Newgarden’s gamble leaves 4-car title battle

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. Over the last couple of months, Josef Newgarden has become the Verizon IndyCar Series’ one-man band, the driver who orchestrates the tune everyone can’t stop humming the next day.

Beginning in mid-July, the young Team Penske superstar charged to the championship lead by bagging back-to-back wins in Toronto and at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course before nearly chasing down teammate Will Power at Pocono Raceway. A week later, he thrilled the racing world — and left a teammate furious — with his bold pass at Gateway Motorsports Park to deliver his third victory in four tries.

Newgarden has been the talk of the paddock, and a day after racing at Watkins Glen International — despite Alexander Rossi’s dominating performance — the story remains the same. Sort of.

For the first time in this headline-grabbing stretch, Newgarden stole the show with an error rather than excellence. Exiting pit lane in a drag race with Power, Newgarden lost control of his No. 2 Chevrolet and ran into the wall. The uncharacteristic blunder forced Newgarden, who had been running in the middle of the pack, back to the pits for repairs and resulted in an 18th-place finish.

Sebastien Bourdais, who rammed into the halted Newgarden in pit lane, perhaps said it best when he told IndyCar.com: “(Newgarden) fought it out with his teammate. Why? What’s the point? You are going to try to make it two-wide over there? It’s like, ‘Geez, calm down, man, you are leading the championship.’ I don’t get it. It’s a shame.”

A shame for Newgarden and certain factions within Team Penske? Absolutely. But a shame for the rest of the series? Heck no.

Newgarden’s mistake opened the door to intrigue. Rather than a two-man battle for the title at the double-points finale at Sonoma Raceway on Sept. 17 — which still would have been fun — there are four legitimate contenders for the championship.

After his fifth runner-up finish of 2017 on Sunday afternoon, Scott Dixon would have been in the mix regardless; the same cannot be said of Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud.

Had Newgarden finished the race anywhere from seventh to 10th — where he had been running for most of the day — he could have eliminated those contenders. Heading to Sonoma, Castroneves’ dream of winning his first championship and Pagenaud’s hopes of defending his would have been long shots at best. Now, they’re both in play.

Because of the mistake, Newgarden left Watkins Glen 34 points ahead of Pagenaud and 22 in front of Castroneves, while his lead over Dixon has dwindled to an almost meaningless three.

Though he wouldn’t acknowledge it after the race, Newgarden likely is sick to his stomach that he reopened the door to a pair of savvy IndyCar veterans — especially with four-time champion Dixon already hot on his tail — but the rest of IndyCar has to be teeming with excitement over the wealth of intrigue heading into the finale.

Newgarden vs. Dixon could have been thrilling, but Newgarden vs. Dixon vs. Castroneves vs. Pagenaud could be epic.

TIMOTHY T. LUDWIG, USA TODAY SPORTS A crash Sunday set back Josef Newgarden, who had won three of four races. After finishing 18th, he holds a three-point lead.