Newgarden "didn't get it perfect" in Phoenix front row qualifying effort

Credit: Joe Skibinski

As IndyCar fans have become very accustomed to with Josef Newgarden to in recent years, primarily through the FOX Sports adverts, he will settle for nothing less than perfection.

In fact, even after qualifying in second for the first oval race in the year as Newgarden looks to bounce back from a disastrous 2025 season, Newgarden was not satisfied with his running on Friday at Phoenix Raceway.

"I'm kind of sad that we didn't have a better start to this weekend." reflected Newgarden. "We knew what we were doing coming out of the gates, and we were a little off our footing. We felt like we were playing catch-up a little coming into it."

It sounds a bizarre statement for the driver who is considered the finest at ovals in the series and had a successful qualifying day at Phoenix, but it is the standards that Newgarden has consistently strived for throughout his career, the standards that have made Newgarden a two-time series champion and two-time Indianapolis 500 winner.

Newgarden will line-up for Saturday's race at Phoenix alongside Team Penske teammate David Malukas on the front row, but Newgarden was still a sizeable 0.835 mph off the pace of his young American teammate as he aims to defend his Phoenix victory that he claimed in 2018.

"You saw drop-off more so in Lap 2 than we've seen for the last session or during the test, added Newgarden about his qualifying session. "I think we got it relatively right. You know, on our car specifically, we were a little bit behind coming through Practice 1. I just did not have a smooth Practice 1. It was kind of a follow-up from St. Pete in some ways where our cadence was just not what we wanted coming right into the weekend.

"I think that made us second-guess a couple of things that we were going to do in qualifying. In hindsight, I wish we could have reverted back to our original plan, but, you know, sometimes you react to certain things and you don't get it perfect.

"I felt like we did a good job. We just didn't get it perfect, but at the end of the day, all of us being in the top five is a great starting spot for this race and something we can work with."

Credit: James Black

Last weekend's season opener on the Streets of St. Petersburg started off as yet another horror-show for Newgarden. He had a significant off in practice at Turn 13 which compromised his running before finishing dead last in his qualifying group which saw him start the race in 23rd.

That said, Newgarden quietly recovered to seventh in a relatively smooth-sailing drive, the type of race days that Newgarden did not have enough of throughout the 2025 season, albeit a lot of his catastrophes were through no fault of his own.

Newgarden has been one of many drivers to compare the 1-mile oval to that at Gateway, a venue that he has won at on five occasions in his IndyCar career. Many of the comparisons are made due to the asymmetrical corners on either end of the race track with varying degrees of banking and radius.

"I think this place is probably the most akin to Gateway, said Newgarden. "It's not the same. It's a different track, but it's the most akin to that. So we'll be drawing from some inspiration there and then trying to make it Phoenix-specific and do a great job.

"It reminds me a lot of Gateway," Newgarden later followed. "Gateway is a little bigger, but just the style of the track, the two ends being very different. They're pretty similar to what you get at Gateway. I think if we can open up the second lane, it should have that racing style that we see there. So I don't know why it can't be a great race."

One of the biggest question marks heading into the weekend, and a question that still cannot be completely answered is if the track will be able to produce multi-lane racing. The series has put more emphasis into promoting multi-lane oval races in recent years, which has seen the series continually run high-line sessions, which is no different to Phoenix this weekend. Ironically, Newgarden was disqualified from the high-line session for not utilising it enough!

"I believe we can get a two-lane track going," reflected Newgarden of the matter. "You know, if you do that, then it should be a great race. I don't see why it can't be a great race.

"As far as the restarts, yeah, I think you have to be prepared for exciting restarts, let's say, where if we all pack up and people decide to take tyres and you have a two-lane track, you're going to see a lot of people moving all the time on a restart. Whether you're in a good position and you need to defend or if you're in a vulnerable position, you might be able to make up some room if you get those opportunities."

Newgarden's 2025 was far from the perfection that he strives for. But as the short-oval master in the series in a track that he knows well, could Saturday pose the opportunity for the Penske perfection to become prominent once again? Only time will tell.