After hearing protests from Newman/Haas Racing and Target Chip Ganassi Racing, a ruling on the outcome of the IZOD IndyCar Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway will now be announced tomorrow morning at the earliest.
A panel of three, Jerry Gappens, the executive vice president and general manager of New Hampshire Motor Speedway, USAC chairman Jeff Stoops, and former U.S. Auto Club chairman Rollie Helmling, will deliberate on what they heard this morning and afternoon.
Proceedings in Indianapolis were closed to the media and public, though updates came via Twitter throughout the day. Just past 3 p.m. ET, several sources reported the verdict delay.
Oriol Servia, who would stand to benefit the most from an overturning of the result as he was classified second behind provisional winner Ryan Hunter-Reay, had several tweets on the matter.
“Ready to start the hearing! Integrity must prevail,” Servia tweeted from his @OriolServia account just after 9 a.m. EST.
By mid-afternoon, Servia posted on Twitter: “Newman/Haas and Ganassi proved beyond doubt that I was first when the yellow came out. Panel will deliberate until tomorrow.
“Extremely proud of Newman/-Haas presentation of the events. Facts and integrity of the race and the sport were clearly remarked and stressed.
“The opposition's main point is that Brian Barnhart has full power to override all rules with his decisions. That is also a true fact.”
Barnhart, the president of competition for the series, admitted a mistake in restarting the race under wet conditions.
Hunter-Reay (@RyanHunterReay) was silent on the Twitter front, as was Scott Dixon (@ScottDixon9). While Dixon's Ganassi team also didn't tweet anything, Hunter-Reay's @FollowAndretti team tweet said: “Thanks for all of your support today. We should know the outcome of the #IndyCar hearings tomorrow morning and will keep you updated.”
Video replays appeared to show Servia and Dixon completed their passes under green, however, that might not be relevant to the outcome of the hearing, since the IndyCar rulebook extends significant latitude to the chief steward (Barnhart) in the officiating of races.