IndyCar: Alexander Rossi’s success at remaining tracks not to be overshadowed by Josef Newgarden’s

By Asher Fair | Jun 21, 2019

FORT WORTH, TX - JUNE 08: Alexander Rossi, driver of the #27 NAPA Auto Parts Honda (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images) /

Josef Newgarden has been simply elite at the remaining tracks on the 2019 IndyCar schedule. But Alexander Rossi’s success at these tracks is not to be overshadowed by Newgarden’s.

Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden is the only driver who Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi trails in the championship standings just past the halfway point of the 17-race 2019 IndyCar season. Through the season’s first nine races, Newgarden holds a 25-point lead (367 to 342) over Rossi in second place.

These two drivers could very well be starting a long-term, high-level rivalry that IndyCar has lacked for quite some time, as they have combined to earn four victories and record nine top two finishes so far this season. They have both finished in the top two in three individual races, and they have already made it look like this year’s championship battle will be a two-driver battle.

Eight races remain on this year’s schedule at seven tracks where both Newgarden and Rossi and have competed in IndyCar races before. The huge amount of success that Newgarden has had at these tracks is obvious and well-documented. While Rossi’s success at these seven tracks may not be as obvious, it is not to be overshadowed by Newgarden’s.

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Rossi entered the 2019 season having been victorious at four of the 14 tracks on the schedule. He entered the season with five career victories, as he won the race at Watkins Glen International in the 2017 season. This track has not returned to the schedule ever since.

Of the seven tracks that remain on this year’s schedule, Rossi has won at two of them, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and Pocono Raceway. He won both of these races last season, and he not only won both of them but dominated both of them. He was never physically passed for the race lead on the track in either one.

The only one of these seven tracks at which Rossi’s average finishing position is lower than 8.67 is Road America, where his top finish is only 13th place in three starts. His average finishing position in these three starts is 14.67. He had a solid run top five at the track going last year, but that all went away with a late mechanical issue.

His average finishing position in a combined 15 starts at the other six tracks is 7.53. He recorded 11 top 10 finishes in these 15 starts. In the 2017 and 2018 seasons, he combined to make 11 starts at these six tracks, and he recorded 10 top 10 finishes and an average finishing position of 5.18. At these six tracks last season, his average finishing position was 4.83 with no finishes outside of the top nine, three top two finishes and two victories.

As remarkable as Newgarden has been at these tracks during his IndyCar career, especially over the last few seasons, it will be no cakewalk for him to win the 2019 championship even if he has success at all of them throughout the remainder of the season considering how remarkable Rossi has been at them, especially recently, as well.

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With eight races remaining on the 2019 IndyCar schedule and tracks at which both Alexander Rossi and Josef Newgarden have had a ton of success set to host several of these races, will this year’s championship battle come down to which of these two young Americans can outperform the other at their own strength? With the championship battle already looking like a two-driver battle, that exact scenario looks like it could be well on its way.