Josef Newgarden Rallies from Near Last to 7th-Place Finish at St. Petersburg

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — It wasn’t the result that Josef Newgarden had wanted when he entered the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg weekend, but after starting near last place on Sunday, March 1, he was happy to walk away with a top-10 finish.

But still…

“Our team did a great job today,” Newgarden told reporters post-race. “I mean, it’s a shame we just couldn’t start up front. I knew we had a good race car and would have loved to have been in the mix from the beginning.

“I think we could have made something happen.”

On Saturday, the Team Penske driver knew he was in trouble at the end of NTT IndyCar Series qualifying when his No. 2 Penske car was only fast enough to qualify 23rd out of a 25-car field. To make matters worse, Newgarden qualified in the rear on a street course, and if you ask any driver in the open-wheel world, they are more likely than not to tell you any street course – like St. Petersburg – is tough to pass on.

So, how does one climb their way through a field on near-spec vehicles on a course where passing is difficult and gain 16 positions like Newgarden did? Maybe one can capitalize with some lucky caution flags at the right time, or perhaps a chaotic high-attrition rate race can take care of some of the competition.

But for Newgarden, none of that was necessary. He just had fast pit stops.

Really fast pit stops.

“Pit stops were incredible,” Newgarden said. “I mean just about the best I’ve seen them in years, and the strategy was pretty standard, but it was a good day for our strategy. Just what we needed to do. Nothing went against us, and we just tried to use our speed when we could to climb.”

There was no slick tire strategy needed by the Team Penske engineers. In fact, according to Newgarden, his rapid climb through the IndyCar field was actually pretty uneventful.

“It was just a boring day for us,” Newgarden said. “Everyone did a great job, and they did it in a simplistically boring way, which is what you need on a day like today. Just execute.”

After starting on the primary tires for the first 35 laps, the No. 2 used two sets of alternate tires to take him through the rest of the 100-lap event in Southern Florida. While the tire falloff was still very prevalent, Newgarden and teammate David Malukas agreed the reds had more grip for drivers over last year.

“The red [tires] definitely had a drop-off point that you had to manage,” Newgarden said. “I think for some people, it was worse than others. If you managed it, it seemed to be OK. I thought our car was pretty nice and friendly on them. We were able to utilize them as best as possible today and others struggled.”

Malukas, who cut a tire early in the race and returned to finish 13th, agreed.

“[The tires] definitely had more grip, but pretty strong fall off again,” Malukas told Frontstretch. “Not as bad as last year’s. Last year’s was very much a primary tire race.

“I mean, maybe I would want a little bit more for them to last a little bit longer, but the grip jump up is massive, and it and it makes it for a really good play on strategy.”

Good for strategy, indeed. Newgarden, by the final few laps, was running within car lengths behind both Marcus Ericsson and Pato O’Ward and within striking distance of the top five. Alas, he didn’t get there in time. He had to settle for seventh.

Still, after having to start as far back as he did, he still has something to be happy about.

Even if he thinks it could’ve been better.

“I think you got to be somewhat happy with a day like that,” Newgarden admitted. “It’s just a shame how tough the weekend was.

“I wish we could have made more of it by starting up front.”