Newgarden’s goal: Win one for Penske
Everything has been a first for Josef Newgarden this year. St. Petersburg was his first race with Team Penske. Long Beach was his first podium with Team Penske. Alabama was his first win with Team Penske.
Now, he’s experiencing his first May with Team Penske.
Newgarden, who spent last season with Ed Carpenter Racing, says he’s eager to get past all of the firsts — and all of the questions about them, too.
However, as long as he’s employed by Roger Penske, there is one first he will never escape. But he’s OK with this particular first.
“Oh my gosh,” Newgarden said of the way Penske treats winning the Indianapolis 500. “Like it’s the first, dude. You have no idea. Every new 500 he could potentially win is like the first.”
Of course, it wouldn’t be the first for Penske, who has put 16 faces on the Borg Warner Trophy, 11 more than the next-winningest owner (Lou Moore).
And win No. 17 is never far from Penske’s mind, Newgarden said. That much was made clear the moment he signed with Penske this past offseason.
“It’s such a big deal,” Newgarden said. “It’s the biggest deal of the year for us. It’s very impor- tant that we do well. I mean, the Indy 500, it’s why we go racing. That is the legacy of Team Penske. The Indy 500. It’s a big deal for the team, and we’re all excited to get there and hopefully do well. We have five great opportunities.”
Joining Newgarden in the stacked Penske garage are defending Verizon IndyCar Series champion Simon Pagenaud, 2014 series champion and IndyCar Grand Prix winner Will Power, two-time 500 champion Juan Pablo Montoya and three-time 500 winner Helio Castroneves.
All five enjoyed a mostly successful 500 practice on a windy Tuesday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Power, who turned in the seventh-quickest lap Monday, paced the Penske pack and the rest of the field with a top speed of 224.656 mph. Castroneves was right behind him and was the only other driver to top 224 mph. Pagenaud was eighth quickest, Newgarden 10th and Montoya 21st.
Castroneves and Power warned, however, not to read too much into Tuesday’s results, which had seven Chevrolets in the top 10 — a complete reversal of Monday’s results that saw eight Hondas in the top 10. The Hondas, they said, are turning their engines down.
“Marco (Andretti) was 5 miles per hour slower than yesterday,” Castroneves said. “That’s not the setup of the car. ... You can see those boys are playing some games here, so that’s interesting.”
For Castroneves, a fourth 500 win would put him in rare air — only A.J. Foyt, Al Unser Sr. and Castroneves’ spotter and mentor Rick Mears have accomplished the feat — but he often talks about how much another win would mean to Penske and the emphasis his team owner puts on this race.
Castroneves said all anyone needs to know about Penske’s commitment to winning the 500 is that the 80-year-old has taken time away from his busy work schedule to make sure he can be with his team all week.
“I’ll tell you what, for (Roger) to leave his day job ... shows the commitment that he has, and it shows what he wants.”
“Roger puts everything into this race,” Power said Tuesday. “As a team, we did a lot of homework in the offseason for this race. ... Roger would love to get No. 17, and I would absolutely love to do it for him.”