Analysis: IndyCar cheating scandal risks sullying Roger Penske's perfect image

Santino Ferrucci once made a typo in a social media post in which he incorrectly spelled Josef Newgarden’s first name.

Newgarden, a two-time IndyCar champion at the time, quickly responded to Ferrucci, who does not drive for a powerhouse such as Team Penske.

“It’s Josef(asterisk)” he wrote two years ago. “At Penske, we care about details.”

It was a zinger that earned Newgarden scorn at the time for his arrogance to a driver on a lesser team. But he was being honest — attention to detail is next level under Roger Penske’s watchful eye — and that’s what makes the cheating scandal that has rocked IndyCar so troubling.

IndyCar last week disqualified Newgarden’s victory and teammate Scott McLaughlin’s third-place finish in the March season-opening race because it realized weeks later that the Team Penske push-to-pass software had been illegally used by both drivers during restarts.