Penske driver Newgarden in right place at the right time

They say that life is fair, but it helps to be in the right place at the right time.

They also say that you have to be good to be lucky, and lucky to be good.

I could trot out more clichés, but you get my drift.

This column is about Josef Newgarden, who will be reporting for work at Exhibition Place next Friday morning as a racing driver for Team Penske and who is living proof of those platitudes.

I will not dwell a lot on who he is, because the feature on this page today is about him. But I do want to talk about the excitement he has delivered for the thousands who have turned out each year to watch him race in the annual Honda Indy Toronto and the two victories he’s recorded in the last three races.

In 2015, Newgarden was in his fourth year of big league competition and was seen to be, at that point in time, a journeyman driver. Capable but not spectacular. He’d turned pro in 2012 with Sarah Fisher’s small team and over the next three seasons scored a couple of seconds and two fifths for his efforts.

In 2015, driver/entrepreneur Ed Carpenter joined the team and injected some muchneeded capital into the organization. Newgarden reacted by winning two races that season, in Alabama and the Honda Indy Toronto. But remember that bit above about being in the right place, etc.? Well, read on.

In January 2016, Fisher’s partner, Wink Hartman, who really owned the team, bailed. Ordinarily, when this sort of thing happens, everybody is out of a job, including the drivers. Not this time. Carpenter, with help from his stepfather, Tony George, took over the outfit, renamed it Ed Carpenter Racing and retained Newgarden, who went on to win a race and score five top fives.

Later that year, he got the call that all racing drivers covet: “Mr. Newgarden? Roger Penske would like to speak to you. Please hold.”

Now, about the lucky to be good bit. At last year’s Honda Indy Toronto, Newgarden was not even in the hunt when he was called into the pits just as the yellow flag waved for a crash that closed the pits to the other drivers. Because he had crossed the pit entry line before the caution came out, he was allowed to take on fuel and fresh tires while his opponents toddled around behind the pace car, fuming.

Newgarden got such a leg up on the others that after racing resumed, they were unable to catch him. “The best cars didn’t win today,” fumed Graham Rahal, who’d been among the leaders when Newgarden caught his break.

Some race drivers catch the brass ring while others don’t — and never will. Guess who will — and who won’t.