Josef Newgarden Earns Prestigious Long Beach Victory
Finally, Josef Newgarden has a crown jewel race win.
The two-time series champion captured the checkered flag on the historic streets of Long Beach, leading a race-high 32 laps today. "We knew we had a good strategy and made good fuel with Team Chevy and I had everything I needed today with pit stops, as you saw when I had to get around Alex. The out-lap with Palou was more risky,” Newgarden noted.
“We got together in Turn 5 going in deep, and that almost didn't work out when we were side-by-side into that corner, and then side-by-side again in Turn 6. That was the difficult battle. Grosjean, overall, just had a better shot at getting it done. Fortunately, we just held on."
The Team Penske driver made it back-to-back wins this season after winning the previous race at Texas last month. After failing to win a race through the first eight events last year, the team has now won all three races to start this season.
Today's victory is the 22nd of Newgarden's career, and the biggest so far. "It's definitely up there on the list," Newgarden said. "Man, this was a fight today, this is not an easy race to win. I was working my butt off with Grosjean at the end there on the used reds, I was hoping that he'd fade a bit towards the end. Trying to hold him off on the restart was super difficult. So proud of Team Penske. I've been trying to win a race here for 11 years so I'm happy to get it done."
Romain Grosjean nearly won his first IndyCar race at the second-biggest event on the calendar. The Andretti Autosport driver very nearly took the race lead from Newgarden in the closing laps, but just didn't have enough to get by the No. 2 Chevrolet. Still, it was a fantastic result for the second-year driver.
It was a Penske, Andretti, and Ganassi podium once again, as reigning series champion Alex Palou finished just behind Newgarden and Grosjean. The driver of the No. 10 Honda took over the lead during the first round of pit stops, led 22 laps, and stayed near the front all afternoon. Will Power and Pato O'Ward rounded out the top five on Sunday.
After starting on pole and leading the first 28 laps of the race, it looked like Colton Herta was going to win back-to-back races at Long Beach. This was further proof that things can change in the blink of an eye. The driver of the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda was pushing hard on Lap 56 before making his final scheduled pit stop, but went a little too deep in Turn 9.
The Andretti ace made heavy contact with the concrete barrier and his day was done. It was another gut punch, eerily similar to what happened last year on the streets in Nashville. "It's just a stupid mistake. We were definitely in that thing," Herta said. "It's unfortunate. I feel really bad. The car was fantastic. Just overdid it a little bit today."
Scott Dixon battled all day and had a bit of good fortune on several occasions that resulted in a solid 6th place finish. After starting in 16th, the six-time champ had a yellow flag come out just after he pitted, and even ran into the back of his teammate after he crashed, but managed to continue in the race.
Graham Rahal quietly had a fantastic afternoon as well, finishing 7th to lead the way for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Alexander Rossi, Helio Castroneves, and Kyle Kirkwood rounded out the top ten finishers.
The day started out well for Rossi, who made his 100th career start today. The two-time Long Beach winner made an insane pass on Felix Rosenqvist on Lap 20 to take 4th position. Unfortunately, that was the highlight of his day as he had more trouble on pit lane midway through the race, and was unable to get back into the lead group.
Rosenqvist was on pace for a great result today but the move that Rossi made on him for 4th position pushed him out of the racing line and nearly went into the tire barrier in Turn 1. With junk on his tires, he began slipping back through the field and ended up with a disappointing 11th place finish.
Chip Ganassi had three strong cars today, but one of them was unable to finish the race. Marcus Ericsson was arguably the strongest of the four-cars this weekend but with 19 laps remaining, the driver of the No. 8 Honda crashed in Turn 4 during a restart. To add insult to injury, Ericsson was running in 3rd place at the time and saw his teammate Dixon run into the back of him after his incident.
Ed Carpenter Racing's drivers finished 12th and 13th but it was Rinus VeeKay that had an eventful day. It began with losing his nose after contact with Castroneves in the hairpin, then got caught up in the multi-car incident near the fountain. He had more issues, making contact with Takuma Sato, sending the Japanese driver into the tire barrier on the final lap of the race.
Scott McLaughlin did not have a great weekend. After missing the Firestone Fast Six in qualifying, the Penske driver had a mechanical gremlin pop up earlier this morning which prompted the team to make a precautionary engine change. McLaughlin clipped the hairpin wall, was collected in the crash at the fountain, and lost the championship lead after finishing 14th today.
There will be another long break before the next IndyCar race, but the news isn't all bad. Teams and drivers will now turn their attention to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for two days of testing on the oval, beginning on April 20. The next race on the calendar comes on the first day of May.
Coverage for the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama begins at 1 PM ET on NBC.
