Newgarden’s common strategist Tim Cindric and race engineer Luke Mason were both suspended by legendary team owner Roger Penske from IndyCar duties following the illegality scandal that has marred the beginning of the season.
Newgarden was disqualified from his season-opening St. Petersburg victory because of unlawful use of push-to-pass throughout restarts, in any case three of Penske’s entries mistakenly ran with software program that allowed him to take action.
Diuguid has huge IndyCar expertise, engineering Helio Castroneves throughout 4 seasons after which returning after a stint with Penske’s Acura sportscar program to run Scott McLaughlin in 2021.
Helio Castroneves, Workforce Penske Chevrolet, race engineer Jonathan Diuguid
Picture by: Scott R LePage / Motorsport Images
“I believe quite a lot of will probably be the identical,” Newgarden advised NBC Peacock of the impression of the adjustments. “It is undoubtedly totally different for me having a singular voice, definitely lacking Tim, you already know, I like having him in my ear, however we’ve obtained a terrific staff right here with the 2 automotive.
“A whole lot of it is holistically the identical, we’re gonna be going by means of the identical course of that we at all times do and it is nice to be again right here. I am glad we had that take a look at final month that at all times helps issues and feeling excited to be right here as a result of it is troublesome to not get enthusiastic about this place whenever you roll within the entrance gates and it is a fantastic monitor.
“I believe we’re gonna have some quick automobiles at Team Penske this this month. And we’re actually very, very targeted on making an attempt to get by means of qualifying after which having a great race.
“I simply do not assume you’ll be able to beat the historical past and, whenever you win the race, it simply fully adjustments your perspective. So, it has been very cool to win it and to be right here with this group making an attempt to defend our title.”
Josef Newgarden, Workforce Penske Chevrolet Warner
Picture by: Brett Farmer / Motorsport Images
Newgarden’s day began badly, with a technical problem being found on his set up lap, which left him stranded within the pits as automobiles obtained simply over 20 minutes of working earlier than rain arrived.
“We obtained a problem, we’re diagnosing,” he added. “We simply obtained a sensor that is off proper now.
“We’re simply making an attempt to take our time and we do not wish to run the automotive with out all the things totally going, and simply wanna be protected.”
Whereas Workforce Penske’s president Cindric was suspended from the Indy Grand Prix, he was on website at Laguna Seca to supervise victory for Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy of their Porsche 963.
Porsche Penske’s Daytona 24 Hours profitable engineer Raul Prados will take up that function on Newgarden’s No. 2 entry, having joined the staff instead of Mason on the Indy GP.
Elsewhere, Jon Bouslog switches from strategizing for Newgarden final weekend to Will Power’s automotive, as his common strategist Ron Ruzewski is suspended.
Energy additionally has Paulo Trentini in as information engineer for the debarred Robbie Atkinson.