A rough year doesn’t need more headaches.
Josef Newgarden might want to consider that after distancing himself from media engagement as he continues to battle the worst season of his career since he was a rookie. In his ninth outing with Team Penske, Newgarden is 19th in points and a highly paid, full-time driver of the struggle bus. This past weekend, the woes didn’t let up.
After the first round of qualifying concluded Saturday (July 5) for the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Newgarden was unable to advance. In a normal season for Penske, this result would send sirens wailing to alert every hand that better was expected. Repeating this folly or error would not happen again.
That’s not how 2025 has worked out for the three-car team, and the worst has befallen Newgarden. In nine races, he’s DNFed three times, placed last at Long Beach, and qualified no better than fifth at Worldwide Technology Raceway. Indianapolis was a nightmare; his road and street course pace appears to be drowning in bad luck and errors, and he’s led only 27 laps, 25 of them at WWTR.
All of these negative results and performance are clearly beaming down on the two-time IndyCar champion and Indianapolis 500 winner. For the third straight race weekend, a poor and frustrating showing led him to decline a television interview. Three weeks ago, his first rejection was very understandable, after a violent wreck at Gateway. However, at Road America, he was not heard from during the race broadcast after an error caused him to spin off turn 14 before the pit entrance, ruining his day.
Then there was Saturday, where a clearly dejected Newgarden, frustrated with one of the worst seasons of his career, hopped on his two-wheeled scooter jet, blasting off back to the paddock, with Fox Sports’ Kevin Lee standing right next to him.
To his credit, after the IndyCar version of his Treehouse of Horrors episode continued on Sunday (July 6) — where he crashed seconds after the green flag — Newgarden spoke to Fox Sports. I applaud him mightily for doing that, knowing that another day was over.
However, by and large, the answer members of the media have gotten when trying to reach Newgarden is a simple “no.”
I’ll be frank about his situation and my lack of comfort in being critical; I have no idea what it takes to be a bloodthirsty competitor. Newgarden, and every driver in the paddock, has had to sacrifice some level of possessing simple satisfaction and contentment in life to make it to the elite open-wheel tier of IndyCar. Add in how close the competition is, the stress of any bad day, especially for someone used to winning like him since joining Team Penske, has to be immense.
When I have a bad day at my job, I can take a walk, grab a drink or put on an old war movie to relax, and that works. I’m settled, moving on, and feel good with life. Except for 15 months overseas, my bad days aren’t comparable to crashing a high-speed race car at over 180 miles per hour, wrecking a multi-million dollar machine, or disappointing dozens of sponsors that expect front-running for their investment.
Know what else? I don’t have a neutral party putting a microphone in front of me, asking me about it. Usually, my wife can’t get six words out of me after a rough day because the only thing I want is to be left alone.
Newgarden probably feels something similar.
While he struggles with the pressure, he’s in an enviable spot. The man has two Indy 500 rings and countless trophies, driving for one of the best motorsports teams on the planet. His adept skill on ovals is unmatched. So a lot is going for him.
He is one of four to five drivers that IndyCar markets heavily. Handling the residual consequences of being a frequent winner, champion and recent Indy 500 star puts him in the crosshairs of attention. The common response to this actions would be to “suck it up man” because “this is what you get paid to do.” Or something of that sort.
I won’t go that far, because I have no idea what it’s like to be in his head after going through a season he has. However, one can look at some of his competitors and see a slightly different approach.
Pato O’Ward’s interview after one of the most heartbreaking finishes at last year’s Indy 500 is a great example. The young Mexican star, like Newgarden, a face of the series, poured all his emotions out in one of the best television moments in IndyCar’s history. Brutal, honest, and authentic.
O’Ward has less to celebrate in his career, with seven wins to Newgarden’s 31, and multiple close calls at Indy without nabbing the Borg-Warner Trophy. Through all of that, O’Ward maintains an elite personality and engagement, even when the chips are down.
That might be why fans love him. He is the most popular driver in the series for a reason.
Mid-Ohio’s winner, Scott Dixon, is also pretty media savvy, so much so that he removes his sunglasses every time a camera is in his face. While his personality is low-key, he’s solid when it comes to interviews, and he’s had his run of bad luck as well.
Members of the press have conflicting opinions about Newgarden’s actions, with some suggesting he’s earned the right to decline a chat while others think he shouldn’t talk only when things go right. Instead, I say, the focus should be on who misses out on all this: his fans.
For Newgarden, his fans are the ones who are put off by his recent actions spurred by his frustration. Interviews are one of the finite opportunities granted to a driver to directly update those following on what’s going on. Having an issue with the car? Trouble with a certain turn? Feeling confident about qualifying?
Every driver’s fans want to know how their favorite is feeling, and if things aren’t going well, they want to know why.
The best place to do that is the TV interview. Each time he declines, he neglects his fans and an opportunity to fill them with either hope or inspiration that things will get better. It’s not just about talking to the media, it’s using them to update those who matter the most.
Newgarden doesn’t need to be bombarded with criticism over the recent cold shoulder; he clearly wears his heart on his sleeve. But he shouldn’t put off the chance to engage with his fans via the interviews. That should be a prime objective, because they want to know.
And, to be fair, plenty of fans do know that there is more to Newgarden than his media-facing poker face.
When adversity hits, it’s vital to try and display some level of resiliency. Humans are more true to themselves when negative moments hit than when riding a wave of positivity. Handling these times well goes a long way to instilling confidence and providing motivation. That’s what leaders do, and as a driver, that’s a role that is automatically thrust on them when they take the job.
Last year, the American built, fairly or not, a reputation for isolating himself from the paddock. His well-received Bus Bros show with teammate Scott McLaughlin ended while his focus on track seemed to produce variable results. Now, he’s stumbling through a year without his long-time leader, Tim Cindric, on the pit box. If things finish as they are now, he’ll statistically have his worst season since 2012.
If he’s frustrated by how hard things are going for him on the track, the last thing he needs to do is make everything out of the car that much worse. Time for him to ease some of the headaches, reconnect with the media, and move forward, for his fans’ sake.
Tom is an IndyCar writer at Frontstretch, joining in March 2023. Besides writing the IndyCar Previews and frequent editions of Inside IndyCar, he will hop on as a fill-in guest on the Open Wheel podcast The Pit Straight. A native Hoosier, he calls Fort Wayne home. Follow Tom on Twitter @TomBlackburn42.