Josef Newgarden seized his first Verizon IndyCar Series championship by the scruff last August at Gateway Motorsports Park, using a daring bump-and-run pass of Team Penske comrade Simon Pagenaud to provide the momentum he needed to finish off an exemplary season.
The 27-year-old returns to the 1.25-mile oval this week for the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline. He may be beyond scruff-grabbing range of points leader Scott Dixon for now, but with three races left in the season and just 66 points to make up, Newgarden still has a title defense within reach.
Newgarden’s record on short ovals instills hope that’s a possibility. He won at 1.022-mile ISM Raceway in April and led 229 of 300 laps at Iowa in July but finished fourth when a caution with six laps prompted his team to pit off the lead in a race that was never resumed.
“I think we should be in relatively good shape,” Newgarden said about the Saturday’s race in a teleconference on Wednesday. “I think Phoenix is probably the best example to look to when you're looking at a place like Gateway. It's not so much an Iowa-type track, so I don't think we're going to draw too much from there, but Phoenix will be a place that we draw a lot from, from a setup standpoint.
“We were relatively happy with our car at Phoenix. There were things we could be better at, but we've noted them, tried to improve them over the last couple months, and we're hopefully going to Gateway with an even better-performing car.
“I'm confident. I think we should be fast.”
Four-time series champion Scott Dixon finished fourth at Phoenix and 12th at Iowa. Alexander Rossi, who is currently 29 points out in second, was third at Phoenix and ninth at Iowa. Newgarden’s statistical superiority on short ovals could figure to make Saturday night the “gateway” to a championship again. But not the deciding factor, Newgarden said. The double points available in the final race of the season at Sonoma Raceway on Sept. 16 are too lucrative.
“I think it's one that we'd like to win,” he conceded of Gateway. “If we finish second and Dixon finishes 10th, it's still a great day. It's not a race we have to win, but I think it would be nice to win all three races here to the end.
“I think Sonoma is more of a kind of must-win situation. That gives you the best chance to make up the most ground, and you probably look at that race more like that. But I don't think Gateway is a must-win. I think we need to be on the podium, we need to be up front. And as long as we're in those first couple spots, that will be really good for us.”
Ten drivers are mathematically viable for the championship with races in at Gateway, Portland and Sonoma remaining. The eligibility envelope will shrink to 159 points of the leader after Saturday.
Newgarden came to the track outside St. Louis last season in a torrid late-summer stretch that set up his first championship in his debut season with Team Penske. His pass of Pagenaud – which initially elicited the ire of the then-defending series champion – was dramatic, but his victory process was much more methodical. Newgarden led 170 of 248 at Gateway in 2017 to win for the third time in four races, to go along with a runner-up finish.
That passel of points pushed Newgarden 31 ahead of Dixon with two races left and buffered him from an 18th-place finish the next week at Watkins Glen. Pagenaud won the Sonoma finale, but Newgarden held him off by 13 points for the title by finishing second.
Newgarden is ready to go on another such run to close the season and bid to repeat as champion.
“I've always just liked being in the attack mode,” Newgarden said. “Last year, I think we were pretty aggressive even when we were down in the championship, and when we got in the lead we were aggressive. We kind of just stayed on it.
“My approach (this season) hasn't really been different. It's just we've had too many races where they just haven't materialized like last year, where we got in this final stretch of the season and they really came together, a couple of them.”
Opening practice at Gateway Motorsports Park in Madison, Illinois, begins at 1:15 p.m. ET Friday and will stream live on RaceControl.IndyCar.com, youtube.com/indycar and the INDYCAR Mobile app.
Verizon P1 Award qualifying airs live on NBCSN beginning at 5 p.m. Friday, ahead of the final evening practice at 9 p.m. (RaceControl.IndyCar.com, youtube.com/indycar and the INDYCAR Mobile app).
Live race coverage starts at 8 p.m. Saturday – an hour earlier than last year – on NBCSN and the Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network. Tickets remain available to attend the race at gatewaymsp.com.