anyone, especially from our team, looks at the data, they will see a very consistent speed.

“It looked like that to me when I stopped at red and saw the replay. It looked like it turned green just before I left, just briefly. I'm talking about half a second or a second.

“If it's just that small time difference when the race control turns green and I didn't start 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 for the last two years. It's a constant topic at the drivers' meeting.”

Newgarden, for his part, said he would speak to his teammate later that evening to make sure there was no tension between the two.

Newgarden won the race, beating his other teammate Scott McLaughlin in the final six-lap race to the checkered flag.