INDIANAPOLIS — Josef Newgarden has long said that the cautions falling at unlucky times during the course of the 2020 NTT IndyCar Series season have cost him a potential season championship this year. It happened in the INDYCAR Grand Prix on July 4. He had a podium caliber kind of car but the caution for Oliver Askew’s crash in the middle of a pit sequence wasn’t needed. He’d finish seventh as a result. It happened again in Race 1 at Iowa. He finished fifth. It happened in Race 1 at World Wide Technology Raceway too. He’d finish 12th.
In those three races, Scott Dixon came home first, second, first respectively. The points difference between just those two in those three combined races?
68.
Newgarden enters this weekend’s Harvest Grand Prix doubleheader with a 72 point gap.
He’s proven that the cautions have hurt him. Say Dixon and he both finish in the top five of those races, the gap is far less than 72. It’s more like 15 or less.
That’s why Newgarden was so happy to finally get a caution go his way and not Dixon’s on Thursday.
Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato spun on course and brought a red flag out in Group 1 of the two group qualifying format at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Thursday evening. It ended the session 3-minutes and 15 seconds early.
Newgarden sat P1 at the break. Dixon was sixth. That meant that Newgarden would start no worse than second and Dixon no better than 11th.
That’s a big swing in which Newgarden is hoping to chop more and more off Dixon’s lead. Newgarden, has made up 45 points on Dixon in three races and can certainly close the gap even more in Friday’s race (3:30 p.m. ET, USA, INDYCAR Radio Network).
“That’s the luckiest we’ve been as far as yellow flags go this year,” Newgarden said. “I just wish we’d gotten it in the race, but we’re not going to complain obviously. We were quick on blacks. The car felt awesome right out of the box. Some of the issues we were struggling with in the first practice were completely gone.
“You couldn’t see super well in Turn 13, so we were kind of guessing coming onto this front straightaway. But it made for an interesting session. I don’t know what would have happened on reds. I think we would have been in the fight without a doubt. The car felt so good. I feel pretty confident for the race.”
Newgarden, has never finished on the podium here on the 2.439-mile road course. In fact, he’s never had a top five. His seventh place run back in July was his only top 10 in seven IMS road course starts. That’s even with three Fast Six starting positions in four tries previous tries to this weekend too.
Meanwhile, Dixon started 18th in 2019 and still came home runner-up on the road course. So, you can never count him out. He qualified 17th at Mid-Ohio 1 and came up to a top 10. He started 17th and 18th respectively in the Iowa doubleheader and finished second and fifth as well.
So, you can never count Dixon out.
“That’s just the way it goes sometimes, man,” the Chip Ganassi Racing driver said. “We didn’t do anything wrong. Maybe we should have tried to make the cars better on blacks, but you’re always chasing what it’s going to be for the reds.
“It’s racing, it’s not over until you’ve won the championship. We’ll keep our head down and see how it goes (Friday). We’ll dig deep and see what we get.”
That overshadowed a rookie earning his first career pole when it was all said and done. Rinus VeeKay turned in a lap of 1:09.6903-seconds in his No. 21 Chevrolet. The fastest teenager ever for the Indianapolis 500 beat all the Chevrolet drivers in general the last time out here on the oval. On Thursday, he bested the whole field, Honda’s and Chevy’s included.
This could make the Dutch rookie a favorite now. He started 18th and finished fifth back on July 4 on this very track in just his second ever Indy Car start. He also enters this weekend with a ton of momentum now too including three top 10 finishes in his last four tries.
“I think there was more in it, to be honest. I just used all the grip I had. It had great balance.
“It was a lot different than this morning, so I think the cold track suits us. We can go for the win tomorrow.”
In the Road To Indy, he was sixth and second in two tries on this track in USF2000, third and 14th in Indy Pro 2000 and third and first last year in Indy Lights.
We’ve had six straight winners come from the top three of the starting lineup this season and nine of the last 13. In fact, 26 of the last 28 races on the season have seen the winner come from the top 4 Rows including 31 of the last 34 overall.
Can he hold two Penske’s and two Andretti’s off on the first lap though?
Newgarden (1:10.4706-seconds) rolls off alongside VeeKay in second. Young Colton Herta (1:09.7048-seconds) starts third in his No. 88 Honda while Will Power (1:10.5686-seconds) and Marco Andretti (1:09.7140-seconds) rounds out the top five of the starting lineup for Friday’s 85 Lap race.
Main takeaways.
Power Continues Qualifying Dominance
Will Power didn’t win his 61st career pole in the NTT IndyCar Series but he still will start up front. Power, rolls off fourth for his seventh top six starting spot in his last eight Indy road course tries. It’s also his fourth time he’s started in the top 2 Rows in a race this season in the last five races contested too.
Where Did The Andretti’s Come From?
2020 has been a frustrating season for Andretti Autosport. But, over the last two races weekend’s now, they’re finally showing some pace. They put two cars in the top five of Mid-Ohio 1. They backed that up with a clean podium sweep a day later. But, they were heading to an IMS road course that hasn’t typically been great to them in the past. Mix that with how the season has gone thus far, why expect much this weekend?
Maybe that was a mistake.
They qualified 3-5-6-8-13-18 if you count Jack Harvey’s alliance car to the fold.
Colton Herta led the charge with the third quickest time. He’s started in Row 2 in all three IMS road course starts of his career. Marco Andretti will roll off fifth for his first time that he’s even started in the top 10 here. His previous best start was 11th. He qualified 14th last year and 25th back in July.
Alexander Rossi will start eighth for his third top 10 start in six tries.
They’re finally showing some strength and hoping to end the season with momentum. Can they finish better on Friday? Thursday showed that they can.
Stats
We have three Chevy’s rolling off in the top four of the starting lineup and three different teams in the top three of the starting lineup.
Lineup
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