A little more than a week has passed since IndyCar said that two Team Penske cars would not be able to compete in the first race of the 2024 season in St. Petersburg and that the team’s third car would be penalised.
Since then, there have been many reasons given for the illegal use of the series’ Push to Pass system, but all of them have agreed that Team Penske wrote the code that got around IndyCar’s lockdown system.
Fans, drivers, and teams were all confused by the news and the explanations that followed. They wanted to know who knew about the changes and why they weren’t found until after the race.
General Motors President Mark Reuss said in a statement on Friday that an investigation had shown that Chevrolet workers had no knowledge of or involvement with the system’s illegal use.
“We respect what IndyCar did and what they decided, and we also respect Team Penske’s promise to improve their controls and processes,” Reuss said.
A third-party law company was hired by Chevrolet to do a full investigation. They found no proof that any Chevrolet employee knew about or was involved with the situation.
“Chevy looks forward to engaging with IndyCar and our partner race teams to assist in any enhancements that further support the integrity of IndyCar competition.”
Like Honda, Chevrolet has a group of highly skilled engineers who work with different teams in the paddock.
These engineers are responsible for ensuring the power units are running properly and are configured for optimum performance throughout the race weekend.
Today’s statement seemingly proves that, even though Chevrolet engineers download many different data points from the car for analysis, none of them were aware of the illegal modification that brought the penalty.
During his news conference, Josef Newgarden said that he and his crew knew about the changes, but they thought that IndyCar’s rules had changed to let them use the boost system on restarts.
