IndyCar would have a new champion if not for Penske scandal

Had it not been for a fluke system glitch during morning warmup on the streets of Long Beach, California back in April, IndyCar would have had a new series champion this past Sunday afternoon at Nashville Superspeedway.

That morning, it was discovered that Team Penske retained access to the push-to-pass overtake assist system when it was disable for all other teams.

Further investigation showed that two of their three drivers took advantage of that exploit, which was said to have occurred due to a coding error stemming from hybrid testing, during multiple restarts in the season opener on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida six weeks prior.

Josef Newgarden used the button on three separate occasions, and Scott McLaughlin used it once. Newgarden claimed he thought there was a rule change (which, despite admitting it sounded "too convenient to be believable", was actually verified via in-race radio transmission), while McLaughlin simply said he made a mistake.

Newgarden was stripped of his victory and retained only one of the 54 points he had scored that weekend, the point he earned by taking the pole position legally. McLaughlin was stripped of his third place finish and lost all 35 points he had scored.

All drivers who finished behind them moved up, including teammate Will Power from fourth to second place.

Power gained eight points due to the infractions of his teammates, but because of the fact that the No. 12 team also had illegal access to the system and IndyCar didn't want a teammate to effectively back into a title due to the team's own scandal, they docked him 10 points, resulting in a true net loss of two points.

But most notably, Chip Ganassi Racing's Alex Palou moved up from sixth to fourth place, marking a net gain of four points.

With Palou gaining four points and McLaughlin losing 35, it marked a 39-point swing in the 27-year-old Spaniard's favor.

That was the exact difference between the driver of the No. 10 Honda and the driver of the No. 3 Chevrolet in the final 2024 IndyCar championship standings.

Palou scored 544 points while McLaughlin scored 505. Assuming that McLaughlin still would have finished in third place in the season opener (a likely outcome), that the loophole would have ended up being closed off eventually anyway (a big "if"), and that Team Penske would not have utilized the loophole again (another major "if"), both drivers would have scored 540 points this year.

McLaughlin won three races while Palou won two, so McLaughlin would have been crowned champion for the first time in his IndyCar career on a tiebreaker, something that hasn't happened since Scott Dixon won his fourth title over Juan Pablo Montoya in 2015.

Again, this assumes all other things remain the same, which may or may not have been the case when it comes to race strategies and points scenarios and whatnot.

But instead, Palou is the first back-to-back champion since Dario Franchitti, who also piloted the No. 10 Honda for Chip Ganassi, won three titles in a row from 2009 to 2011.

Palou has won three championships in four years since joining Chip Ganassi Racing, a feat made even more impressive considering the fact he has beaten six-time champion teammate Dixon to do so.

The site of 2024's season-opening controversy is scheduled to open up the 17-race 2025 IndyCar season as well. The Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg is set to be broadcast live on Fox from the streets of St. Petersburg on Sunday, March 2.