Newgarden: Rossi was very strong, we were a little better

Team Penske-Chevrolet’s #2 PPG-backed driver made his first stop on the same lap as polesitter and first-stint leader Rossi, and emerged from pitlane ahead of the Andretti Autosport-Honda, the latter’s cause hindered by having to pause on leaving his pitbox to allow another Penske driver, Scott McLaughlin, to pit just ahead of him.

Thereafter he pulled away from the erstwhile leader, until the middle of the final stint, when Rossi trimmed his deficit to 2.8sec. The field was brought under caution twice in the final 10 laps, allowing the Andretti car onto the tail of the Penske car, but both times Newgarden was able to stretch away around the final corner so that he was unthreatened as he crossed the start-finish line. In fact, Rossi lost out to Ganassi’s Marcus Ericsson on the final restart and finished third.

Newgarden’s 23^rd IndyCar win was his third of the year, and having triumphed on each of the series three disciplines – oval, street course and road course – he snagged the PeopleReady bonus of $1m. Half goes to the team, the other half goes to Newgarden’s charities of choice – the SeriousFun Children’s Network, and Wags and Walks from Nasvhille, TN.

“Great, great day,” said the elated two-time champion who is now up to third in the 2022 standings. “Felt really good going into it. Felt like we had a car to win today. It was just about executing.

“My team really put me in position on that first stop. Rossi was not going to be easy to beat today. I felt like he was very strong. I felt like we were a little bit better than him, but he was by no means going to be simple to go by.

“That first stop is really what set the tone for us. Once we got in position, it was about getting through the backmarkers, the alternate strategy [drivers] quicker than him, building a gap, maintaining it. I felt like our PPG car was hooked up and we had it from Team Chevy on the power side – pretty much as always this year.

“To be able to win this million bucks, give half of it to charity, is very cool. Very, very cool. I'm sure our recipients are going to be thrilled with that.”

Newgarden was so happy with his car that he believes he would have been able to deal with Rossi at some point, even if he hadn’t gotten ahead at the first stop.

“It was going to be that point or another point,” he said. “Truthfully I was hoping for an all green start, no cautions, because I felt that's where we could find the exposure in Rossi's game. I was kind of biding my time but felt like I had the straight speed advantage with him. I felt like my Chevy was much quicker than him on the straights. I was going to wait for an opportunity.

“All the yellows really took away that potential [three inside the first eight laps]. We were running most of the laps under caution, so the reds weren't going to drop off as much. We needed to make the difference somewhere else. We came in right on his tail. I made sure, ‘Look, I'm going to give my team ample opportunity, get as close as I can to Rossi on the pits.’

“But if it wasn't going to happen on the pit stop, it was going to be an out lap or a back end of a stint. The pit stop is what ended up being the pivotal point for us. If that wasn't the point, I think we could have made that point somewhere else today.”

Newgarden said that he wasn’t surprised by his advantage on the late-race restarts, having been faster than Rossi all race on the straights.

“I kind of knew where the strength and weakness was. I felt like we had a good advantage on him in certain areas. We tried to exploit that as best as possible. It was two really good starts, great attack mode from Team Chevy. All of that contributes to being able to push the gap. I was hopeful we could do that, but I can't say I was surprised. I felt like we had that potential.”

Newgarden said that he was “more aggressive” than his rival in the second stint in carving through backmarkers and past Felix Rosenqvist and Graham Rahal who were on an alternate strategy, which “ripped a really nice gap for us.”

“After that it was more just trying to manage it. I kept watching my gap to him. I was trying to study where he was strong and where I was weak. I just kind of focused on tire management after that point. I could tell he was very good in the beginning through 75 percent of the stint. I think we had the edge in the last 25 percent.”

Newgarden has moved up to third in the championship, five behind teammate Will Power, and 32 away from points leader Marcus Ericsson of Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda.