Newgarden is targeting a 2026 title fight - and he is off to a strong start
- Archie O’Reilly
- 3 days ago
- 7 min read
Josef Newgarden cut a familiar figure at Phoenix Raceway this weekend. But a familiar figure that had got a little lost in the wilderness in recent times.
In 2025, a trying year for Newgarden, he was often quite reserved. Interactions with the media were always respectful but often concise - far removed from his usual eloquence. He is a self-proclaimed introvert but his endearing bubbliness had faded somewhat.
But across IndyCar’s return to Arizona, the downcast demeanour of last year had subsided entirely. As Newgarden came into press after qualifying second to new teammate David Malukas on Friday, which he could have been a little perturbed by, he was noticeably more upbeat and more talkative than at many junctures in his 12th-place season last year.
At one stage, he even broke into song to mark a member of the media’s birthday: “Happy birthday dear Bruce… all the barbecue for you!”
Again on race day on Saturday, he entered the media centre in a jovial state. Yes, it unquestionably helps that he is enjoying early-season success, after the toils of 2025, and had just secured a victory for the 12th successive season. But there is a genuine sense of revitalisation to the 35-year-old in his 10th season with Penske.
And as it is, the 2017 and 2019 series champion, who has been on a downward trajectory in the standings in the past three years with fifth, eighth and 12th - following three seasons as runner-up - heads the standings after two races in 2026.
“That is a factual statement… we are leading the championship,” he affirmed, with an air of caution at this early stage. “[Álex] Palou had his mishap early. Two races, it’s a very small sample size; not surprised to see that everything got shuffled up there.”
Of course, three-time defending champion Palou remains the overwhelming favourite to win his fifth title in six years after dominating the St. Petersburg opener. But while he won five of the first six races last year, finishing second in the other, the Spaniard already has a retirement to his name this year after an early collision with Rinus VeeKay at Phoenix.
Defending his win from IndyCar’s last visit to Phoenix in 2018 after finishing seventh in St. Pete, Newgarden stands 19 points clear of Palou in fifth. With it, he has become the first driver other than Palou to lead the standings since June 2024.
Even off the back of Penske’s worst season statistically since 1999 last year, which featured a mid-season leadership overhaul, he maintains belief he can challenge for the title this year.
“Look, I don’t recall a time being at Team Penske where I didn’t believe we could achieve any goals we marked out,” Newgarden insisted. “For us, winning the Indy 500 is most important, then how do we excel at every other track and win the championship?
“I’ve never come into a year with this team and thought: ‘I don’t know that we can excel this year; I just don’t know that we can get there.’ I never believed that. I’ve always seen the potential with this team. It looks a little different now but that potential was always there in the past and we could deliver on it. I think we can deliver on it this year.
“It’s an everyday process. We’re going to take it one step at a time. Doesn’t mean there’s not going to be some turbulence. [But] if we do our jobs and control what’s in our control, I don’t see why we can’t be in the fight.”
The first stint of the race at Phoenix was straightforward enough, with Newgarden settling in behind Malukas after the start. But as the race progressed and pit stops unfolded, Penske ceded their early control and Newgarden faded into running a more anonymous race lower in the top 10.
“In a short oval situation, the circulation is so high that you can’t just sit there and control the lead,” Newgarden explained. “If you want to excel in this type of race, you’ve got to be excellent in traffic. You’ve got to be able to go.
“People are going to press you. People pressed hard today - really hard. There were points where they were pressing us and they were winning. We had to raise our level at the end.”
There have been oval races in recent years where Newgarden has been utterly imperious, lapping nigh on the entire field en-route to dominant victories. That was not the case at Phoenix; he did not feel he had the best car in the field. So instead, he had to play the less familiar role of the hunter.
“Typically when you see me in Victory Lane, it’s probably because I had the best car on the day,” he acknowledged. “I’ve got to say I was not a believer midway through the race. But when I needed that car to be good, it was really good.
