Josef Newgarden proud of team’s solid finish at Iowa Speedway

Late in the race, knowing they needed to find a way to get track position, Josef Newgarden was one of the drivers that came down pit road before the final restart to get a set of new tires. The call would be huge for his team as Newgarden was able to make his way from 11th on the restart to a second place finish.

“It was nice to get a result finally, to be honest with you,” Newgarden commented. “You know, a little unorthodox way of getting it.  Sometimes you have to make good calls to make that happen.  Right inside the top 10 all day, fought our way up there from 21st.  We had to fight back from a qualifying issue.  We had a really good car for the most part.  I don’t think we had a winning car tonight, but we were right in the back half of the top five, definitely right inside the top 10, running with the Andretti guys a lot.

“Just really happy about the call we made.  That was great.  It was like a video game at the end pretty much.  A little unfair almost, but it was fun.”

For the Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing driver, the finish means a lot based on the year that Newgarden has had so far. In the first 10 races this season, Newgarden only posted a pair of top-10s as bad luck, wrecks and mechanical issues bit him at every turn. However in the last two events, he has done well in posting a eighth at Pocono Raceway, followed by the second at Iowa.

The decision to take the tires wasn’t a complicated one either, as Newgarden says it was a decision that the team made relatively quick.

“That’s what I wanted to do.  Looking where we were, we were sitting about eighth right before that last restart.  It was like, you know, we just do tires.  There’s no reason not to with being in eighth position,” Newgarden said. “Before I could even say anything, they said, We’re going to pit for tires.  I said, Perfect, that’s a good call.  They pretty much made it.  As soon as they did it, I knew it was the right thing to do.  I just didn’t know how effective it was going to be.”

Now heading to Toronto with some luck on his side, Newgarden is hoping to keep the string of recent success going. However, if history tells the story, it may be tougher than thought as Newgarden has yet to post a top-10 in Toronto, with his best finishing being 11th last year.

Though with that said, don’t count the Tennessee native out as he showed a ton of speed earlier this year on the streets of Long Beach before a wreck took him out of the race running.