Team Penske believes the cause of Josef Newgarden’s seatbelt problems at Long Beach was unrelated to the issues experienced by teammate Will Power at the final race of 2024 in Nashville.
Power pitted twice at the championship decider to have a lap belt reconnected to the central buckle which locks the six-point Schroth harness together across his waist. On Sunday, Newgarden also pitted twice — and ultimately retired from the race — when the shoulder belts, lap belts and anti-submarine belts on his Simpson harness came undone.
“At the moment, it seems like two different scenarios,” Penske IndyCar managing director Ron Ruzewski told RACER. “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’s always run are Simpson belts. 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 belts moved up on his waist a little bit, just because his seating position is slightly different. But there’s nothing obvious. And all of them popped free. In Will’s case, it was just one belt. It’s even more odd here, which would tell you that it wasn’t a buckle problem because all of them popped, so it leans itself more towards the buckle release being hit.”
