Newgarden Hopes Next Penske Party Will Celebrate 18th Indianapolis 500 Victory

Josef Newgarden stood in a reception room in mid-January at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina, and soaked it all in.

Newgarden and many other members of Team Penske gathered for a party after the ceremony during which team owner Roger Penske was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Penske was the man of the moment, but, as usual, “The Captain” converted the celebration into a team festivity.

“Everyone was so happy for Roger,” Newgarden said. “But Roger, he’s so gracious and good. He relates it back to it’s not his induction, necessarily, it’s everybody’s induction.

“It was really special to be a part of that, to see how he interacts with the group. You see why he’s had so much success and why the team works so well together. It’s nights like that and the way everyone gets on the same page.”

Newgarden admits he wouldn’t mind one bit if the next Team Penske party was scheduled for late May in Indianapolis, celebrating his first victory in “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” after the 103rd Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge on Sunday, May 26.

“It would be cool,” Newgarden said of the prospect of delivering Penske its record-extending 18th Indianapolis 500 victory. “If it’s 19 or 20, that’s fine, too. One of them would be nice. It’s important. We expect to go there and be good and be successful. Hopefully this is the year we get a shot at maybe winning the ‘500.’”

Newgarden, 28, is entering his third season with the most successful team in major North American open-wheel racing history. He started his Penske tenure in 2017 by winning the NTT IndyCar Series championship, scoring four victories, after driving his first five seasons for Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing and Ed Carpenter Racing.

Last season Newgarden won three races and led 485 laps – 95 more than his title-winning year – but he finished fifth in the series standings, 118 points behind champion Scott Dixon. The culprit was just six top-five finishes compared to Dixon’s 13, Newgarden said.

“We just weren’t consistent enough last year,” Newgarden said. “Scott was very consistent. I wouldn’t say he was strongest across the board. But for consistency, no doubt, he was at another level.

“You can have wins and you can have streaky moments where you’re quick, but if you don’t have that consistency you’re probably not going to challenge for the championship. So that’s what we need to be better at.”

Newgarden, from Hendersonville, Tennessee, qualified fourth and finished eighth last year in the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge. He was the third of three Team Penske finishers in the top eight, including winner Will Power.

An admirable performance. But Newgarden also knows Penske doesn’t show up at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May to be merely solid, and Newgarden was a pre-race favorite for victory as the defending series champion.

He admits that he and the team didn’t extract everything possible from the new Universal Aero Kit introduced last season, missing some of the subtleties of how the kit affected the car’s speed, handling and tire management. Testing and further development are unlocking more setup secrets from the car in its second year, Newgarden said.

“I think we made gains on the road and street courses, and I think there will be gains for us on the ovals, as well,” Newgarden said. “We were pretty strong for the most part on ovals. We had some hit-or-miss moments. Those are things we are all working on. We’re putting a lot of emphasis on those things to fix the problems, and we’ve got the best of the best to figure it out.”

Newgarden also is aware of the fickle strokes of fate during May at IMS. A team and driver can do everything right and remain one of the 32 outfits who go home disappointed on the Sunday evening of Memorial Day weekend.

Power was the most-recent poster boy for hard-luck superstars at Indy. He made nine of his 10 career Indianapolis 500 starts with Team Penske entering the Month of May last year, with three front-row starts but just two top-five finishes. He had a duffel bag full of race victories and poles during his illustrious NTT IndyCar Series career with Penske, including a series championship in 2014.

But legendary status isn’t secured at Penske until your face is mounted in sterling silver bas relief on the Borg-Warner Trophy as an Indy 500 winner. Newgarden knows it.

“You’ve got to go there, and every year you’ve got to give yourself a shot,” Newgarden said. “If you’re there at the end of the race, then hopefully one of those years it will pan out for you.

“Will (Power) is a perfect example. He’s been close before, and he’s done a great job. But a lot of guys have stories where it didn’t work out. So you’ve got to give yourself that opportunity to potentially win, and hopefully one year it will work out.”

And if everything works out into an Indy 500 victory for Newgarden this May, he looks forward to the party where the team will be honored just as much as the driver. That’s the Penske way, complete with team president Tim Cindric handling all details of the celebration.

Newgarden joked he also should ask Cindric to plan his wedding reception. Newgarden became engaged to longtime girlfriend Ashley Welch last October during a vacation to Japan.

“Tim is really good at planning stuff like that,” Newgarden said. “If there’s an event or something worth celebrating, Tim is one of the best people to go to.

“They (Team Penske) take the moments to enjoy the things they’ve done. They’re the best as a group at celebrating the successes of the team and really enjoying it.”