JOSEF NEWGARDEN No. 2 HITACHI CHEVROLET
START: 3RD
FINISH: 4TH
POINTS: 1ST
RACE RUNDOWN: Josef Newgarden and the No. 2 Hitachi Chevrolet team looked to be in prime position to capitalize on their strategy and score another win in the Grand Prix of Long Beach before late-race contact dropped them to fourth at the checkered flag on Sunday afternoon. After a clean sweep of the pole position and race win in the season opener at St. Petersburg, Newgarden narrowly missed out on the NTT P1 Award on Saturday afternoon, qualifying third in a tight time trials. Following a lap 15 caution period that saw leader and teammate, Will Power, elect to visit pit lane, Newgarden found himself as the race leader. The 2023 Indianapolis 500 winner made his first pit stop of the day on lap 30 and exited the pits as the first car on his pit strategy behind those that pitted under the lap 15 caution. One of those drivers was eventual race winner Scott Dixon, who seemingly needed to run the remaining laps in fuel save mode as Newgarden feverishly chased him down. He made it to the rear wing of Dixon with no fuel restrictions and plenty of laps remaining to pass for the lead before he was contacted from the rear by the No. 26 of Colton Herta while coming off the last corner on lap 77. The contact lifted Newgarden’s rear tires off the ground as his No. 2 Chevy briefly entered anti-stall mode. This let Herta and the No. 10 of Alex Palou past before he could settle back into the fourth position with too few laps remaining to make a charge back toward the front.
NEWGARDEN’S THOUGHTS: “It seemed pretty obvious to me, he just misjudged it, ran into me. Once I got lifted and went into anti-stall. I got lifted off the ground a foot or two, and I had to wait for the clutch to disengage so you can get the thing reset. I’m not going to say we were going to get (Scott) Dixon. It was actually very difficult for me to get the run I need to. I think traffic was going to provide me an opportunity to make a run right there with a fast Hitachi Chevy. I was really excited about that because that might have been my last chance. You never know if I could have pulled it off. Maybe not. He was really quick. I don’t know how they were going as far as they were.”
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
