Team Penske clarifies Newgarden's refueling issue at St. Petersburg

Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden lost out on a chance to pass Alex Palou in the No. 10 Honda for the win last weekend at St. Petersburg and fell to third behind Scott Dixon’s No. 9 car in the final two minutes of the race due to a refueling issue. Newgarden mentioned refueling problems in his post-race press conferences before adding what was received as a reference to a mis-shift with the No. 2’s transmission that forced him to use the “emergency mode” gearbox button on the steering wheel, relent, and fall back to third at the checkered flag. Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin followed Newgarden home in fourth with the No. 3 Chevy.

“We had a shift that was unexpected with a lap to go, and we just had to hit the emergency button, which was unfortunate,” Newgarden said. “We kind of started that last lap like, half-emergency mode, and then they said, you just have to pull the chute here. Like, just finish.”

The clarification on the “shift” comment comes from Newgarden’s race engineer Luke Mason, who told RACER, “He’s referring to a shift in the fuel error in the final stint which at the time we thought (was) what had happened, not an electronics/gearbox shifting issue. We had to have him go into a panic fuel-save yellow fuel map, part-throttle lift, and coast for the final lap to make it to the finish as it coasted across the line with nothing in it.

“Unfortunately it cost us a spot to the No. 9, but we had a gap back to the No. 3 and third is a lot better than running out on track and ending up 21st!”

The root of Newgarden’s late-race struggle was traced to his last two pit stops.

“Post-mortem, it looks like we simply had a refueling issue in both our second and third stops and did not get the car full and there wasn’t (a fuel) error shift at all,” Mason said. “The new (spec) fuel flow sensors in the car do a good job of being able to see this now opposed to previous years. Unfortunately, if not for this, we don’t get overcut by the No. 10 and the outcome could have been a little more favorable for us!”