DIGEST – Josef Newgarden is eager to put the Indianapolis 500 behind and focus on reclaiming its spot atop the IndyCar while celebrating Chevrolet in its backyard.
Newgarden won pole for the Detroit Grand Prix, a race that will be held Sunday on Bell Isle for the last time. The race will return to downtown Detroit, where it started in 1982 as a Formula One event, next season.
Now, Newgarden can give Chevrolet its 100th victory since the maker returned to IndyCar in 2012, four years before the American driver teamed up with the brand. Newgarden won a championship pairing with Chevy, and he’s the only two-time IndyCar winner this season.
He was the lead in points after his April win at Long Beach, but a poor performance at Indy sent Newgarden down to fifth on the leaderboard when it arrived in Detroit. This is where the game turns – the grand prize is sponsored by Chevy and runs in the shadows of headquarters.
And, Newgarden was surprised by the turn of the IndyCar season. Over just six races – with 11 still to come – the breakneck pace of the new frontrunners has made each event a celebration of someone new.
“IndyCar is an exciting championship at the moment because it seems like every weekend there’s a new superstar. At this point, I find it funny,” Newgarden said. “The reason I think that happens is because it’s too competitive. You don’t have a team that clearly dominates all the sessions.
“You get new winners, all of a sudden, ‘They’re going to be championship winners, they’re the coolest new thing to IndyCar.’ It’s just unpredictable. It’s all over the place. I think it’s pretty expansive.”
Marcus Ericsson rose from eighth to first in the standings following the Swede’s victory in the Indianapolis 500, a race worth double points. Pato O’Ward of Mexico trailed Ericsson by 13 points, second behind Ericsson in Indy, and tied the Detroit weekend with Ericsson a year before winning the first IndyCar win of his career in a doubles event.
Ericsson will start on the eighth Sunday, the only IndyCar race of the weekend. O’Ward is fifth.
Newgarden, meanwhile, became the seventh different pole winner through seven IndyCar knockouts this season. He won pole for Team Penske on the interim track for the third time in his career when time ran out on Saturday’s knockout.
Newgarden also started from pole in Belle Isle a year ago and led 67 out of 70 laps in a dominating run that seemed headed for Newgarden’s first win of the season.
A late caution instead caused a final restart and Pato O’Ward drove across the field in the final seven laps to claim his first win of the season; Newgarden finished second.
“I’ve been here before, we did this last year and it didn’t work,” Newgarden said. “We have to really focus on the race and how we get to the end and finish it.”
Takuma Sato qualified second for Dale Coyne Racing and followed by teammates of Meyer Shank Racing Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud.
O’Ward qualifies fifth for Arrow McLaren SP and 20-year-old rookie David Malukas sixth place for Coyne.
Honda, the maker of the Indy 500 winning engine, had four cars in Saturday’s Fast Six qualifying. Chevrolet had only two representatives, but won the championship with Newgarden.
The four qualifying rounds all featured a share of the action.
Kyle Kirkwood, the fastest in practice on Friday and the pole winner of the GT class in the IMSA motorsport on Saturday, crashed during practice Saturday morning and injured his right hand. He failed to go beyond the first group and said after his recorded hand “wasn’t great.”
Kirkwood went on to win the motorsport race on Saturday, but the rookie’s hands were heavily iced after his time in the IMSA race.
In the second IndyCar qualifying group, Felix Rosenqvist was fined for obstructing Jimmie Johnsonof the qualifying round. In round 12, IndyCar investigated an incident between the defending champion Alex Palou and Spirit. No action was taken, and Power was initially angry at Palou but ultimately refused to admit that he and Palou would not advance into Fast Six.
Andretti Autosport had a chance to get the Indy 500’s great rebound, and the team is ready to get three of its four drivers into the Fast Six. Romain Grosjean crashed, and it ruined every shot of his teammate Andretti Colton Herta and Alexander Rossi promotion.
Grosjean crash also removed Scott Dixon by Ganassi and Scott McLaughlin of Penske from progressive.
Grosjean will start 12th; Johnson moved up to 22nd and the penalty on Rosenqvist sent the Swede down to 26th, last on the pitch.
