"What is Team Penske doing?": Conor Daly baffled by Josef Newgarden's belt issue at Long Beach
At the Long Beach Grand Prix, Josef Newgarden became the second Team Penske driver in a year to have a race go downhill after his seat belt mysteriously came loose. The two-time Indy 500 winner went from being in Top 5 contention to finishing dead last, lapped twice. His teammate Will Power suffered the same issue at the 2024 season finale in Nashville, which took him out of championship contention.
Juncos Hollinger Racing driver Conor Daly, who also didn't fare well at Long Beach this past weekend, commented on Team Penske and Newgarden's debacle, which baffled him.
"What is Penske doing with their seat belts? I have no idea, I've never in my entire life, and I've been racing now a long time, a lot of races, I've never had my seat belts come undone," he said on his Speed Street podcast. [39:35 onwards]
"I don't know if they've got some wild lightweight seat belts or they're they're seated in a position where it's good for the center of gravity and the weight distribution to where they have to be in a certain spot, and it gets their arms (crossed up)."
Daly said that this hairpin issue was mentioned during the broadcast by FOX analyst James Hinchcliffe. He then elaborated on Newgarden's mood immediately after the race, having seen it in person in the pits:
"But man, seat belts coming undone ruining your day. I was pitted next to him at the race. I tell you what, I was upset after the race, but boy, he was very, very unhappy. So that was a weird one."
Josef Newgarden had to make two additional pit stops to resolve the seat belt issue for safety reasons. That made him lose all the track positions he gained before the seat belt came loose and more.
Conor Daly had issues of his own during the race. His No. 76 JHR squad failed to adequately refuel his car during the first pit stop, ultimately leading to a P25 finish.
What Team Penske's IndyCar MD said about Josef Newgarden's seat belt issue compared to Will Power's
After the Long Beach GP race weekend, Team Penske IndyCar Managing Director Ron Ruzewski revealed that Josef Newgarden's seat belt issue didn't arise from the same circumstances as Will Power's in Nashville last year.
While Power's problem was a result of debris getting stuck in the locking mechanism, Newgarden's was possibly from hitting the belt buckle in the Turn 11 hairpin. This was in line with what Conor Daly and James Hinchcliffe suspected.
"At the moment, it seems like two different scenarios. We understand what happened to the Schroth belts in Nashville. That ultimately was on us, related to some debris that was in the locking mechanism. The belts Josef Newgarden’s always run are Simpson belts," Ruzewski told RACER.
"The best we can figure at the moment is that with the new (larger diameter) steering wheel, and a slightly different seating position, that he hit the buckle in the (Turn 11) hairpin, as simple as that. That’s what he’s believing."
The P27 result pushed Newgarden down from 7th to 10th in the championship standings, with Colton Herta taking his place, who finished P7 at Long Beach, taking his place.