Newgarden Earns Team Penske’s First Victory IndyCar Season

Column By: JOHN DOUGLAS / RPW – BIRMINGHAM, AL – In a race that looked to be dominated by Will Power, a shock ending saw another Team Penske car in victory lane in the form of Josef Newgarden. The young, talented American driver carved his way through the field to his second victory in the Verizon Indy Car Series and second win at Barber Motorsports Park.

Power assumed the early lead and after a lap five restart for debris, dominated the first two-thirds of the race. Behind him, his Team Penske team mates were battling for position, as Newgarden made a daring pass on Simon Pagenaud, the 2016 series champion.
The field cycled through green flag stops with Power continuing to lead the way. Scott Dixon lost time on his stop, as a slight misstep by the pit crew cost him valuable seconds.

On lap 58 caution flew again for Spencer Pigot’s off track excursion. This set up a round of caution flag pit stops. Charlie Kimball chose to stay out with some 14 laps on his tires. Power, Dixon, Newgarden and Pagenaud completed the top five coming to the restart.
The green flag flew with 23 laps remaining and mother nature decided it was time for a wrinkle in everyone’s plans as rain began to lightly fall on sections of the course. This didn’t stop young gun Josef Newgarden as he made his move on Dixon in the same fashion he passed his team mate earlier in the event.

Newgarden then set his sights on his other team mate, Power. The next seven circuits Newgarden slowly began to reel Power in. Unfortunately for Power there was no fighting off a left rear tire puncture that finally forced the Aussie driver to pit for a replacement. This handed the lead to Newgarden with 14 laps remaining.

One final charge from Scott Dixon was all Newgarden had to weather to pick up his second race victory in the Verizon Indy Car Series. That’s exactly what he did. Playing his Push-to-Pass allotment to perfection, Newgarden widened the gap over the final handful of circuits and took top honors on the G.P. of Alabama podium.

“I think it was shaping up to be a really great battle between me, Dixon and Will.” Newgarden said in his NBCSN Victory Lane interview. “It ended up just being between Dixon and me. I feel bad for Will. I wish he could’ve been part of it, but sometimes that’s how things roll. Today things rolled right for us.”

The next round of the Verizon Indy Car Series takes place April 29th, in Phoenix, Arizona, as teams and drivers tackle the ever challenging Phoenix International Raceway. For ticket information, visit www.IndyCar.com.