Josef Newgarden claims IndyCar championship in season finale at Sonoma

Newgarden became the first American to win the title since Ryan-Hunter Reay in 2012.|

Josef Newgarden said after Sunday’s GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma that he begged his father to purchase him a go-kart when he was 13 years old.

It turned out to be a worthwhile investment.

Newgarden won his first IndyCar title in his first season with Penske Racing, finishing the race in second place to his teammate Simon Pagenaud, the series’ defending champion who won the race in a caution-less, dominant season-ending performance for Team Penske Racing.

“I always wanted a go-kart. I was like ‘dad, can we get a go-kart?’ And it didn’t happen until I was 13 and that’s when he kind of finally caved,” Newgarden said. “My dad was a car guy. He was always into racing.”

Newgarden started racing in go-karts and competed in Europe before coming home to the states to race open-wheel. He credited his parents for investing in him at a young age and pushing to race in what can be an expensive sport to compete in.

“I think you work so hard just to just get to the IndyCar level that you don’t think about anything beyond that. You don’t think about what’s the maximum at the IndyCar level you can get to,” Newgarden said.

Pagenaud won last year’s race at Sonoma, too, but couldn’t overcome a 34-point deficit to Newgarden coming into Sunday’s race - even with double points being offered for all drivers in the race - and lost the championship by an unofficial 13-point margin to his first-year Penske teammate.

Newgarden’s title is the 15th IndyCar team title for Penske Racing. He became the first American to win the title since Ryan-Hunter Reay in 2012. Before that, Sam Hornish was the last American to win the title in 2006.

Newgarden, 26, hails from Hendersonville, Tenn. He’s raced in the series since 2012. He has finished higher in the standings each season until winning the series title this year. His previous high finish in the points standings was fourth last season. He led the series with four race wins this year.

“The more years you drive in IndyCar, the more you don’t know if you can get hired by a team like Team Penske,” he said.

The race never saw a yellow caution flag, the first time in series history that has happened at Sonoma Raceway and the second time this season - the previous being the 2017 IndyCar Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course earlier this year.

Pagenaud worked a four-stop strategy in Sunday’s race compared to Newgarden, who worked a three-stop strategy, setting up a showdown for the race-win after Pagenaud’s final pitstop.

Newgarden surrendered the lead to Pagenaud at lap 62 for his final stop of the race. A few laps later, Pagenaud pitted and as he exited the pits, he met Newgarden, who closed in on his rear-bumper at the top of turn 1 as he had been out on the track and had warmer tires than Pagenaud.

“He was like weak prey in front of me so I was just trying to get him, but … I didn’t want to do something silly,” Newgarden said.

The Penske teammates battled for the lead through the top of the hill and into the carousel, as Newgarden got to Pagenaud’s bumper in the carousel and raced him side-by-side exiting Turn 7a and into the esses. Pagenaud would eventually pull away to a one-second lead for the next few laps and for good to win the race, but not the title.

The teammates haven’t always raced that cordially. The 1-2 race and title finishers had a run-in at Gateway in late August that may have won Newgarden the championship. Pagenaud was leading the race late when Newgarden made contact with him and passed him for the lead and eventually the win. The points difference between the two in that race: 17 points. Pagenaud said he’s over it.

“No, it’s behind,” Pagenaud said. “You got to move on anyways. If you live in the past, you’re not going to focus. Whatever happened there happened. Josef won the championship and that move was critical to his championship. Hat off to him. Next time I got to do better.”

Their other Penske teammates, Will Power (third) and Helio Castroneves (fifth), both finished in the top five. Castroneves, a three-time Indianapolis 500 champion, may have raced his final IndyCar race for Team Penske, as his plans for 2018 are currently uncertain. Though it’s likely he won’t leave the Penske family.

“He’s going to be a long-term player with us and the team as we go forward,” team owner Roger Penske said after the race.

Scott Dixon, who came into the race just three points behind Newgarden, finished fourth but never really threatened the Penske dominance of the race. He finished more than 11 seconds behind Power.

Sausalito’s J.R. Hildebrand finished 14th and Grass Valley native Alexander Rossi had mechanical issues and finished 21st.

UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy:
  • This is a family newspaper, please use a kind and respectful tone.
  • No profanity, hate speech or personal attacks. No off-topic remarks.
  • No disinformation about current events.
  • We will remove any comments — or commenters — that do not follow this commenting policy.