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On Sunday, Josef Newgarden became the sixth driver in the history of the Indianapolis 500 to win the race in consecutive years. Helio Castroneves last did it for Team Penske in 2001 and 2002. Newgarden’s win on Sunday marked the 30th win of his career.
“To get to a point where you let go of the thought of winning the race. You have to just come to peace with it saying we may never win this thing, and that’s okay. And to win it, last year we soaked in every bit of it. To follow it up I will say, when you win it, you don’t know what it really means until you win it. You can imagine, you can dream about it, you can experience it from a distance for many years, but you just don’t know what it means until you go through it.” Josef Newgarden stated on Query & Company Tuesday afternoon.
Newgarden shared during his conversation with Jake Query, he revealed that he was just like all the fans at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He was anticipating the race being ran on Monday because of the weather. The 33-year-old even stated that he took a nap with his two-year old son and woke up to clear skies and news that he and the other thirty-two drivers would be racing.
The race itself was entertaining from start to finish. A caution on the first lap, Scott McLaughlin pulling off some pretty insane passes on restarts, Pato O’Ward saving his car from ending up in the turn two wall, and Newgarden passing O’Ward in turn three on the last lap.
“What Pato did to me was what I was actually planning to do to him. I wanted to pass him into turn one on the white flag lap because I thought he had a harder time staying with me off of two and I could probably hold him to the line. When he made his move on the front straightaway I was just reacting. I have to get back by him as quickly as possible. I’m not going to wait until four, I just need to keep the momentum up, and what ever run I get, I have to stick with it.” Newgarden shared.
For Pato, it was the second time in the last three years that he finished second in the greatest spectacle in racing. Last year he tried to overtake Ericsson for second on lap 192 and ended up losing control of the car and colliding with the wall in turn three despite being on the inside lane.
As for Newagarden, he now joins a list of twenty-one drivers that have won the Indianapolis 500 multiple times and gave Roger Penske his 20th Indy 500 victory as a team owner.
Other topics that he discussed with Query were:
- If he was able to soak in anything that he didn’t last year after winning his first Indy 500
- Working through the Team Penske suspensions
- What his strategist told him ahead of the the last restart
To listen to Jake Query’s conversation with Josef Newgarden, download the podcast containing the conversation below! You can always listen to the Query & Company from 12pm-3pm on 93.5/107.5 The Fan. You can also watch and interact with the show by going to the 107.5 The Fan YouTube Channel.
