Newgarden not focused on history, says a potential three-peat is “circumstantial”

Team Penske-Chevrolet’s Josef Newgarden insists he’s not considering his chance to make Indianapolis 500 history, but is simply focused on winning the 109th edition.

On Sunday, May 25, the 34-year-old Tennessean could land the three-peat that has eluded some of the greatest drivers ever to turn a wheel at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Wilbur Shaw achieved a 1-2-1-1 sequence from 1937 to ’40, while both Al Unser and Helio Castroneves – both eventual four-time winners – were able to accomplish 1-1-2. Unser’s came in 1970-’72, while Castroneves’ was 2001-’03. 

Newgarden took until his 12th attempt at the 500 to land the big one in 2023, and drank the milk again last year, giving him the chance to become Indy’s first three-peater. 

But Newgarden insists he’s just trying to win the race, as usual, and for now, is trying to ignore the significance of such a result.

“Look, we have an opportunity, obviously, to set history next weekend, which would be tremendous,” he said, in answer to media questions on Fast Friday. “I'm not focused on that. I think it's circumstantial in a lot of ways. I want to win the race, and I think all of us do sitting up here. We all want to win the race, and that's what we're focused on.

“If we win the race, everything you just spoke about kind of falls in line. But we've just got to focus on doing our job every year and enjoy that process. That's what I've kind of brought myself back to the last two seasons.”

Penske’s four-time Indy winner Rick Mears, who never managed 500 victories in consecutive years, was asked what advice he would give Newgarden, in his capacity of Penske driver consultant. He replied: “We talked a little bit about this the other day. All I can do is kind of go off what I felt I should do. I can't really speak for Josef. But to me, it's just treat it as another race.

“Myself, if I had two or whatever, it didn't matter. Each year you go into this race as a new race, and you're here to win it. That was all my focus was on this day. It had nothing to do with whether it was No. 2 or No. 3 or No. 4 or whatever.

“But I think to me, that helps keep it just as another race. This is Indianapolis; it's almost impossible to keep it as another race. But that's the frame of mind I tried to keep when we were running. That way, I'm not pressured into doing something that I shouldn't do. I just think that's the best way. That'll be up to him how he wants to approach it.”

Newgarden concurred with Mears in terms of assessing the pressure to score a three-peat.

“I mean, there's two ways you can look at it. One way it could be very low stress. The odds of us winning it three times in a row are astronomical. They're not in our favor. So what's the stress then? Just go out and enjoy the day.

“The other way to look at it is – to Rick’s point – this is still Indy. You feel the same stress every year when you show up here, regardless of the circumstance. There's a lot of effort that goes into every single season. This is a 12-month process, building these cars, strategizing for what we're going to be doing throughout this month, and you want to perform every year for the team. All of us do.

“All of us feel that pressure on race day. I don't know that that changes, to Rick's point, whether it's the first time or the fourth time or whatever time it is. You feel the pressure regardless. So when you're here for many years, you either end up enjoying that pressure or you let it sort of break you down. I enjoy the pressure of this race day. I think it's fun to go and perform when it's really going to matter in the race.

From the pressure standpoint, I don't think it changes year over year, and then if you just want to really simplify it, I don't know that the odds are very good for us to win it three times in a row, so what does it matter? Let's just have a good time running the race. For me, it's easygoing.”