Newgarden lands first IndyCar win
Josef Newgarden’s wait is over. To his relief, so is the race.
The Tennessean, 24, held off a hard-charging Graham Rahal Sunday in the Indy Grand Prix of Alabama for his first IndyCar Series victory.
“I’m so relieved that it’s over with,” Newgarden said. “I really wanted that race to end. It was just so stressful for me. Normally I’m pretty cool, and I felt cool out there, but it was just very stressful to run those laps and try to control that thing. We’ve been there before and things have gone wrong, and today nothing went wrong.”
Things started going right on the opening lap, in fact, when he moved all the way from fifth to second behind pole-sitter Helio Castroneves.
Newgarden led 46 of the 90 laps. He got his milestone win at Barber Motorsports Park a few hours from his hometown of Hendersonville, Tenn., with most of the major drama coming behind him.
It was his first chance to celebrate a win since Indy Lights in 2011
Newgarden had posted second-place finishes in each of the past two years before finally finishing up front for CFH Racing, a merger of Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing and Ed Carpenter Racing. He’d been off to a good start, including a seventh-place finish last weekend at Long Beach, before finally snaring a victory.
Rahal finally slipped past Scott Dixon on the final lap after several tries, giving the American drivers a 1-2 finish.
Two-time defending champion Hunter-Reay, the 2014 Indianapolis 500 winner, made a big surge after starting 18th. He finished fifth, while Team Penske’s Power was fourth and Carlos Munoz took sixth.
Other race
NHRA Spring Nationals: Ron Capps raced to his second Funny Car victory of the season, beating teammate Jack Beckman in Baytown, Texas. Capps powered past Beckman in the final round to earn his 44th Funny Car victory and move into second behind John Force on NHRA’s career wins list in the division. In a battle between Don Schumacher Racing Dodge Chargers, Capps finished in 4.244 seconds at 258.32 mph, while Beckman trailed with a 4.480 at 205.16.