Team Penske's pair of podium finishers from IndyCar's St. Pete season-opener have been disqualified -- with its third entry docked 10 points -- after IndyCar officials deemed the team to have violated rules around the use of its push-to-pass system for the race held 45 days ago.

Josef Newgarden, St. Pete's dominate winner from pole who led 92 of 100 laps, and Scott McLaughlin, who finished 3rd, have free-fallen out of the top-10 in IndyCar's early title race with the penalties, which subsequently awarded Pato O'Ward and Arrow McLaren the victory -- both the driver and the team's first since July 2022 at Iowa.

IndyCar says it first discovered a possible rules violation during Sunday morning's warmup for the Grand Prix of Long Beach, which led to a deeper investigation.

"An extensive review of data from the race on the Streets of St. Petersburg revealed that Team Penske manipulated the overtake system so that the No. 2, 3 and 12 cars had the ability to use Push to Pass on starts and restarts," the series' release Wednesday morning read. "According to the IndyCar rulebook, use of overtake is not available during championship races until the car reaches the alternate start-finish line."

In a statement posted to X, Team Penske president Tim Cindric explained that the team had not removed the push-to-pass software it had been using during preseason hybrid testing ahead of the season-opener that allowed for early deployment, leading to the rules violation. During the $1 Million Challenge at The Thermal Club two weeks after St. Pete, drivers were allowed to engage push-to-pass immediately upon starts and restarts, so after the violation wasn't detected at St. Pete, Long Beach would've been the next logical chance for IndyCar's technical inspection crew to discover the inequity.

IndyCar's review determined that Newgarden and McLaughlin both gained a competitive advantage from early use of push-to-pass during starts and restarts at St. Pete, while Will Power did not -- leading to his No. 12 entry only being docked 10 points, from a championship standpoint. Interestingly, with Power moving up two spots from 4th to 2nd (and gaining 8 points in the process), he only lost two points in totality, compared to where he was sitting post-Long Beach.

"Team Penske accepts the penalties applied by IndyCar," the end of Cindric's statement read.

The team's namesake, Roger Penske, owns the IndyCar series.

How the penalties affect St. Pete results, title standings

As one can imagine, the disqualification of two podium finishers from a single race gives a very different look to both the final results of the St. Pete season-opener, as well as the championship at-large, two races in to the 17-race schedule.

For reference, here's where things stood at the time of the checkered flag at St. Pete (and how many points those drivers took home):

1. Josef Newgarden, 54 points

2. Pato O'Ward, 40

3. Scott McLaughlin, 35

4. Will Power, 32

5. Colton Herta, 31

6. Alex Palou, 28

7. Felix Rosenqvist, 26

8. Alexander Rossi, 24

9. Scott Dixon, 22

10. Rinus VeeKay, 20

By dropping Newgarden and McLaughlin to 26th and 27th, respectively, O'Ward becomes a major winner, gaining 10 points and the victory -- his last coming 19 months prior -- while oddly being listed as the victor without having led a single lap. Here's where St. Pete's results stand post-penalty:

1. Pato O'Ward, 50 points

2. Will Power, 30

3. Colton Herta, 36

4. Alex Palou, 32

5. Felix Rosenqvist, 30

6. Alexander Rossi, 28

7. Scott Dixon, 26

8. Rinus VeeKay, 24

9. Santino Ferrucci, 22

10. Kyle Kirkwood, 20

The championship picture looks much different now than it did when the checkered flag fell at Long Beach, with Newgarden losing 53 of his 54 points he earned at St. Pete (he did keep his 1 point he got for taking pole the day before the race) and falling from 1st to 11th. McLaughlin, after running in the top-10 nearly all day at Long Beach, was forced to retire Sunday with 15 laps to go with a mechanical failure, leaving him 26th with just 5 points to take home from his trip out west. After losing his 35 points from St. Pete, too, he drops from 10th to 29th.

Here's where the points stood before Wednesday's serious of Team Penske points penalties:

1. Josef Newgarden, 87 points

2. Scott Dixon, 75

3. Colton Herta, 72

4. Alex Palou, 63

5. Will Power, 61

6. Pato O'Ward, 54

7. Felix Rosenqvist, 50

8. Kyle Kirkwood, 45

9. Alexander Rossi, 44

10. Scott McLaughlin, 40

And here's where those sit now after Newgarden losing 53, McLaughlin dropping 35 and Power losing 10 (while also gaining eight from his teammates being DQ'd):

1. Scott Dixon, 79 points

2. Colton Herta, 77

3. Alex Palou, 67

4. Pato O'Ward, 64

5. Will Power, 59

6. Felix Rosenqvist, 54

7. Alexander Rossi, 48

8. Kyle Kirkwood, 47

9. Rinus VeeKay, 40

10. Marcus Ericsson, 37

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IndyCar disqualifies Josef Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin from St. Pete