INDYCAR: Newgarden crashes in final practice

There's no such thing as a small crash at Watkins Glen, which makes Josef Newgarden's friendly meeting with the barriers during Saturday morning's practice session a rare occurrence.

At a repaved road course where average speeds have soared past 145mph, Newgarden was fortunate to get away with ripping the rear wing and the assorted wheel pods and winglets free in an impact at the right-hand, uphill Boot corner when the back of his No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevy broke free.

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"All good," Newgarden said. "The car's relatively OK. The hit wasn't as bad as it could around here. We'll get the Fuzzy's car fixed and get it ready for qualifying and go from there. I'm just trying to take in what happened."

IndyCar's Holmatro Safety crew tended to Newgarden's broken car during a red flag and had it on its way to the paddock in short order. With approximately three hours between the premature end to his practice session and the start of qualifying, the ECR team should have no problems getting the No. 21 ready for the 25-year-old to drive this afternoon.

Presently fifth in points, Newgarden is part of a group of drivers with a mathematical chance of winning the Verizon IndyCar Series championship. But with a gap of 123 points to leader Simon Pagenaud, and only 158 points left to earn at Watkins Glen and the season finale at Sonoma, Newgarden would need to make significant inroads on that deficit this weekend.

His first chance will come in qualifying where one point is on offer for pole position.