[h=2]Newgarden appreciates 'biggest year of change'[/h] Sunday, 17 September 2017


By Mark Glendenning / Images by Levitt & Galstad/LAT


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Josef Newgarden admits that winning the 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series title required him to learn and adapt faster than he’d ever had to at any point in his career.
The 26-year-old arrived at Penske at the start of the season after several years with Sarah Fisher Hartman and Ed Carpenter Racing, and said that his championship success was due in part to realizing that he had to rise to the occasion.
“It's been my biggest year of change,” he said. “It's been my biggest opportunity. I've had so much to live up to, in that you have champions around you, you have guys pushing you every week that are making you get the most out of yourself, and you have to match them. So it's given me the biggest opportunity to grow and to prove myself in that environment, and that's been fun. It's been really fun and challenging for me.









“Having said that, I also had those opportunities in the past, as well. I feel like starting out as a one-car team and trying to figure things out myself was very beneficial to me. All those moments prepared me to get to this point with Team Penske and being able to sort it out with the best of the best.”
That learning curve carried through into Sunday’s season finale at Sonoma, where Newgarden had to be coached by Tim Cindric over the radio not to chase teammate Simon Pagenaud too hard and risk a safe championship position in pursuit of a race win after the Frenchman popped out ahead of him following the final round of stops. Although he credited Cindric’s advice with helping him to gain a bit of perspective at an opportune moment during the race, he conceded that giving up the win still stung.

“I was kind of steaming inside the car,” he said. “But then I thought, as much as it'll piss me off that we lost the race… it's a tough race; this is probably the most grueling race you'll run every year just because of the tire degradation and the way this track drives, it is the most difficult race that you will put together. Physically, mentally, it's draining. So when you feel like you've done everything to win the race and you don't win it, it's very annoying as a racer. So I hated that.
“But I also just thought about the big picture, and Tim was coaching me, so I had to be smart about it. It was a team effort, and that gave me a lot more gratification, I think, than just [disappointment at] losing the race.”