Photo Credit: Joe Skibinski/IndyCar
Josef Newgarden, driver of the No. 21 Preferred Freezer Chevrolet, will start in the front row in second place for the 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 29.
A lot of the guys have said since the new aerokits, the addition to the domed skids and flaps the cars have been harder to drive them.
“It’s been tough, you know,” Newgarden stated. “I was telling everybody yesterday in this room, I was watching Scott Dixon’s run, and I was, like, you have no idea how stupid loose he is and how crazy it is driving that car. Some guys looked better and they were working just as hard. I wish it looked more spectacular. You saw some good stuff. Townsend’s save this morning in Turn One was amazing, if anyone say that. I mean they have been difficult to drive. We’ve been running with more downforce than we have in years past. I think that’s a lot to do with the floor. But we adjust.
“Everyone has adjusted to that. They figured out how to make it work. It’s been tricky to drive with the wind conditions and when the track heats up, I think it’s been tougher to drive the cars than normal. The way they slide is a little bit more unpredictable now. I think in years past you’re always on the edge here in qualifying, and they slide and that’s hard to drive when they slide, but this year they were just sliding in a different way. It was almost unpredictable the way the car was sliding, and it made it tough to drive.”
During qualifications, Newgarden went out pretty early and laid down a fast lap putting him on the pole. But then he had to wait for the rest of the cars to go.
“The run itself wasn’t terribly bad,” Newgarden added. “I thought we had the car pretty sorted this morning. It was a tough run. I mean it wasn’t easy to drive the car but, you know, running around with a little bit more downforce today, it’s been hotter. So it kept the speeds up somewhat.
“But it was tough. It wasn’t, you know, as on the edge as I think it could have been. We tried to make it that way. I think putting it on the ragged edge has not been as successful this weekend. So we tried to not do that. But it was tough. It was difficult waiting. I was trying to remind myself it’s not about — the pole is incredible. You want to win the pole. I wanted to win it so bad.
“I don’t want to make it sound like I didn’t want it. It was amazing. I was trying to remind myself we got to win the race, we got to figure out what we got to do to win the race. We’ve already done a great job getting in the Top Nine. Goal number one yesterday was doing that, and getting a good starting spot today was the second goal. Pole would have been the best of that, but we got the second best.”
Newgarden adds it’s a shame that he didn’t get the pole, but is happy to see James Hinchcliffe on the pole, noting the stout organization that Schmidt Peterson Motorsports has put together.
Notably, Newgarden was the only driver from Ed Carpenter Racing to make the Fast Nine so his teammates Carpenter and Hilderbrand went out on track to qualify first. They were able to give Newgarden some valuable information he could use when he made his qualifying laps.
“Oh, gosh,” Newgarden quoted. “The whole week you’re learning stuff from those guys. It’s awesome when you have teammates that are just very talented, very skilled. We can get through a lot of work with three cars compared to one. You know, it’s a massive help. All week in practice we’re learning things, trying different things, we get to compare.
“Today just Ed hanging around. He’s won the pole here twice; he knows how to get it done. He’s been in that spot. He knows what it’s all about. I think for him he was keeping me calm and my head in the right place. He tells me the right things and just wants me to go and get on with it. But it’s a huge help.
“JR has been a huge asset for our team. I wish we got to work with him more throughout the year. Like I said, it’s not even today, it’s all week. Everything we do, they’re very solid drivers, and I think we all complement each other in some way. So we get to learn so much more over a practice session, a qualifying session with everything that we do.”
