Getting up to speed on motor sports competition
From NASCAR to Formula One to IndyCar, how the race results affect the seasons.
Josef Newgarden was angry. Not frustrated, not dejected, not sad or desperate.
Angry.
The defending IndyCar series champ had been deprived of racing for nearly three months, then had secured two poles and started on the front row three times in five races, leading laps in four of them. Yet he came away without a win.
After Friday night’s Race 1 of a doubleheader weekend at Iowa Speedway, Newgarden was closing in on a calendar year since his last IndyCar victory, which came in the wee hours of July 21 a year ago at Iowa.
So when the Team Penske driver climbed out of his “rocket ship” Friday without so much as a podium finish to show for his efforts, it struck a nerve. But it struck the right nerve. “Not to sound too overconfident, but I think we had the car to beat tonight, hands down,” he said Friday of his fifthplace finish. “I’ve got to be honest, I’m so angry with how this has all transpired. Some of it’s just bad luck, like the yellow coming out when it came out – you just can’t predict that stuff. I had a rocket ship, I mean I had a car above in my opinion. I’m just sad we weren’t able to put our car in victory lane, because I thought we had that potential.”
Saturday, Newgarden put that anger to use. He put on the type of Team Penske drive we’ve gotten used to over its decades of dominance but hadn’t witnessed in the 2020 campaign that rival Chip Ganassi Racing has dominated.
Penske picked up its first win of the year Friday due to some stunning workmanship from Simon Pagenaud. His fuel pressure failure on the qualifying grid forced him to start from the back but he wove his way through the field to lead the final 73 laps and hold off a charging Scott Dixon.
That ride was an utter triumph over uncontrollable circumstances – one for the record books. But it wasn’t the usual green-to-checkered dominance. It almost feels wrong to use the words “underdog” and “Penske” in the same sentence, but it was fitting Friday.
But in securing the team’s weekend sweep at his favorite short track, and in how he won Saturday – from the pole, the first IndyCar victor at Iowa to do so – Newgarden made a statement: This championship race isn’t over yet.
While trying not to short-change points leader and three-time 2020 racewinner Dixon, Newgarden admitted Saturday post-race that “luck” plays a major role in how things shake out.
That anger he first showed late Friday night, and then drove with Saturday, was measured. Not overly aggressive, which would have been easy while starting out front. But at a track where the subtleties of tire wear and fuel mileage play as big a role as ever, Newgarden drove in control, with the confidence of a champion – not passive, waiting for luck to finally fall his way.
“I think we have to accept that this is racing. There are years I’ve had tremendous fortunes over other people when they’ve had misfortunes, and you’re just seeing Scott has the lucky end of the stick,” said Newgarden, who created his own luck by leading 214 of the 250 laps. “That’s hard to predict when that’s going to happen. You never know when you’re going to get things to go your way.
“And when they haven’t been, like for us lately, you’ve just got to keep with the same process and keep doing the same things. I think it’s inevitable that it’s going to turn around and you’re eventually going to get out of this odd cycle.”
That willingness to trust in luck, while recognizing the fine line between trying too hard and not hard enough, was important. In not holding back Saturday, Newgarden wanted no part in shying away from the front, in hopes of the type of lucky bounce that hadn’t yet fallen his way all year.
With any luck, he could have entered Saturday with two wins to his name and neck-and-neck with Dixon, instead of 76 points back with nine races to go.
That attitude to close out the weekend leaves Newgarden 53 points back of Dixon with three weeks off until an August that includes Mid-Ohio, Gateway and a double-points Indy 500 where his teammates have won each of the past two years.