Josef Newgarden reflects on enduring 'one thing after another' in Sonsio GP

Josef Newgarden was left frustrated after a tough start to the Sonsio Grand Prix, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. The Team Penske driver had to give up his sixth-place starting position due to a radio issue, which forced an unscheduled pit stop before the race even began.

As a result, he was sent to the back of the grid and had to fight his way forward from the rear. Despite the setback, Newgarden made steady progress throughout the 85-lap race. By Lap 10, he had climbed to 18th place and continued to improve from there. On Lap 75, he reached 12th position and held on to it until the end of the race.

After the checkered flag, Newgarden took to Instagram to share his thoughts on the day.

"What do you mean we have to go to the back of the grid??😳" he wrote. "P6 starting advantage given up before the green flag. Finishing P12 is just a showing of how fast the #2 car was. Seems like it’s one thing after another, but we will get through this as a team. Next stop, Indy 500."

Newgarden had shown a strong pace earlier on Saturday before the race. He topped the morning warm-up session with a time of 1:10.5606 seconds, edging out Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard, by less than a tenth of a second. That performance suggested that he had the speed for a potential podium finish if the race gone as per the plan.

The result leaves Josef Newgarden 12th in the championship standings with 96 points. He is currently 152 points behind series leader Alex Palou. Newgarden and Team Penske will now shift their focus to the biggest race of the year—the Indianapolis 500.

---

What did Josef Newgarden say on his 10th-place finish in Alabama?

Josef Newgarden said there was “nothing to brag about” after finishing 10th at the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix on Sunday, May 4. The Team Penske driver had a clean run at Barber Motorsports Park, but admitted the result wasn’t what he had hoped for. The Team Penske driver shared his thoughts after the race in a conversation with Speedway Digest.

“Just a decent day. At least got a decent result. P10, nothing to brag about,” Josef Newgarden said. “At least we got some points and a clean day, which is probably the most important at the moment. Lacked a little bit of speed in the race.”

Newgarden said the team executed the race well but didn’t have enough to move further up the order.

“We just wanted to get as much as we could. Just disappointed we couldn’t drive forward a little bit more,” he added.

He also mentioned the team’s strong effort on Saturday as they worked to overcome a hybrid system issue during practice:

“Sometimes it's all you have on a weekend. Everyone did a great job. We rallied pretty aggressively on Saturday just to try to compensate for the hybrid issue. The team did a good job sticking with it and getting what we could out of it.”

Josef Newgarden hopes the No. 2 team can soon return to the podium or fight for a win. Newgarden has a strong history at Barber, having won at the road course in 2015, 2017, and 2018. This year, he qualified eighth but could only finish tenth.