A veteran at 28, Newgarden is nurturing young talent
Rookie NTT IndyCar driver Colton Herta won the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey on Sunday.
The 19-year-old is a secondgeneration driver and is being billed as part of the upcoming generation of drivers in IndyCar.
At the age of 28, Josef Newgarden is considered one of the series’ veterans, and the Tennessee native parlayed this experience by placing eighth on the Laguna Seca course in his Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet. This effort garnered him enough points to win the series’ championship, his second honour in three years.
During the post-race interviews, Newgarden emphasized his part in the series, and how he feels he and others with seat time behind the wheel of their cars set an example for the newer drivers.
“I guess that’s your role as a champion, is to push that message and just to be a positive light for that,” Newgarden said in a post-race interview.
“That’s really all I can do. I don’t know if I can move the ball further by doing anything else significant. I mean, it’s going to take all of us pushing in this common direction to try and push the sport forward. You know, it’ll take me, it’ll take guys like (Alexander) Rossi and Simon (Pagenaud) and Will (Power), and it will take all of us, I think, to keep pushing the sport forward, and that’s what we will plan on doing.”
During a news conference earlier this week, Newgarden commented on how the sport is embracing young drivers, using the IndyCar feeder system Road to Indy as an example.
“I think, right now, we’re in an era where we’re seeing a lot of young American talent starting to emerge again through our grassroots systems,” Newgarden said.
“That’s what we want to see within our ladder system. But I also think you’re seeing great opportunity for young drivers from all over the world. They’re able to come to these championships that are run in the United States and feel like there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. They feel the possibility of working hard and getting the right opportunity and making the most of that opportunity can potentially reward you with a top-level ride and an opportunity to compete at the highest level with the best people in the sport.”
Newgarden’s first IndyCar championship came in 2017, the year he started with Team Penske, and his four wins in ’19 with Penske were part of the team’s nine wins and Indy 500 victories for the season. He added that, in his racing world, a ride with Penske doesn’t get any better. “Being in New York here, I always make the comparison that, driving for Team Penske, it’s like playing for the (New York) Yankees. You’re basically competing with a dynasty here, and they’re the best to have done it and they’re the group that everyone wants to be and the group everyone wants to beat.”
This Saturday, Jukasa Motor Speedway will hold the 13th and final round of the 2019 NASCAR Pinty’s Series. This will be a 200-lapper on the big oval at Nelles Corners, scheduled to begin at 7:35 p.m. Going into this race, the Pinty’s Fall Brawl 200, Quebec’s Andrew Ranger has an 11-point lead thanks to his win in New Hampshire last weekend. Right behind Ranger is another Quebecer, Kevin Lacroix, with 498 points.
Winning this race in 2018 was D.J. Kennington from
St. Thomas, and he is currently fourth in the standings.