IndyCar: Final 2024 standings if Penske scandal never happened

Six weeks after the 2024 IndyCar season began on the streets of St. Petersburg, it was discovered on the streets of Long Beach that Team Penske had illegally used the push-to-pass overtake system in the season opener, as they had retained access to the boost while it was shut off for all other teams during the restarts.

Due to the fact that he used it three times, Josef Newgarden was stripped of his season-opening victory and 53 of the 54 points that came with it, retaining only the point he earned by legally taking the pole position the day prior. After being found to have used it once, Scott McLaughlin was stripped of his third place finish and all 35 points that came with it.

All drivers who finished behind Newgarden and/or McLaughlin were promoted and thus scored more points, with Arrow McLaren's Pato O'Ward becoming the new race winner.

The only driver who did not gain any points was Team Penske's Will Power. Power was promoted from fourth to second place, which would have gained him eight points, but because the No. 12 team also had access to the system when they should not have had, he was docked 10 points, amounting to a net loss of two.

IndyCar also did not want to open up the possibility of Power's eight-point gain, and thus his own team's violations of the rulebook, ending up winning him the championship in the long run.

Chip Ganassi Racing's Alex Palou was the other major beneficiary of this unprecedented discovery, as he was promoted from sixth to fourth place and scored four extra points. With him gaining four and McLaughlin losing 35, his net gain over McLaughlin was 39, which was the exact gap between the two in the final 2024 championship standings.

With McLaughlin having won three races this year and Palou having won two, McLaughlin would have been crowned champion on a tiebreaker, had it not been for the scandal.

But that's not the only change the standings would have seen.

Newgarden finished in eighth place in the standings, his worst since 2014 when he still competed for Sarah Fisher, and he would have otherwise finished in fifth, which would have been his ninth straight top five championship finish (even though it would have matched his worst since joining Team Penske in 2017).

Here is what the top 10 in the final 2024 IndyCar championship standings actually look like.

1 - Alex Palou - 544 (0)


2 - Colton Herta - 513 (-31)


3 - Scott McLaughlin - 505 (-39)


4 - Will Power - 498 (-46)


5 - Pato O'Ward - 460 (-84)


6 - Scott Dixon - 456 (-88)


7 - Kyle Kirkwood - 420 (-124)


8 - Josef Newgarden - 401 (-143)


9 - Santino Ferrucci - 367 (-177)


10 - Alexander Rossi - 366 (-178)

Here is what they would have looked like if not for the scandal, if we assume that all other things remain equal.

1 - Scott McLaughlin - 540 (0)


2 - Alex Palou - 540 (0)


3 - Colton Herta - 508 (-32)


4 - Will Power - 500 (-40)


5 - Josef Newgarden - 454 (-86)


6 - Scott Dixon - 452 (-88)


7 - Pato O'Ward - 450 (-90)


8 - Kyle Kirkwood - 418 (-122)


9 - Santino Ferrucci - 364 (-176)


10 - Alexander Rossi - 362 (-178)

The streets of St. Petersburg are once again scheduled to host the IndyCar season opener in 2025. The Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg is set to open up a new era of IndyCar on Fox, with live coverage set for some time in the afternoon (exact time TBD) on Sunday, March 2. There are 17 races on the 2025 calendar.