Newgarden gives Team Penske a 15th IndyCar championship

SONOMA, Calif. — Josef Newgarden rushed through the doors on to the championship stage with an American flag draped around his shoulders. He felt silly, he said, like a boxer at a title fight.

Fitting for IndyCar’s newest champion.

Newgarden won his first IndyCar championship by closing out the best year of his career as the top driver at Team Penske. He turned in a nearly flawless performance Sunday at Sonoma Raceway to prevent his three Penske teammates — as well as four-time champion Scott Dixon — from taking the title.

Penske driver Simon Pagenaud used pit strategy to win the caution-free race, but Newgarden finished second to take the title by 13 points.

Newgarden is only the second American in 11 years to win the IndyCar title, joining 2012 champion Ryan Hunter-Reay.

The Tennessee driver held off Dixon, as well as teammates Pagenaud, Will Power and Helio Castroneves to win the championship. Of the five drivers mathematically eligible to win the title in the finale, four came from Penske.

Pagenaud won the race in a last gasp effort to defend the IndyCar title he won last year for Penske. Although his strategy was different from his teammates, it put Pagenaud out front after his final stop.

Newgarden tried to catch him, was briefly aggressive as he attempted to reclaim the lead, then had to back off and think about the bigger picture.

“I was using my natural instincts. I was trying to get Pagenaud there because that’s what I normally do, I try to win the race whenever possible,” Newgarden said. “I tried to get him, but I also tried not to do anything dumb for the team. This has been a team effort.”

Power finished third in the race, Dixon was fourth and Castroneves fifth in what might have been his final full season in IndyCar. Castroneves, in his 20th season, is likely being moved to Penske’s sports car program next year.

“Let’s see what’s going to happen,” Castroneves said. “Right now let’s celebrate the championship. I feel like I am part of it.”

It was an uphill fight for Dixon, in a Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing, and he didn’t have the same pace as the Penske cars all weekend.