“It’s not like I was doing something magical. It was right where I needed it to be. That was just down to working on it, going the wrong way, then coming back the right way and having the right calls, having the right support. That’s what should happen.
“When you show up, you’re prepared, you do your job, put yourself in position and you execute, you should be able to win races. We did that.”
The critical moment came under the Lap 207 caution, deployed for Will Power slowing with a puncture after contact with Christian Rasmussen. The final planned pit cycle had not long passed and Newgarden had recovered to a more favourable fourth place. But there was a decision to be made through the field as to whether to take more fresh tyres.
On the previous restart on Lap 154, the Andretti pair of Power and Kyle Kirkwood had held their own out front on older tyres. So there was scepticism as to whether sacrificing positions would be made worthwhile by a big enough gain on new rubber in the closing 30-odd green laps.
But the majority of the field rolled the dice. Newgarden included.
“You sort of pick your poison at that point, gamble to some degree,” Newgarden said. “If I’m gambling, I want to be on the offence. I would rather be on the offence and lose the race. We did that. Ended up working out.”
It took a little while for Newgarden to reap the rewards of taking fresh tyres. But into the final 15 laps of the 33-lap green run to the finish, everything came alive. Pato O’Ward, the initial leader of the stoppers, was dispatched, then promptly Malukas on older tyres to climb back onto the podium.
The fading former-leader Rasmussen followed and, on Lap 244 of 250, Newgarden decisively passed race-leading Kirkwood on the inside in Turn 4. It was a formality from there, stretching to a race-winning 1.7937-second lead.
“St. Petersburg, I would say we were conservative, had a boring strategy,” assessed Penske’s team president Jonathan Diuguid. “[At Phoenix], before the race started, we decided we were going to be aggressive. The opportunity came with 40 laps to go [as] that caution came out. Decided to give up the track position we had, take tyres, put it in Josef’s hands.
“He did an amazing job. Ten laps from the end, I was like: ‘Okay, I don’t know if we’re going to do this.’ Then we started moving forward pretty quickly. It was amazing to watch. The No.2 took tyres and the No.2 took the day.”
There were times last year where Penske fell short of their usual standards as a team, as much as the majority of Newgarden’s woes were the product of bewildering misfortune. None of the same criticisms can be levelled at the collective Phoenix performance.
Likewise the season-opening race in St. Pete, when Newgarden admittedly failed to deliver in qualifying - and was forced to start 23rd - but recovered 16 positions on race day.
“I didn’t know how today was going to go - I don’t think any of us did,” Newgarden exclaimed at Phoenix. “We came in with a good mentality. At the end of the day, the team executed at a super high level. That is what it takes to win these races. Everyone was on it.
“The timing stand did a great job, made the right calls, great pit stops. When we needed to be fast, we were fast. Really proud of the execution. Just like St. Petersburg; we had a really tough start there [and] we executed on race day.
“We’ve been talking about this: ‘This is what we need to do.’ We need to be better every time we show up, do our jobs to the best of our ability. I think the pieces will fall into place. So far it’s definitely been a decent start. We’ve got to keep it up.”
There is certainly no complacency creeping in. Diuguid was keen to express that even after qualifying second, Newgarden’s No.2 team focused more than anything on how to gain back the 0.8 mph deficit to Malukas. There is a culture of healthy candidness within the camp - and a confidence to stick to their convictions, which paid off at Phoenix.
There is a long way to go if Newgarden, after the rut in which he has been stuck in the last few years, is to really mount a third title-winning campaign. But there is certainly a returned assurance and there are early glimmers of the old Newgarden in 2026.
“We’re on a good start,” he said. “Pretty open and honest in trying to move the ship forward. So far, so good. We’ve just got to keep our feet on the ground. It’s very early days. You can’t get too excited after two races.
“We’ve still got some things we got to work on. We’ve got to be better leaving here; we’re going to talk about that. There’s a lot of other places we’ve got to be better that we are working on. We’ve just got to stay on it together as a group all year.”
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