Josef Newgarden was unwilling to talk about the cheating scandal that has embroiled Team Penske ahead of the 109th running of the Indianapolis 🎶500.

It was Newgarden’s car that first caught the attention of IndyCar’s technical inspectors during qualifying for the Indy 500, triggering a chain reaction that saw both him and teammate Will Power missing the se🐲ssion.

The rear accentuator - which forms the rear crash structure on the car - was found to have🗹 been illegally modified by Penske, with the squad having filled the seams to smoothen the part.

The whole saga initially left Newgarden and Power 11th and 12th on the grid as they skipped the Fast 12, but 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:both were later sent to the bac🥂k of the grid as part of a raft of penalties imposed bᩚᩚᩚᩚ✱ᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚy IndyCar on Monday.

The cheating controversy, the second for Penske in a little over a year after the push-to-pass saga that saw Newgarden being stripped of victory at St Pete in 2024, has becomꦑe a mainstream topic of interest in the wider sporting world.

All three Penske drivers appe💜ared in front of the media on Thursday, making their fi💖rst public comments since the scandal broke out.

But while McLaughli🌟n expressed his disappointment over Roger Penske’s name being dragged through the mud, and Power blamed external pressure for the team sacki♈ng three key staff m💖embers, Newgarden p💃referred n൲ot to directly comment about the news.

“I don’t want to disappoint or offend anybody. Iಞ’m here to talk about the race,” he said. “I’m here with my team. I’m ready to go racing.

“I love this race. My goodness, I’ve been enjoying being here this whole time. I look forward to it every year, as we all do. Ready to go to work with our group. Proud of everything that we have done up to this point. Ready to go racing. S༺o that’s what I got to say.”

Newgarden is aiming to become the firs⭕t driver in history to score three victories in a row at the Indy 500, having triumphed at the fabled race in both 2023꧙ and ‘24 with Penske.

However, his task will be exponentially harder from 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:32nd on the grid; no ♏driver has won the r🅷ace from lower than 28th on the grid.

However, the American driver is not concer🌄ned about his starting position, believing he has what it takes to score a record-extending 21s𓃲t win for Penske in IndyCar’s blue riband event.

“You can win this race from any seat in the house. There’s no bad seat in this house,” Newgarden said. 
“I like the challenge of coming from 32nd. We do have a great car. It just seems to be getting better ev🔯ery year. I’m trying to protect that right now. It’s one of these things where 🎐every day changes a little bit at the Speedway. You have to stay on top of it.

“Sunday is really going to be the day that counts. We have to make sure we’re in the right place for that day. If we ca𓃲n do thatꦺ, we should be in a good spot.”