A Fun Victory in St. Petersburg for Josef Newgarden

Josef Newgarden was in a league of his own to kick off the 2024 INDYCAR season (Photo: Joe Skibinski | Penske Entertainment).

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — After not winning a pole or scoring a victory outside of ovals in two years, Josef Newgarden put the INDYCAR field on notice with a dominant victory in Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

As the race winner said over the radio after leading 92 of 100 laps, he’s “feeling good.”

The dominant triumph marked his 30th career win, surpassing Rick Mears for 11th all-time in race wins. Sunday’s victory marked his third St. Pete win and his first since 2019 — a year Newgarden knows all too well as 2019 was the season he hoisted the Astor Cup for the second time.

The Astor Cup is the 33-year-old’s goal once again in 2024 and a victory is an easy step toward that vision. Above anything else, Newgarden got the monkey off his back after going winless on road and street courses. Before Sunday, Newgarden hadn’t won on a non-oval since Road America and hadn’t won on a street course since Long Beach, both occurring in 2022.

As the two-time champion said in victory lane, he felt relaxed and had fun behind the wheel of his No. 2 PPG Chevrolet. He even thought about Roger Penske when it pertained to staying cool, calm and collected in the closing laps.

“It felt comfortable today. Really, really comfortable. I had a lot of fun,” said Newgarden. “I sort of told myself before going into the race, I sort of want to let it be, not overstep, and then early on in the race, I’m like, I’m going. I’m not here to wait around. We’re going to win this race.

“Just really thankful to the team for the effort they’ve put in all year. I should say the entire off-season to get to this point. It’s been a big process for us to try and come back and be better in areas that we were weak last year, and I touched on it earlier in the weekend.

“Chevrolet has done a tremendous job for us. They’re a huge part of the equation. They’re a big lift for us coming into this weekend, and I think on the team side, we’ve also lifted our game and cleaned up a lot of areas where we were maybe not at the level we needed to be.

“It all just came together today. Great start of the year. Obviously, we had strength because looking at my teammates, we’re sitting first, third and fourth. I think that’s really encouraging for the rest of the season. It doesn’t tell the whole picture, but I think it’s encouraging.”

Josef Newgaden standing tall in St. Pete (Photo: James Black | Penske Entertainment).

Crossing the line 1.6534 seconds behind Newgarden was Pato O’Ward, who once again is a bridesmaid in St. Petersburg as runner-up. It’s his third runner-up result in five starts at the circuit and he had to earn that position by fending off Penske’s Scott McLaughlin and Will Power in the closing laps.

“We’ve laid ourselves a pretty strong foundation to the rest of the year, so I’m super stoked with that,” said O’Ward. “(Chevrolet) went to work this off-season. It’s been fantastic to see the gains we’ve made, so we’re going to keep on pushing.

“Team Penske were just really strong today. They were obviously the guys to beat, I’m happy that we maintained ourselves there. I wouldn’t say it was the easiest of laps towards the end keeping McLaughlin and Power behind me. It’s such a tough track to pass where I just knew if I didn’t make mistakes, I was going to be alright.”

Rounding out the podium was McLaughlin, who showed his muscle late in the race. Moreover, amazing progress was made from Penske and Chevrolet as a whole, which he praised both after the race.

“We were really super strong and proud of the team,” said McLaughlin. “Me and Will (Power) we’re pretty bummed after qualifying yesterday. We really had cars to put it in the (Firestone) Fast Six. I’m glad to bring it up to the front and we’re getting close to a 1-2-3 podium for the Penske team, so we’re striving for that.

“We asked a lot from day one last year and Chevrolet came back with something really strong,” McLaughlin continued. “Really proud of them and getting them a strong result. It’s great working with a manufacturer that listens to you and wants to keep working and wants to keep developing, and that’s exactly what we need.”

Scott McLaughlin scored his second podium at St. Petersburg (Photo: Joe Skibinski | Penske Entertainment).

Right out of the gate, if you’re name was Christian, it was a rough outing. Christian Rasmussen began his INDYCAR career with clutch woes during the pace laps and had to roll off last among 27 cars instead of 21st. Rasmussen ended his debut in 21st, the first car a lap down.

On the opening lap, the drama escalated as always in St. Pete. Compared to previous years, it wasn’t for a crash, but Christian Lundgaard fell behind the 8-ball after having a flat right rear tire due to contact with Alex Palou, requiring him to make a pit stop.

Meanwhile, up front, Newgarden and Rosenqvist were on a different zip code in the opening sequence. Before the opening set of pit stops, Rosenqvist became quicker than Newgarden as he was one of only seven drivers who started the race on the green alternate Firestone tires.

Any sign of making green flag stops ended after Marcus Armstrong crashed on Lap 26, bringing out the first full course caution. Last year’s INDYCAR Rookie of the Year hit the Turn 10 barriers, which broke the suspension of the right side tires and his race was over.

“I just hit the brakes and locked the rear immediately. I felt like I braked at the same spot, but I’m so disappointed by the mistake,” said Armstrong. “I feel terrible because we were fast and to be fair, we weren’t pushing. We were fuel-saving and waiting for our time to push. A costly mistake and it stings.”

Everyone but Lundgaard dove to pit lane for fresh tires and car adjustments where Rosenqvist bested Herta in a harrowing side-by-side battle off pit road as fueling woes bit Newgarden, losing two spots in the process.

The race resumed on Lap 31 with Lundgaard leading the way before having to make a pit stop … laps later. On the other hand, Herta regressed on the restart as he went from third down to sixth in a single lap.

