INDYCAR - St. Petersburg, FL
Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg
Start: 23rd, Finish: 7th, Points: 7th (-26)
RACE RUNDOWN: After a difficult practice and qualifying session on Saturday, Josef Newgarden finished seventh in Sunday’s season opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. By avoiding an opening lap crash after starting from the 23rd position, Newgarden immediately picked up spots and positioned himself for a more strategic race. Working with new race strategist Jonathan Diuguid, the two-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion raced his way through the field and entered the top 10 as the race moved into its second half, leveraging both strong tire performance—particularly once the red alternates emerged as the favored compound—and efficient pit sequencing. As strategies balanced out across the field, Newgarden battled his way up to the seventh position at the race’s end. By virtue of 16 spots gained, Newgarden was awarded the “Josten’s Biggest Mover of the Race” Award. The two-time Indianapolis 500 winner will set his focus on the one-mile oval at Phoenix Raceway, where he is the most recent race winner from 2018.
NEWGARDEN'S THOUGHTS: Just what you need on a day like today-just execute. Pit stops were incredible. The best I’ve seen in years. 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 tried to use our speed in the Astemo Chevy when we could to climb. You just have to be happy with a day like this. It’s a shame how tough the weekend was. I wish we could have had made more of it by starting up front.
