INDYCAR GP, Indy 500 Could Be Next Stops on Newgarden's Magical Victory Tour
April 24, 2018 | By Paul Kelly, Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Josef Newgarden is only 27 years old, yet he already has ticked many career boxes coveted by nearly every IndyCar driver.
Climb to the Verizon IndyCar Series – check, in 2012. Make their first Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil start – check, in 2012. Win a Verizon IndyCar Series race – check, in 2015. Get the phone call from Roger Penske to drive for his legendary team – check, in 2016. Win a Verizon IndyCar Series championship – check, in 2017.
There’s only one big box left to check, and Newgarden knows it.
“For me, I would love to win the Indianapolis 500,” Newgarden said. “I think every driver, if they could trade all of the wins, all of the championships they’ve ever got just to win an Indianapolis 500, I think they would do it.
“It’s kind of crazy to say that. There’s a lot of work that goes into every win you get, every championship you put together. That takes a tremendous amount of work. So to be willing to trade that for an Indianapolis 500, that speaks volumes for what it is. For me, it would mean everything.”
Newgarden, from Hendersonville, Tennessee, enters the Month of May with powerful momentum. He took the Verizon IndyCar Series points lead with a victory April 23 in the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama and also won the Desert Diamond West Valley Casino Phoenix Grand Prix on April 7. Newgarden is the only driver to win more than once this season, and his wins came on the varied terrain of a natural road course at Barber and a short oval at Phoenix.
Plus no team rules May like Team Penske. Roger Penske’s unit has won the Indianapolis 500 an unprecedented 16 times, and it has won the last three INDYCAR Grands Prix on the IMS road course.
So Newgarden must be considered a favorite to become the first driver to sweep May since the INDYCAR Grand Prix was added to the schedule in 2014. The fifth INDYCAR Grand Prix is Saturday, May 12, while the 102nd Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil is Sunday, May 27.
Not surprisingly, Team Penske is one of the two teams that have come closest to a May sweep, as driver Will Power won the INDYCAR Grand Prix in 2015 and finished second in the “500.” Ryan Hunter-Reay of Andretti Autosport also pulled off a near-miss in 2014, finishing second in the INDYCAR Grand Prix and winning the “500” two weeks later.
Newgarden will enter the INDYCAR Grand Prix as the favorite to continue Penske’s mastery of the event on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course at IMS. But he will need to reverse recent history, as his best result in four starts in the road-course race is 11th last year for Team Penske.
But those four starts also took place in cars with different bodywork than the series is running in 2018. Newgarden thinks the sleek, new aero kit for the series puts more skill into the hands of the drivers, and his two victories already in 2018 prove the new car suits his driving style.
“The driving side of the car is so exciting right now,” Newgarden said. “It’s moving all over the place. It’s a little bit difficult to keep it underneath you. It wants to kind of slide all the time, so you’re always on the edge. But there’s also some predictability to the car. Even though you’re sideways all the time now, you can live on that edge a little better in the past. That car is going to bring a lot of excitement to the Month of May. I think it’s going to bring a lot of close racing. Hopefully I’ll be the guy who can master it best.”
Three of Newgarden’s nine career IndyCar victories have come on ovals, so he has shown mastery of the unique talents required for that discipline. But that skill hasn’t yet translated to the famed 2.5-mile oval at Indianapolis. He has qualified in the first three rows in four of his six starts but has just two top-10 finishes, with a best of third in 2016 while driving for Ed Carpenter Racing.
But that third-place finish in the historic 100th Running in 2016 still delivers plenty of hope and promise for Newgarden. He led four times for 14 laps, including as late as Lap 193, before finishing behind winner Alexander Rossi and runner-up Carlos Munoz.
“That was the one opportunity I felt I had to win the race, the one opportunity to get it done,” Newgarden said. “We were in a position in 2016 toward the end, with 10 laps to go. It didn’t work out. But being in position to potentially win that race, it gives you a strong sense that one day you might be able to achieve it.
“When you think about the Indianapolis 500, it’s the race that built Team Penske. It’s the race that you want to build your career off of as an IndyCar driver. It’s your one moment to capitalize on in the season. And that’s what makes it so special, is that you only have that one moment every year. There are a lot of moments to build a championship, but to win an Indianapolis 500, there’s only one moment you’ve got to make that happen. To me, that’s everything that the sport stands for, trying to master that difficult event and try to win it.
“It would be would be a big achievement. To do it for Roger and (team president) Tim (Cindric) and Team Penske, that would mean even more, just knowing what the event means to them, as well.”