Now on the alternates, Newgarden went on the attack on Rosenqvist, but initially to no avail as he locked up the brakes coming into Turn 4. Not to be denied, Newgarden successfully passed Rosenqvist for the provisional lead entering Turn 1.

Newgarden led three times for a race-high 92 of 100 laps in St. Petersburg (Photo: Chris Owens | Penske Entertainment).

Problems ensued for Sting Ray Robb in the first corner as his No. 41 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet went off, ending his race. Robb’s Lap 34 exit marked the second full course caution where Lundgaard pitted and inherited the lead to Newgarden.

On pit road, former NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series winner and multi-time IMSA champion Colin Braun’s car went ablaze after exiting pit road due to excessive fuel but soldiered on with his debut race.

Later, Braun overshot Turn 10 and continued, but lost a lap along the way and finished 22nd.

Before the caution, O’Ward was on the move as he was quickly carving his way towards the front. Seeking vengeance from a year ago, O’Ward was on the prowl when the green flag came back out on Lap 39, but was no match to Newgarden as he fell over a second behind the race leader.

Defending race winner Marcus Ericsson’s solid debut with Andretti Global came to a bitter end on Lap 53 after making an unscheduled pit stop. The engine cover of his No. 28 Honda was open as the crew began making repairs, but power issues ultimately ended his afternoon.

“It’s some power issue, but unsure if it’s engine or electronic,” said Ericsson. “But from nowhere, it lost power and went from half to blurring and wouldn’t accelerate. We tried other switches in the car, but there was no fix. We checked in pit lane, but we couldn’t find an obvious reason.”

As the laps winded down, drivers began making their final scheduled stops with Newgarden pitting coming to 35 laps remaining. In his final stop, the Penske crew switched to the primaries as Newgarden reported no complaints in the previous run. When the dust settled, the undercut paid off as Herta was able to exit ahead of Rosenqvist by 3.722 seconds in pit differential, but was unable to beat Newgarden nor O’Ward.

Rosenqvist lost fourth to McLaughlin with 33 laps left in the race. Poised for a championship run, McLaughlin was on the move as he too looked to bounce back after his chance of winning were dashed in a crash with Romain Grosjean a year ago.

Felix Rosenqvist faded away in the final quarter of the race, finishing seventh (Photo: Joe Skibinski | Penske Entertainment).

A lap later, the 10th corner became the treacherous corner once more as Linus Lundqvist got clipped by Grosjean, sending his No. 8 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda into the tire barriers.

The former Indy NXT champion lost three laps from the crash after quietly having a top-15 afternoon. INDYCAR Race Control took action and Grosjean had to serve a drive-thru penalty for avoidable contact, putting a damper on his debut at Juncos Hollinger Racing.

“It’s my fault,” Grosjean on the contact with Lundqvist. “I was too shy and didn’t want to go too aggressive and I was on cold tires, so it’s on me.”

The French-Swiss’ day didn’t last much longer after an unscheduled stop saw him exiting his No. 77 Chevrolet, ending his race on Lap 87.

“We lost a drive. When I went to sixth gear and it just went to neutral,” Grosjean on his exit.

Chaos ensued on the restart with 28 to go as drivers were scurrying around the 1.8-mile street course as drivers began pushing their cars to the edge. It included Herta facing pressure from Rosenqvist and Palou, who had finally begun mixing it up with the front runners.

The reigning INDYCAR champion struggled for much of the weekend as he was out of the top 10 for much of the afternoon, but ran in seventh with a quarter of the race left. Shortly after, the two-time champion passed Rosenqvist for sixth where he finished.

Team Penske’s stability rose to the occasion as the trio of Newgarden, McLaughlin and Will Power occupied three out of the top-five positions with Andretti Global’s Herta and Arrow McLaren’s O’Ward being the outliers.

The top five stayed put from there as nobody could stop Newgarden in, but O’Ward faced the pressure from McLaughlin and Power for the runner-up spot with four laps remaining. O’Ward was able to fend off both Penske drivers to earn second for the third time in St. Pete.

Following his victory at St. Pete, Newgarden sits a win away from tying Paul Tracy, Dario Franchitti and Helio Castroneves’ at 10th on the all-time wins list with 31.

Josef Newgarden basking the glory in victory circle at St. Petersburg (Photo: Joe Skibinski | Penske Entertainment).

With one round in the books, Newgarden made it clear that his goals are fueled by perfection.

“I think my mentality was in a lot of ways win or nothing all the way throughout my career. Even today it was creeping in. I’m like, we’re winning this race today or we’re not winning it. I was going to go for it or nothing. It is my mentality,” Newgarden explained. “But from a bigger picture standpoint, I just don’t think that’s sustainable. I’m not going away from my passion and my desire, but I’m trying to recenter my enjoyment in what I do.

“I enjoy working with a race team so much. It’s more than just driving the car really well on any given day,” Newgarden continued. “I mean, it is an entire process, stepping into a group with many different people coming together and trying to figure out a problem. That problem is different every single weekend, and it’s just so much fun to go through that with a team.

“We did that this weekend. It was a little different than what it was last year, and we found new solutions and we executed in the moment and made it happen on race day. I’m getting back to the basics of loving that.

The series will return to action in two weeks as INDYCAR hosts the Thermal Million Dollar Challenge, a non-points race in Southern California as the winner will earn a million dollars. Coverage begins Sunday, March 24 12:30 p.m. ET on NBC as Newgarden hopes to add another win on his resume.

2024 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Results