Devlin DeFrancesco has been hit with a six-place grid penalty for this weekend’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, IndyCar announced Friday morning.
The rookie pilot of the No. 29 Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport Honda was deemed at fault for “avoidable contact” for an incident during last month’s NTT IndyCar Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.
While DeFrancesco was mixed in multiple on-track scuffles, the most severe came on Lap 129 of 248 when he triggered a three-car crash after touching the apron and losing control while diving underneath Graham Rahal and Helio Castroneves into Turn 3, which ended the day for all three drivers.
According to an official statement from IndyCar, DeFrancesco violated Rule 9.3.3. Avoidable Contact, which said, “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.”
Additionally, the statement read, “According to the rulebook, a penalty can be applied at the next IndyCar race if the penalty cannot be served at the event where the infraction took place.”
