Newgarden goes from leading to upside down at WWTR

Josef Newgarden was leading with conviction at the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 on Sunday night when the crashing and spinning car of Louis Foster swept across the front straight and into his path.

Doing his best to avoid Foster, Newgarden steered left towards the pit wall and kept steering but wasn’t able to avoid Foster who was sliding backwards into his path. Hitting the pit wall, Newgarden’s clear path was gone and he launched nose-first over the back of Foster, which sent the No. 2 Team Penske Chevy skyward and upside down where he scraped along the track before coming to a stop at the start/finish line.

The AMR Safety Team arrived and overturned Newgarden’s battered car and he climbed out and walked away. Foster took longer to get out of his car but both were eventually seen and released from IndyCar Medical.

Foster spoke after the scary incident and pointed to running too long on his tires as the culprit for sliding out of the groove and crashing.

“We were running the high line all race,” he said. “I think one, maybe two laps too long trying the high line. Just got too high onto the dark stuff (tire marbles), I had a wiggle and then I just go into the marbles and was a complete passenger. So at that point, I bent my (right-front) toe link; I just couldn't stop the car from spinning there. Obviously a pretty scary impact for myself and Josef. Glad that he's OK.”

Newgarden went from having a 5s lead and looking like he was on the way to earning his first win of the year and sixth at WWTR to out and 25th, one spot ahead of Foster in 26th.