Newgarden has shown he can win anywhere - Cindric

If first impressions matter in motor racing, Josef Newgarden has made a lasting one with his new bosses at Team Penske.

The young Tennessee native has become a two-time winner for Penske this season, and thanks to his consistency, which includes five podium visits in the No. 2 Chevy, Newgarden holds a close fourth in the championship.

Twenty points behind teammate Helio Castroneves in second, four points behind teammate and defending series champion Simon Pagenaud in third, and 41 points clear of Penske's 2014 series champion Will Power, Newgarden has erased any doubts about his ability to rise to the lofty level set by Roger Penske and team president Tim Cindric.

"We saw he was a championship contender last year and didn't see why he wouldn't be one this year," Cindric (pictured above, with Newgarden) told RACER. "Every track we've gone to, he's shown speed, he's shown potential, and I really feel like there have been missed opportunities at some of the tracks we've been to. He has shown he can win anywhere."

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Coming off a win last weekend in Toronto, which added to his April victory at Barber Motorsports Park, Newgarden and Cindric have relied on brains and big speed to deliver results. Advantageous timing of a Toronto caution period for an incident involving Chip Ganassi Racing's Tony Kanaan was initially credited for handing Newgarden the chance to win, but his race strategist begs to differ.

"Some people think we took advantage of the situation with Kanaan and dove into the pits, but we'd already committed to the pits before Tony went into the tires," Cindric said. "We'd called him in just before that because we wanted to get out of line and try something different. It felt like our best play.

"We had two team cars running up front, and if we were all on the same strategy and got caught with a yellow, then none of them would win. So we made that decision with Josef before it all transpired, and he had the speed to contend for the win."

It's hard to ignore how differently Newgarden's Penske debut has gone compared to Pagenaud's team introduction in 2015. A distant 11th in the final standings, the Frenchman and his longtime engineer Ben Bretzman needed a year to digest all the changes they encountered at Team Penske.

For Newgarden, who parted ways with his engineer Jeremy Milless to join Penske, getting to know Brian Campe (pictured above, with Newgarden), Juan Montoya's Indy 500-winning engineer with the No. 2 Chevy, was a significant process of its own. With all the other adjustments the 26-year-old had to make in leaving the smaller Ed Carpenter Racing team for Penske's giant operation, Newgarden's 2017 could have easily followed Pagenaud's script.

According to Cindric, no one inside the Penske program is surprised by the fast start recorded by its newest member of the team

"It was a calculated decision on our end," he said. "Last year, he showed how tough he was after getting busted up and not missing a race after Texas. He's been polished outside the car and he's been polished inside the car. The only question is how the chemistry would be with new teammates. He's taken all that in stride.

"He's humble enough to raise his hand when he could have done something better, and he's a team player who understands we win and lose together when the team drops the ball. He's a very level-headed kid, solid across the board, and think we can continue to build with him."

That's high praise from a steely figure like Cindric.