Photo Credit: Chris Jones/IndyCar
Josef Newgarden, driver of the No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Honda, went into the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park as the defending race champion. Many consider this the Nashville native hometown track and he loves this track as its one of his favorites.
“We, you know what was cool this weekend was I saw a lot more people from Nashville here that told me they were from Nashville or surrounding areas of Nashville, and they said, hey, we want to root for you because you’re the closet guy that lives to us or from our town, and they were excited to see an IndyCar race,” he said. “I saw some first-timers here. “I think what we need to try and show people is that they come here to this type of race, you’re going to get treated to a lot of hospitality. Barber Motorsport Park does and amazing job of trying to create a great venue. This is one of the best tracks that we have for IndyCar racing. Outside of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, it’s one of the most pristine you’re going to find. It’s very inviting. It’s great place to view IndyCar racing in general.”
He was able to qualify the car in third starting position for the race and for most of the race, he was running in the top-10 and never really fell out it. On the final laps he was able to take over third position to score his first podium of the season.
“Yeah, it was a long day,” he said. “I mean, I though we had a good race car. It obviously wasn’t enough for (Simon) Pagenaud or Graham (Rahal), but we were close. I think that’s why we were able to get third was that we were close to those guys. I think we were just about as good as (Will) Power if not a little better on blacks.
“Really our second stint killed us on the new red tires. I just wore them out really badly, and I couldn’t hold onto the think. Graham got past me, we lost a lot of time, and we were trying to play catch up after that. “I think that’s what really hurt today, but it still wasn’t enough for the top two. I think we were a third-place car, and that’s good. Nothing to be mad about, but we’ve got to be a little better for the next around and try to get first.”
Newgarden added that he feels his guys are capable of doing well, as they were able to get the job done last year with a victory at Barber. It’s why he heads into Indianapolis Motor Speedway next month with confidence.
The famous Indiana track will host a pair of events for the series, beginning with the Angie List Grand Prix of Indianapolis, held on the road course at IMS on May 14th. Following that will be preparing for and the running of the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 29th.
