Josef Newgarden’s pure emotion shows how rewarding IndyCar has become

Josef Newgarden’s emotional reaction to securing his second IndyCar championship illustrates just how rewarding the series has become.

Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden entered the 17th and final race on the 2019 IndyCar schedule, the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey, at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca sitting atop the championship standings, and he entered as the clear favorite to win the title.

This 90-lap race around the 11-turn, 2.238-mile (3.602-kilometer) WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca natural terrain road course in Monterey, California was a double points-paying race, so there were four drivers still mathematically eligible to win the championship.

Newgarden sat atop the championship standings with 593 points, 41 points ahead of Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi in second place, 42 points ahead of teammate Simon Pagenaud in third and 85 points ahead of Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon in fourth.

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As many expected, Newgarden went onto secure the 2019 championship even though he only finished in eighth place, lower than his season average finish of 5.65 and the lowest among the four championship contenders. Dixon finished in third place ahead of Pagenaud in fourth and Rossi in sixth.

But Newgarden has done this before — just two years ago, in fact.

No big deal, right?

Wrong.

The sport’s first two-time champion since Dario Franchitti in the 2009 season and Team Penske’s first two-time champion since Gil de Ferran in the 2001 CART season could not hold back tears of joy afterward.

Two years ago, the then 26-year-old Hendersonville, Tennessee native was visibly excited and pumped up to have won the championship in what was only his first season driving for Team Penske.

The 28-year-old, even having just done this two years earlier, was simply overcome with emotion, and he couldn’t hold that back.

Newgarden’s reaction was full of pure, unfiltered emotion. He was grateful and appreciative of the fact that he had, once again, fulfilled his childhood dream — winning a championship for Roger Penske, “The Captain”.

You might even call it “The American Dream”.

There were no arrogant, egotistical side-swipes at any of his competitors. There were no remarks suggesting “pure talent” won him this championship.

There was no programmed, robotic remarks that really mean nothing more than “Let’s just get this the heck over with”.

No; but there was a level of respect, and that level of respect goes a heck of a lot deeper than a guy winning a championship.

Or his second.

Newgarden knows what got him here; hard work, determination, and skill out of everybody involved, not just for the driver of the #2 Chevrolet, and yes, a certain level of fortunate; pit strategy, career breaks, etc.

He wasn’t afraid to acknowledge any of that.

We hear so often in other forms of motorsport, even in rare circumstances in IndyCar, that the sport “needs drama”. When a driver gives a petulant post-race interview or takes jabs at another driver, justified or not, we here how that can work wonders for the sport as far as its popularity.

No.

Just stop.

IndyCar, any other former of motorsport, the NFL, the NBA, you name it — they need more Josef Newgardens.

I’m not going to sit here and say that the occasional Kyle Busch outburst isn’t the least bit entertaining, because let’s face it; it can be.

But despite what everyone wants you to think, pure, unfiltered emotion can be positive, too.

Newgarden proved it.

Even still, it’s deeper than just this level of respect.

Newgarden’s reaction to winning this championship showed a level of respect for IndyCar as a whole and each and every driver competing in it, from his teammates to the other full-time drivers to the part-time drivers to the guys who compete in one or two races per year simply when they have the funding to do so.

It’s hard to win in IndyCar. This is arguably the most competitive era of the sport, factoring in the skill level of the field, the current aero package, the variety of the race tracks, etc.

You’re not going to see an IndyCar champion crying after winning 14 of a season’s 17 races, not because it means nothing to them, but because It would take a miracle for even legends Mario Andretti or A.J. Foyt to win half of that amount in this day and age.

Newgarden was undoubtedly driving for the sport’s top team this year in Team Penske, which won nine of the season’s 17 races. His win total of four — not 14, not 10, not seven — was the highest in the series.

Seven different drivers representing five different teams won races this year. All seven of them won multiple times, and all seven of these drivers finished in the top nine in the championship standings. Even nine non-winners representing eight different teams, including five that didn’t win at all this season, combined for 11 podium finishes in 2019.

Coming out on top of the most competitive form of racing in the world in a championship battle that, for the 14th consecutive season, was decided in the season finale means something.

It means more than the Astor Cup, more than the name forever etched into the record books, more than bragging rights for an offseason and even more than momentum to carry forward to continue building upon what is already a Hall of Fame-caliber resume.

It means a level of respect — in fact, so many levels of respect — that the world of motorsport and really the world in general are so much need of right now.

Two-time and 2019 IndyCar champion Josef Newgarden, driver of the #2 Team Penske Chevrolet, delivered that in full, illustrating just how rewarding becoming the champion of America’s premier open-wheel racing series is and can be for so many others waiting their turn to #RiseAbove.