UPDATED: Newgarden forced to backup car after practice mishap

It was a minor issue and a minor impact for IndyCar Series championship leader Josef Newgarden on Saturday morning at the Java House Grand Prix of Arlington, but the crash came at an inopportune time and upon further inspection, his Team Penske crew is preparing Newgarden’s Phoenix race winner to continue the rest of the event.

Bounding over one of the bumps at the start of a late lap in the No. 2 Chevy, Newgarden’s car slewed sideways and regained traction, which pointed the winner of last weekend’s Phoenix race at the wall and broke the front wings and left-front suspension at the end of the 40-minute full-field session.

Newgarden was unhurt and his car appeared to be easily repairable, but the team found the Dallara DW12 tub had been pierced by the wing as it folded back during the contact and compromised the tub in front of the lower front suspension mounting point.

Team Penske president tells RACER the team expects to have Newgarden’s new No. 2 ready – wearing a mix of XPEL colors from Phoenix and PPG colors from Arlington –for the run for the pole and will receive a full PPG wrap overnight.

With the damage taking place before the final 12-minute split session ahead of qualifying, Newgarden was unable to take part in the qualifying simulation runs. The Tennessean certainly could come out on top later today in the knockout runs to start first for Sunday’s 70-lap race, but the degree of difficulty has increased by missing invaluable track time and the need to get up to speed in a different car.

“I should have just nosed it straight in, then only broke the nose cone, probably could have put me back out, but broke the left front,” Newgarden said. “It was very slow. I just had a rear lockup and ran out of room. The speed's been great, so hopefully it's all good. We didn't lose too much track time, but I would have rather had another run.”