IndyCar 2014 Review: P13 – Josef Newgarden

Robin Miller says…
Is it ironic that this talented kid wound up 13th in the point standings? Or prophetic? Probably a little of both but the fact remains NOBODY ran better in 2014 and had less to show for it than Newgarden.

Sure, sure he charged to second place at Iowa on fresh tires late in the race but he should have had at least one, and possibly two, victories for the modest-budgeted, one-car effort of Sarah Fisher and Wink Hartman.

The personable 23-year-old really matured during his third season in the Verizon IndyCar series and finally had the paddock recognizing his worth. Four times he qualified in the Fast Six, just missing the pole position at Mid-Ohio and Sonoma, and he also started second at Texas and third at Fontana.

However, being able to finish what he started proved difficult. He’d just taken the lead at Long Beach with 24 laps to go when Ryan Hunter-Reay punted him and ended their day. Starting eighth in the Indy 500, Josef was running sixth when he ran out of fuel and then got speared from behind during a caution by Martin Plowman.
Leading in the rain at Toronto, his team left him out too long and he finally hit the wall while Mike Conway came up a couple laps earlier and wound up winning.

But the real gut shot came at Mid-Ohio. Starting second, the SFH strategy was perfect and Newgarden was leading comfortably heading for his final pit stop. He had a large enough cushion over Scott Dixon he was going to be able to pit and not lose the lead with just routine service. A disaster ensued, as the air hose was sitting in his pit box and he hit it while the right rear tire changer was knocked down. Instead of spraying champagne for the first time in an Indy car, he was relegated to 12th.

Ever the class act, JoNew didn’t throw a tantrum or throw anybody under the bus. He accepted the win together/lose together approach but he deserved the victory. He out-performed a lot of drivers with more experience on bigger teams in 2014 and if you weren’t impressed, you weren’t paying attention.

Marshall Pruett says…
Josef Newgarden came of age as an IndyCar driver last season. His first two tours with Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing offered glimpses of promise, but also left me thinking the kid was a bit of a project. The Tennessean’s body of work was inconclusive, and while I hoped he had the goods to play with the big boys, it was hard to tell if he would rise to the challenge. In 2014, he not only made the leap, he came within a whisker of winning two races for the little one-car operation owned by Sarah Fisher and Wink Hartman.

It might not read like much of a compliment, but Newgarden finished 13th in the championship, tucked between

Charlie Kimball, the last of Ganassi Racing’s four cars, and James Hinchcliffe, who was last among Andretti Autosport’s four entries. He and SFHR were also best among the single-car programs, putting Bryan Herta Autosport, A.J. Foyt Racing and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in their rearview mirrors. With only cars from Team Penske, Ganassi, Andretti, and KV Racing ahead of the Honda-powered No. 67 program, it’s safe to say Newgarden and Company made a strong statement in 2014.

If there’s one thing that stood out most with Newgarden in his third season, it was his IndyCar IQ. Just as stick-and-ball players are praised for their innate grasp of their respective sports, Josef took what he learned in 2012 and 2013 and turned it into a more intelligent and decisive approach to driving. His error rate decreased, silly crashes and trips to the pits for new wings were brought down to an acceptable level for a driver with his level of experience, and he made better overall choices.

We knew he was quick, but without the elevated IndyCar IQ, his growth was limited. Paired with the exceptional Jeremy Milless on the timing stand, they raised each other’s game and became a more consistent threat.
Yes, Newgarden still showed his youth and was far from error-free, but he made it clear that with more time, the kid’s capable of a bright future at the front of the pack. With a more structured program at CFH Racing and a full-time teammate to help raise his game at every track, Newgarden seems destined for a breakout year and at least one trip to the top step of the podium in 2015.

David Malsher says…

NASCAR Sprint Cup has Kyle Larson, Formula 1 has Valtteri Bottas, IndyCar has Josef Newgarden – all exceptionally promising young racers who, with the right combination of car/team/circumstance, will win…and maybe should have already.

In Newgarden’s case, make that definitely should have. Long Beach was a definite podium chance and possible win that disappeared when Ryan Hunter-Reay, overeager to exploit the grip of his up-to-temperature tires, tried a pass on the Sarah Fisher Hartman car that had just jumped him in the pit stops. For Ryan’s maneuver to work would have required the full co-operation of his rival, but instead it was the last place Josef was expecting a pass. And then there was Mid-Ohio, as Robin mentioned above.

However, while Newgarden was blameless in both missed opportunities, it’s hard to give the crew a hard time for the Lexington loss. Think how often we’ve seen other teams and drivers punished for hitting pit equipment. No matter how many times you practice, you can never replicate the heat of battle, and for errors to creep in at the crucial moment is only natural when you’re not used to the pressure of running at the very front. Plus, it was the team’s slick work that got Newgarden out ahead of Hunter-Reay and James Hinchcliffe in Long Beach.

But the other great thing about Josef Newgarden’s 2014 season was that he took another large stride toward completeness. In his first 18 months as an IndyCar driver, I always felt Josef was getting stretched too thin by the series as they latched onto a highly personable, highly talented American to go promote for them, and he ended up performing a couple of goofy stunts. But around the middle of 2013, the responsibilities of carrying a single-car team for a second straight season forced him to focus hard and his performances became both stronger and more consistent. Well this year, he sharpened up his act even more, and it ceased to be a surprise when he’d either qualify or race in the top six. Given the level of competition, and the fact that the Big Three teams comprised 11 cars, that was seriously impressive.

There are still elements Newgarden needs to brush up. For instance, braking as early as he had to in the pack at the start of the second Detroit race and leaving a large gap up the inside, he was slightly naïve not to expect someone to fill it. Now, as the initiator in the maneuver, it's understandable why Will Power was punished for the collision that followed, but it’s also obvious Newgarden could have given him far more room, moved onto the line that Saavedra was taking, and lived to fight another corner.

Sure, it’s not any racer’s duty to make life easy for a rival, but as this screen capture shows, Will was slightly ahead so it’s hard to believe Josef didn’t see him. Therefore, why not relinquish a bit more space, even if he felt aggrieved at Power's aggression? Like Justin Wilson said years ago, “There’s no point in being in the right but in the wall.”

I also wonder at the times when the No. 67 was superquick in qualifying yet had nothing like race-winning pace on race day – Barber, Sonoma, Fontana spring to mind. But maybe that was just the consequence of neither team nor driver having as full a bank of experience as any other regular frontrunner…and only having one set of data to work from for the past three seasons.

Still, isn’t it impressive that we can describe Josef and the SFHR team as regular frontrunners? Sarah Fisher, Andy O’Gara and Wink Hartman also deserve major credit for retaining Newgarden these three years by keeping a revolving selection of smaller sponsors, rather than taking the easy option of running a mediocre pay driver. None of the team has ever given the impression they’re in IndyCar just to be there: they want to win. And their reward for this dedication to duty is being able to join forces with the like-minded folks at Ed Carpenter Racing. I hope to see them win together.

And Josef Newgarden himself? Do believe the hype. He's gonna be a star.