IndyCar: Josef Newgarden’s career goes full circle with victory at Texas

By Asher Fair | Jun 10, 2019

FORT WORTH, TEXAS - JUNE 08: Josef Newgarden of the United States, driver of the #2 Fitzgerald USA Team Penske Chevrolet, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NTT IndyCar Series DXC Technology 600 at Texas Motor Speedway on June 08, 2019 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images) /

Josef Newgarden was involved in one of the worst crashes of the modern IndyCar era at Texas Motor Speedway three years ago. Now he has earned his first victory at the track.

On day two of what ended up being a 78-day process to complete the 2016 Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway, Ed Carpenter Racing’s Josef Newgarden and Dale Coyne Racing’s Conor Daly were involved in a nasty crash, a crash that is still one of the worst looking crashes in the modern IndyCar era.

On lap 42 of this 248-lap race around the four-turn, 1.455-mile (2.342-kilometer) high-banked Texas Motor Speedway oval in Fort Worth, Texas, Daly’s #18 Honda slid into Newgarden’s #21 Chevrolet, crushing the #21 Chevrolet into the wall.

The two cars slid across the frontstretch with Newgarden upside down and his car leaning on its side before Daly’s car crushed the #21 Chevrolet into the wall once again, cockpit-first.

Here is a video of this horrifying wreck.

NOTE: Begin watching at 57:45.

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But this wreck ironically ended up playing a sizable role in the advancement of Newgarden’s IndyCar career.

J.R. Hildebrand was slated to replace Newgarden behind the wheel of the #21 Chevrolet in the race at Road America two weeks later. But before that race took place, Newgarden was cleared to drive in it.

After qualifying in 20th place for the 50-lap race around the 14-turn, 4.048-mile (6.515-kilometer) Road America natural terrain road course in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, Newgarden, who still had a broken right hand and a broken clavicle as a result of his crash just 14 days prior, recorded an impressive eighth place finish.

Two weeks later, he dominated the 300-lap race at the four-turn, 0.894-mile (1.439-kilometer) Iowa Speedway oval in Newton, Iowa en route to earning his first victory of the season and the third victory of his IndyCar career. He started this race in second place and took the lead from polesitter Simon Pagenaud on the first lap before leading 282 laps.

It would be an outright lie to say that Newgarden was not already on Team Penske’s radar before this sequence of events given how he had performed since his IndyCar career began in the 2012 season.

But how he bounced back from his awful crash at Texas Motor Speedway played a major role in the team making the decision to replace Juan Pablo Montoya, who had just won the 2015 Indianapolis 500 and finished in second place in the 2015 championship standings, with him behind the wheel of the #2 Chevrolet starting in the 2017 season.

Newgarden immediately rewarded Team Penske for their investment in him by winning the championship in his first season driving for the team. But it took until this past Saturday night for his career to truly go full circle, and he did that with a victory in the 248-lap DXC Technology 600 at the recently repaved 1.44-mile (2.317-kilometer) Texas Motor Speedway.

In addition to serving as the site of the worst crash of his IndyCar career, Texas Motor Speedway was also historically one of Newgarden’s worst tracks heading into the 2019 season, arguably his absolute worst. His average finishing position in seven prior starts at the track was only 14.43, and his lone top 10 finish there was his eighth place finish in the race in the 2013 season.

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But now, driving for Team Penske, Josef Newgarden has earned a victory at the track that served as the site of one of the lowest points of his IndyCar career, a low point that ironically ended up playing a key role in one of the highest points of his career, signing with Team Penske.