IndyCar issues grid penalty for DeFrancesco at Long Beach

DeFrancesco was adjudged to have caused the collision on Lap 129 of the previous round of the 2022 NTT IndyCar Series at Texas Motor Speedway that eliminated him and two other drivers.

De Francesco dived up the inside of Graham Rahal’s Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda, as Rahal was battling for 10^th with the Meyer Shank Racing-Honda of Helio Castroneves, who was on the high line, on the outside of the RLL car.

DeFrancesco hit the transition and apron on the inside, and lost control, striking Rahal who in turn slid into Castroneves.

According to an official statement from IndyCar, DeFrancesco was in violation of Rule 9.3.3. Avoidable Contact – “The primary responsibility for avoiding contact with a Competitor resides with the overtaking Competitor and the secondary responsibility resides with the Competitor(s) being overtaken. A Competitor who fails to demonstrate their responsibility and initiates a maneuver that results in contact with another Competitor may be penalized.”

The IndyCar rulebook states that a penalty can be applied at the next IndyCar race if the penalty cannot be served at the event where the infraction took place.

“Eyes forward; that’s in the past,” DeFrancesco told TracksideOnline.com when quizzed on the matter at the recent canceled test on the Indy road course. “That mistake was mine. It’s part of learning.

“Definitely, a hurtful mistake, as that didn’t feel too good when I hit the wall. But we’ll move forward from it.

“We had a good car. We had a good race going. We were very strong in the pits. There were a lot of positives to take away, and I think a result is coming for us. It’s just a matter of when, not if.”