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IndyCar: Josef Newgarden ‘not overly confident’ about 2019 title

By Brittany Frederick

MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 19: Josef Newgarden speaks during a press conference at Wave Street Studios ahead of the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey on September 19, 2019 in Monterey, California. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 19: Josef Newgarden speaks during a press conference at Wave Street Studios ahead of the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey on September 19, 2019 in Monterey, California. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images) /
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Josef Newgarden is the favorite going into the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey, but he explains why he’s not getting cocky about the 2019 IndyCar title.

Josef Newgarden enters Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey as the IndyCar championship leader, but the Team Penske driver is taking nothing for granted as he pursues his second title.

“We feel confident, but not overly confident,” Newgarden said in Wednesday’s pre-season finale press conference, where he was joined by fellow contenders Alexander Rossi, Simon Pagenaud and Scott Dixon.

“I have a lot of respect for the talent these guys have. I know what they are all capable of,” Newgarden continued. “It makes our job, in my opinion, very difficult this weekend, especially with double points.

“It’s not going to be easy to come in here and take it simply. We’re going to have to work for it. We’ve done that all year. I feel confident we can do that again this weekend. We’re going to try to stay focused to get through this thing.”

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Newgarden has led the standings for most of the 2019 IndyCar season, and he has won four of the 16 races so far. That means he has been in Victory Lane once every four races. With those statistics, nobody would blame him for being a little cocky, but he’s not looking too far ahead.

In fact, he’s looking backward to when he won the 2017 IndyCar championship and how slim that lead was going into the last race of the season.

“I think we were only three points up to Scott [Dixon] in 2017,” Newgarden recalled. “So it was pretty much you have to win, you have to win. That’s the only way to get it done. We don’t have to do that [this year], but it still kind of feels that way, to be honest with you. We know we have to finish fourth regardless of where everyone else finishes.

“I’ve told people it’s not easy to finish fourth in an IndyCar race. That’s a really good day,” he explained. “Sure, you can have better days. You can win the race. But to be top five in this series consistently is not an easy thing to do.

“I think we have a big task ahead of us. We just have to honestly treat it like it’s any other weekend. I don’t know how we can do it differently.”

The other thing that keeps Josef Newgarden grounded, and which has made him a favorite among IndyCar fans, is his humility. Even while he’s been at the top of his game all season, the Tennessee native has never lost his appreciation for just getting to be on the grid, and for all the Team Penske crew members who make his title aspirations possible.

“It’s incredible, just to have this as a job. It’s crazy,” he reflected. “You don’t think of this when you start. I think you just have a passion for it.

“You have a passion for driving. You have a passion for the process of it. That’s why you show up to the track, is the fun of it. To be able to see it get to this point—for all of us to get to this point—it’s very cool.

“I think the racer in you, whenever you’re able to achieve [a championship], you start thinking about the next one. Okay, we got one, how do we get another?”

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“I think that’s the competitive side of the sport. All these guys feel that way. They want to get as much as possible,” Newgarden continued. “As a competitor, I think that’s the drive that you have to have, is to get as much as possible. That’s what I’m thinking now.

“But it takes a lot of people. I think that’s the biggest thing to realize,” he concluded. “It’s a big organization—all these teams [are]—to make it happen. That’s what makes it feel good, because we all have to do our job to achieve a championship. Hopefully we can do it again.”

The 2019 Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey is scheduled to take place on Sunday, September. 22 at 2:30 p.m. ET. The IndyCar season finale will be televised on NBC.