Determined Newgarden nabs Long Beach victory
LONG BEACH, CALIF. » Colton Herta is so good on the downtown streets of Long Beach, and was so strong this weekend, that a second consecutive victory seemed automatic.
Not so fast, scowled Josef Newgarden, who went to sleep the night before the race Sunday stewing over a question he’d been asked after qualifying by a reporter who inquired, “At what point does Colton Herta check out tomorrow?”
“Like what is that? I thought it was such a bizarre question and I went to bed last night and I went, ‘ You know what? That kid is not checking out. There’s just no way,’” Newgarden said.
And so Newgarden kept the pole-sitter in sight when Herta peeled away Sunday in Herta’s home race. Herta led the first 28 laps but Newgarden chipped away and used strategy and pit stops to move to the front and win his second consecutive race.
It was his first career victory in 10 starts at the most prestigious street course race in the United States. He was the leader in the 2011 Indy Lights race when he crashed with two laps remaining.
“It’s a huge pleasure to finally be able to win around this place,” Newgarden said. “It’s pretty special to finally get one.”
Newgarden led a race-high 32 laps to move Team Penske to 3-0 on the new Indycar season. Penske teammate Scott Mclaughlin won the opener at St. Petersburg, then Newgarden won at Texas and now Long Beach to bump Mclaughlin from the championship lead.
Newgarden was challenged over the final 15 laps by Romain Grosjean, the former Formula One driver seeking his first career Indycar victory. Jimmie Johnson, who broke his hand in a crash Friday and raced with a carbon fiber cast, crashed with 10 laps remaining to bring out the caution and give Grosjean and reigning Indycar champion Alex Palou a shot on a final restart.
The race went green with five laps remaining and Grosjean got several good looks inside of Newgarden but couldn’t pull even to attempt a winning pass. Takuma Sato crashed with a lap remaining to bring out a final caution and Newgarden won under yellow.