Josef Newgarden snaps a two-year pole drought at St. Petersburg. (Photo: James Black | Penske Entertainment)
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Defending Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden kicks off the 2024 INDYCAR season in St. Petersburg, Florida by achieving the one thing that has evaded him for two years: leading the field to the green flag.
With a time of 59.5714 seconds, Newgarden bested Felix Rosenqvist to score the NTT P1 Pole Award for the 17th time of his career. Moreover, his first pole award since Belle Isle in 2022 where he finished fourth that year.
As one famous singer from Tennessee, who grew up in Hendersonville like Newgarden, once said in a song, “it’s been a long time coming”.
The polesitter’s focus now shifts to starting his 13th season in INDYCAR on a strong note by winning the season opener. Newgarden has done this before at St. Petersburg, as the Penske driver won in 2019, beginning his quest for what turned out to be his second championship campaign.
“I’m always proud of my team and even more so today. They deserve it. They’ve done a great job all off-season. They’ve done a great job in 2023, and I feel like we fell short in a lot of areas that we didn’t need to,” Newgarden explained.
“I don’t want to get too excited about this. We should enjoy it. It felt very good. I can’t tell you how good it felt, but it’s only day one. We have to get through tomorrow. Tomorrow is what pays the bills and gets us up the road in the championship.
“So let’s see how we continue the weekend, but just to start out, I couldn’t have asked for something better. The team is just on it. Team Chevy absolutely crushed it in this offseason, so I couldn’t feel more positive.”
Not only does Newgarden hope to be in the mix for the championship once again, but the goal is also to improve on the courses that go left and right. This was a weak point in last season’s efforts and while Newgarden won four times, none of them were on road or street courses which impacted his title hopes.
The two-time INDYCAR champion has not won on a track other than an oval since Road America in 2022. As far as street courses go, Newgarden has not won on such a configuration since Long Beach that same year. Such struggles played a role in Newgarden finishing fifth in the final standings last year, his worst season since 2018 where he also finished fifth.
By ending the pole drought, Newgarden hopes it transitions into a strong result upon which the No. 2 squad can build for the rest of the season. The momentum is very important, as road and street courses represent 10 out of the 17 points-paying rounds this season.
“It’s what we need. We haven’t gotten an oval yet, so I hope we still have that form, but I think that comes back to what I just said about the quality of the field,” said Newgarden.
“Just because we were strong on ovals last year doesn’t guarantee that we will be strong on ovals again this year. I’ve made that mistake many times where you think you can just go with the same recipe that worked the year before, and it doesn’t always transfer.
“I think we’ve made the necessary steps to be better on a street course. I think we can get there in a road course too,” Newgarden continued. “We just have to make sure we preserve that excellent oval package that we’ve had, but if we can get all of them, then that’s what we were lacking last year. We just did not have the consistency across the board.
“I think today is very encouraging. It definitely makes me feel more positive about what we can bring for the entire championship.”
The championship trail begins for Newgarden once the green flag drops for the 100-lap event. (Photo: Chris Owens | Penske Entertainment)
New look, fast machine. This describes outside polesitter Felix Rosenqvist’s race weekend in Florida so far. After playing second fiddle for top race teams, the popular Swede is putting the field on notice with his consistent pace.
Although he came up .0058 of a second shy of scoring the pole in his debut at Meyer Shank Racing, Rosenqvist was able to accomplish quite a bit during the second round of qualifying. Rosenqvist broke Will Power’s two-year-old track record by 0.076 seconds after clocking in at 59.2706 seconds.
“It’s been a really solid start so far with SiriusXM, Honda and Meyer Shank Racing. It’s been an incredible start, honestly, we are still kind of finding ourselves a little bit,” said Rosenqvist. “So we don’t want to get carried away, the race is a different challenge. We had a good feeling about the car right from the start of practice yesterday, so big thanks to everyone on the team for making me feel at home right from the start.
“So we’ll see what we can do tomorrow. It’s a massive boost to start up front, but we still need to execute in the race and I’m already thinking about Sunday: what we can do with tire wear, race pace, and all that stuff.”
Based on Rosenqvist’s cautious yet confident approach, it is safe to say that working with the No. 60 AutoNation/SiriusXM/Bon Jovi Radio Honda has come naturally to the new MSR racer.
“I feel like I’ve been driving very natural all weekend. I haven’t thought too much about the way I put the car and brake and go in power. It’s kind of been coming naturally, and that’s I think when you perform the best,” said Rosenqvist.
“Lucky to be in that situation. My team has done a great job to kind of figure out what I like with the car, and obviously Andretti, us being a tight-knit group, that’s helped hugely as well. Amazing so far. Still 100 laps to go.”
Outside pole sitter Felix Rosenqvist looks to score his elusive second career INDYCAR win at St. Petersburg. (Photo: Chris Owens | Penske Entertainment)
Entering his sixth INDYCAR season, Rosenqvist is still looking to get his second career win, as his victory at Road America Race No. 2 in 2020 remains his lone triumph. Since it is only a matter of time before the winless streak comes to an end, Rosenqvist is elated to be putting himself and the team, which notoriously struggled in qualifying last year, in prime position of being a contender for a race win entering Sunday’s race.
“I think it’s a big boost for the whole team,” said Rosenqvist. “I think when we came here this week and I could tell that people were hesitant to believe that we were as quick as we were in testing, but after P1 everyone is like a big relief. We’re in it. We’re good.
“Actually, honestly Mike (Shank) and I have been talking, and we’ve been talking mostly about race craft because I think that’s probably more a personal thing with me. I’ve been generally strong in qualifying, but I think race craft is something that I want to improve.
“We’ve been focusing more on that,” Rosenqvist continued. “We thought that if we put everything together, we should be good in qualifying. Especially here. It’s a package that we know pretty well. I’m normally pretty good here.
“Just full focus on the race. I think warmup is going to be huge for us. Just kind of get that first long run under our belt and see how the car is on full tank and all that good stuff. Still early days. I think we celebrate a little bit. This result is a super cool day for us. We will recharge for tomorrow.”
Laser focus is the name of the game for Felix Rosenqvist. (Photo: Joe Skibinski | Penske Entertainment)
While the front row is all smiles and determination to start 2024 on a high note, defending INDYCAR champion Alex Palou is missing from the madness. Not only did he not make the Firestone Fast Six, he did not make it out of Qualifying Round 1. He will roll off 13th on the grid.
Palou’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammates did not fare much better, as only Marcus Armstrong made it out of Round 1, but failed to make the Fast Six and will start 10th.
Defending race winner Marcus Ericsson, now driving for Andretti Global, will start sixth in Sunday’s season opener.
The new pilot of the No. 28 Honda is pleased with their qualifying efforts, but being one of only two drivers, Romain Grosjean being the other, who failed to set a Fast Six time of below a minute, left a lot to be desired. Even then, Ericsson is thrilled to start his debut weekend with Andretti on a good note.
“It’s a great performance by the whole 28 crew. They did a really good job,” said Ericsson. “Honda gave me a really good engine out there in the Andretti car, it was working really well already.
“I’m a little disappointed I didn’t get a better run in the Fast Six but still, to be in the Fast Six my first time out with a new team I think is a really good performance. I think we’ll be strong on race day and we can definitely mix it up from there tomorrow.”
Coverage of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg begins at Noon ET on NBC with the green flag expected to wave approximately 30 minutes after the broadcast goes on-air.
