Newgarden looking for a season reset at Indy

The start to Josef Newgarden’s season has not gone according to plan.

It began with promise as a third-place finish at St. Petersburg showed what was possible for his No. 2 Team Penske Chevy entry, but then the downhill slide arrived with a forgettable run to 17th in qualifying at The Thermal Club and a mild improvement to 13th in the race. Long Beach was especially unkind, as another poor qualifying session left the perennial championship favorite down in 15th, and on race day, Newgarden’s seat belts came undone twice — a suspected byproduct of his unknowingly hitting the release while turning through the sharp final hairpin — and led to him retiring in 27th and last.

Barber Motorsports Park was better with a start of ninth and finish of 10th, but last weekend’s Indianapolis Grand Prix featured another Long Beach-like kick where despite qualifying a season-best sixth, his car’s MGU put up a fight while pulling away for the pace laps, caused his Chevy engine to hiccup, and forced Newgarden to visit pit lane at the end of the lap.

But the high-temperature warnings with the hybrid unit magically cleared while making the long, slow drive towards his pit box, and with the issue rectified, he kept going, rejoined the field, but was directed to start from the back.

Problems aside, Newgarden charged from 27th to 12th, which was impressive, but string of bad finishes — at least by his standards — has him sitting 12th in the Drivers’ standings, 152 points out of the lead. The gap to Alex Palou, who’s won four of the first five, is nearly three full races of maximum points, which is a daunting deficit to face.

Getting into the Indy 500, a race he’s won twice since 2023, is the perfect place to hit the reset button.

“The good thing is the signs of, ‘Do you have the ingredients to win races?’ They're there,” Newgarden told RACER. “They're very much there. I think our street course car is tremendous right now. Like, I can't be more positive about our St Pete car, our Long Beach car; lights out. Road courses? We're really struggling right now. We're up and down. That's where we need to improve our form. That's where my concern is for the rest of the year, and then execution.

“But here, I think we can have great stops. We can call a good race. I think we've got good camaraderie on the team. We build a fast car. It's fast right away here. If we execute on race day, we can win the Indy 500 and I have no concerns about that. It's just been a very bizarre start to the season.”

The only unanswered question around Newgarden’s bid to win three Indy 500s in a row is whether Chevrolet can halt Honda’s unbeaten march in 2025. With five straight wins entering the Speedway, this week’s practice and qualifying sessions will give an indicator of whether the proud and defending victors at Indianapolis can send a Newgarden or one of the other member of the Bowtie camp to kiss the yard of bricks on May 25.

“I'm always transparent about this,” Newgarden said. “I always feel confident in Team Chevy. I don't know how you couldn't. I've won every single one of my IndyCar victories powered by Chevrolet, 31 wins, two championships, two Indy 500 wins. They've been pretty good to me. They always deliver, kind of like Team Penske. You always feel like you have a shot to win with this group. But of course, these things go up and down.

“Honda is a great competitor. They have great strength at times. They've had good strength to start the season. I think we could have won two street courses so far this year. I think that's real. And I think on the road courses, the engine has not been a negative factor for us. I think it's more (chassis) setup where we need to find our form.

“I think the April (Indy 500 test led by Honda) was misleading, but I believe we can have a race-winning car again, and we can have race winning speed. We can be up front in qualifying. We're going to find out here very soon, but I feel confident we'll have the ingredients.”