INDIANAPOLIS – Josef Newgarden is full steam ahead in preparation for the 103rd Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge after last weekend’s INDYCAR Grand Prix didn’t produce the desired results.

An alternate pit stop strategy helped Newgarden spring to the lead for 20 laps in Saturday’s road course race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and for a portion of that race it appeared it would be his path to victory, but when rain forced the field to switch to the rain tires late in the race he was back on the same sequence as the rest of the field.

After starting 13th, the NTT IndyCar Series points leader finished 15th.

Despite his up and down day, the Team Penske driver remains first in the standings, but his lead over Scott Dixon is down to six points at 182 to 176. He is 36 points ahead of Alexander Rossi, whose Honda was hit from the back by Patricio O’Ward as the green flag waved. Rossi’s car had to have an inside rear corner repaired and he finished 22nd in the 24-car field.

Simon Pagenaud, who won the INDYCAR Grand Prix for the third time in his career, moved up to fourth in points and is 44 points out of the lead. He entered the INDYCAR GP 11th in points.

“I thought we pitted at the right point, I had a great car and I could get through traffic and everything was clicking,” Newgarden told NTT INDYCAR Mobile. “We were cruising until that final pit stop.

“What put a knife through us is when that final caution came out. We still had four or four laps of fuel. When we did pit for the caution, it wasn’t time. We still had another four or five laps on the Red Tires. If we had just gone to rain tires then, we would have come out first.

“Congrats to Simon. He still got Team Penske a win, so we are keeping it in the family. If I’m not winning the race, one of us needs to. Having a team victory is what it’s all about. It’s still a great day for Team Penske.”

Newgarden said his team can take a car that isn’t as fast and make it even better in the race through strategy.

“I thought we did a great job, the team was solid, and we had a great car,” Newgarden said. “If we didn’t have that last yellow, we could have dictated when we would have to pit a bit better. It’s not the way it fell today. We didn’t finish it off the way we needed to on that final stint and that dropped us back to 15th.

“We’ll live to fight another day. I have all the faith in the world in Team Penske and Chevy. We’ll be just fine.”

Now, all eyes are on practice for the 500, with this week’s sessions on INDYCAR Pass, which is part of the NBC Sports Gold package.

“I’m ready to just go,” Newgarden said. “Let’s get to practice. Let’s go, boys.”