Aggressive Strategy Call Propels Newgarden to Victory in IndyCar Return to Phoenix

By Kirby Arnold, Special Contributor

AVONDALE, Ariz. – Josef Newgarden admittedly didn’t have the best car on track Saturday at Phoenix Raceway. But in a sport where bold strategy and execution at the right time can be the springboard to victory, Newgarden and Team Penske rose to the top when it counted in the Good Ranchers 250 on the one-mile track.

Newgarden gave up a top-five position when he pitted for tires with 40 laps remaining, then drove to the front. He passed Kyle Kirkwood with six laps remaining and pulled away to win for the 33^rd time in the NTT IndyCar Series.

Pole-sitter David Malukas of Team Penske finished third, with Pato O’Ward fourth for Arrow McLaren and Marcus Armstrong fifth for Meyer Shank Racing.

“I didn’t think we were going to win today, to be very honest with you,” Newgarden said.

He certainly wasn’t in position for victory with 50 laps to go, running fifth as Christian Rasmussen of Ed Carpenter Racing and Kyle Kirkwood of Andretti Global seemed poised to battle to the finish.

But Newgarden’s team, led by strategist Jonathan Diuguid, had decided that they needed to be bold with their strategy. When many others decided not to give up track position by pitting for tires after a caution flag appeared on lap 207, Diuguid didn’t hesitate to bring Newgarden to his pit box.

“Before race started, we decided to be aggressive,” Diuguid said. “With 40 laps to go, we decided to be aggressive and change tires. And then we put it in Josef’s hands.”

With fresh tires, Newgarden’s Chevy-powered car came to life when the green flag appeared on lap 217.  He was fifth by lap 230, third by 240 and became a serious player in what became a three-car fight for the lead as cars used all lanes on the track to fight for an edge.

Kirkwood passed Rasmussen for the lead out of turn 4 with eight laps remaining, followed by Newgarden less than a lap later. Then, Newgarden made a dive under Kirkwood entering the third turn.

Game over. He won by 1.8 seconds.

It moved Newgarden to 10^th on IndyCar’s all-time victory list and was his 19^th on an oval track. His last 10 victories have been on ovals. Team Penske has now won 247 IndyCar races.

IndyCar returned to the Phoenix oval for the first time since 2018, the final race of a three-year stint for IndyCar that, frankly, didn’t go well. That was a time of higher downforce aero kits that made passing difficult. The races were processional on what essentially was a one-lane track.

Not Saturday. A second lane developed early and, by the end, drivers didn’t hesitate to go there and even beyond.

“I was happy to see that the race turned into a good battle,” Newgarden said. “The second lane did open and it even got better toward the end of the race. I was able to go where I needed to. IndyCars haven’t always been that way. I hope the show was as good as it felt from inside the car.”

Statistics showed how competitive the race was.

There were 18 lead changes among 11 cars. Drivers made 565 on-track passes and 323 for position, with 145 passes in the top 10 and 65 in the top five. All of those are records for IndyCar at Phoenix, where the series began racing in 1964.

Rasmussen’s car came to life in the second half of the race. He made an outside pass on O’Ward in the first turn on the 108^th lap and, aside from pit stops, cycled back into the lead.

He didn’t pit during the final caution period, and Kirkwood eventually caught him, taking the lead coming out of the fourth turn on lap 242. Newgarden then passed Rasmussen to take second place and, two laps later, passed Kirkwood in the third turn to take a lead he never gave up.

Alex Palou, who won the season opener at St. Petersburg last week in a dominating start to his quest for a fifth IndyCar championship with Chip Ganassi Racing, was the hardest-luck driver Saturday.

He drove to fourth place in the first 11 laps after starting 10^th, but made contact with Rinus VeeKay exiting the fourth turn, sending him into the outside wall. Palou finished 24^th and fell into fifth place in the season standings, 19 points behind leader Newgarden.

Newgarden, the 2019 IndyCar champion, isn’t gloating over his newfound place atop the standings as the series heads to Arlington, Texas, next weekend.

“We’ve got to keep our feet on the ground. We can’t get too excited after two races,” he said. “We’ve got to be better leaving here.”

Essentially, that’s the approach that led to victory Saturday.