Newgarden’s Highs and Lows at Iowa

Josef Newgarden started Sunday with the hopes of sweeping the Iowa doubleheader, but those hopes were dashed on lap 235, as a mechanical failure sent him spinning into the turn 4 wall, ending his race. Newgarden said after his release from the infield care center, “I don’t know, something went wrong there…Penske is the best, I never have this stuff, I guess we were due one.” Newgarden’s surprised and downward mood was in stark contrast to his ebullience after Saturday’s race, which he described as “nice and easy.” The crash pushed Newgarden down to 24th in the race, which dropped him to 3rd in points, 34 points behind Ericsson. 

Speaking to the media after Saturday’s race, Newgarden stressed the importance of consistent finishes, saying “It’s great to win four races. Our boring days we need to be finishing second or third. We just can’t seem to do that right now.” Newgarden’s prescient remarks rang true as he struck a dejected tone post-incident, at a track that he’s dominated, leading more laps than all other current drivers combined. Newgarden has suffered bad luck this year, at the Indianapolis Road Course, the 500, Barber, St. Petersburg, Toronto, and now Iowa, which makes it all the more painful when he had race winning speed at several of those tracks. Newgarden has been unquestionably the best driver of the season, but has been held back by tough luck. 

After the conclusion of the race Sunday, Newgarden collapsed in the driver motorhome lot, falling and hitting his head on the ground. He returned to the infield medical center, where he was described as “alert and awake” by IndyCar medical staff, and then airlifted to MercyOne in Des Moines for further evaluation. Based on the press releases from Team Penske and IndyCar, Newgarden doesn’t appear to have any head injuries, but was kept overnight for observation. Newgarden is still scheduled to be evaluated again on Thursday at IMS, due to his crash registering over the G limit for concussion checks, the same thing that kept Jack Harvey from racing at Texas. We won’t know until then if he is fit to race Saturday at the Gallagher Grand Prix in Indianapolis, but if all of the head scans conducted both at the track and in Des Moines were clear, then it seems a likely assumption that he would be safe to race. The conditions in Iowa were significantly cooler Sunday than they were Saturday, with 100 degree temperatures cooling off to the low 80’s, but Iowa is a tough track, with drivers pulling up to 3G in the corners and only a few seconds on the straight to breathe. Scott McLaughlin said in his post race presser Sunday that he went to the medical center to get an IV drip after the Saturday race after not wearing a cool suit, which may not have been the smartest move on his part, but does illustrate how tough that first race was. When asked about the temperature difference after Saturday’s race, Will Power said, “15 degrees, I’ll take that, even for 50 laps,” but the 550 laps at Iowa and a very heavy impact, it’s understandable to see how Newgarden could have succumbed to fatigue. 

After his disappointing Sunday, which will no doubt weigh on him, Newgarden heads to a track that his Penske teammate Will Power has dominated in recent years, the IMS road course. Newgarden won there in 2020, and is certainly looking forward to what is a more relaxed race than Iowa. The double header with NASCAR is a marquee event, and one that Newgarden needs to do well at. As Pato O’Ward said post race, “I have no other choice but to try and claw back… Four, five and six for me doesn’t really change anything. I don’t care for sixth or fourth. We need to go for one and two.” Despite Newgarden’s statement that the team needed to have the good “boring” top 5 finishes, he’s fallen behind. He went from being in the championship lead before the wreck to 34 points afterward, and he is up against some seriously talented and determined drivers. Two champions, a driver in Pato O’Ward who has been in a championship fight, and Marcus Ericsson, who Will Power called “the best racer in the series.” He needs all the wins and points he can get, so it is imperative that he takes a podium at IndyCar’s home.