Newgarden Looks To Make Indy 500 History
(Photo by James Black/Penske Entertainment)
By Dennis Krause
No driver has won the Indianapolis 500 from deeper in the 33-car starting field than from the 28th position. Ray Harroun did it in 1911, before time trials determined the starting grid. Louis Meyer also won from 28th in 1936.
Sunday, Josef Newgarden will attempt to make history by winning an unprecedented third consecutive Indy 500 plus doing it from the middle of the 11th and final row.
Can Newgarden win from there?
“Oh, absolutely. Absolutely,” declared the driver of the No. 2 Shell V-Power NiTRO+ Team Penske Chevrolet.
How Newgarden wound up starting from the back has been part of one of the biggest controversies to rock Indy in years. Last Sunday, it was discovered that the attenuators on Newgarden’s car and that of Team Penske teammate, Will Power, had been altered. While it’s debatable whether the filling in of the seams on the attenuator yielded any aerodynamic performance gains, the point is INDYCAR rules prohibit any changes made to it.
(Photo by Chris Jones/Penske Entertainment)
Once discovered, the cars of Newgarden and Power were prevented from taking part in the Fast 12 qualifying session and relegated to the fourth row of the starting field. Monday, INDYCAR officials reconsidered their decision and moved Newgarden and Power to the back row of the grid. Further investigation by reporters revealed that the altered attenuator was also on Newgarden’s Indy 500-winning car from last year.
It was the second time in 15-months Team Penske has been involved in a cheating scandal - not a good look for Roger Penske who happens to own the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the NTT INDYCAR SERIES as well as his eponymous team. With the paddock up in arms, something had to give to salvage the integrity of the race, the series and Penske’s team, the most successful in Indy 500 history.
Penske dismissed his longtime INDYCAR team president Tim Cindric, INDYCAR managing director Ron Ruzewski and INDYCAR general manager Kyle Moyer from the organization.
Which brings us back to Newgarden. With all that has gone on this week, the 34-year-old remains tight-lipped about what happened, but remains focused on the goal.
“I just see a bigger mountain. That's all I see.
“Right now I'm trying to remain - what's the way to put this - trying to remain happy,” said Newgarden. “This is the Indy 500. I look forward to this time of year every season.
“I can't wait. We're going to have a sold-out crowd here for the Indianapolis 500, as it should be. To see all the people that show up and make this what it is, I look forward to that.
“That's how I feel right now. I'm ready to go racing. I know I have a good car. I'm ready to work with my team and hopefully put on a good show. There's no guarantees, but I'm ready to rock.”
(Photo by Titus Slaughter/Penske Entertainment)
As far as his approach to Sunday’s race, Newgarden is still working out his strategy about making his way through the field.
“Yeah, it's a good question. I don't have a plan at the moment. I don't want to set anything in stone as far as markers or milestones throughout the race. I think we just got to go.
“I know this. If we can get the car where it needs to be on Sunday, which is where it's been pretty much every day that we've been here so far, Indy is this mysterious place. Like every day, every condition is a little different.
“I know if we have the car we've had this entire month, we're going to be completely in the fight. I don't know what that is going to look like. It's so hard to predict. I'm pretty open-minded on how this day is going to go.
“We have the tools and the people to battle to the front, which is what we plan to do.”
As far as all the distractions to his drive for a 3-peat, Newgarden claims it’s the same challenge as always.
“I think you have to focus on what you can control. That's the difficult part about this job. The difficult part about the Indianapolis 500 is how do you stay focused on what is in your control.
“That can look very differently every year. There can be different stressors that push you. If you can just get yourself to a place where you are focused at the task at hand, you know what's in front of you, you know what you're in control of, you're truly just focused on, that then I think you set yourself up mentally to have the best day possible.
“That's what we're doing. We've got to just, like I said, get the car right for Sunday. Sunday is what matters. If we just focus on what we need to do for that place, I think we'll be in a good place.”
(Photo by Chris Owens/Penske Entertainment)
NASCAR champion Kyle Larson believes Newgarden has the fastest car on the track. Newgarden doesn’t disagree.
“I think he's right.
"I like the challenge coming from 32nd. I don't know what the day looks like, it's so hard to predict. We do have a great car. It just seems to be getting better every year. I'm trying to protect that right now. It's one of these things where every day changes a little bit at the Speedway. You have to stay on top of it. Sunday is really going to be the day that counts. We have to make sure we're in the right place for that day. If we can do that, we should be in a good spot.”
As a two-time Indy 500 champion, Newgarden knows how to win the race and, despite starting 32nd, doesn’t think the plan changes.”
“As far as how do you win the Indianapolis 500? I think there is no one formula. I know of a formula that you can prescribe to win the race. I don't think it changes starting from 32nd. We know what we need to do throughout the race to give ourselves an opportunity to go for the win. I think that's really not the secret, but it's just the formula, if you will. You have to give yourself a chance at the right time. Seems simple, but this race, it's an endurance in a lot of ways, it's 500 miles.
“A lot you have to calculate through: the way you manage yellows, where you put yourself in the strategies, when you're making moves, when you're not. There's a cadence to it. We've done it before, and we'll try and do the exact same thing this weekend.”
(Photo by Doug Matthews/Penske Entertainment)
Not only was Newgarden fastest in Friday’s final practice, his team won the Oscar Mayer Pit Stop Challenge for the second year in a row. Newly promoted race strategist, Lucas Mason, feels the team has nothing to lose.
“No one has ever done it, so there is no pressure. No one is expecting us to do it. It's never been done. We've just proven we've got the fastest crew on pit lane. I think I've got the best driver driving my race car. I think the reality is I think this week we've showed we've got the fastest car and we've got nothing to lose on Sunday, so we're going for No. 3, and I think it goes for everyone here that we're excited at the opportunity to create history.”
Dennis Krause has spent decades covering all forms of motorsports, including over 40 Indianapolis 500s, with stints at WIBA Radio, PIT PASS - Radio’s Premier Motorsports Magazine and Motorsports Minute. Follow him on X @DennisKrause500 or motorsportsminute.bluesky.social or motorsportsminute on Threads or MotorsportsMinute+ on Facebook.