IndyCar: Josef Newgarden's incredible rally can't be ignored

Josef Newgarden may have come up shy of his third IndyCar championship, but his rally is one of the greatest rallies the sport has ever seen.

After Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon won the 14-race 2020 IndyCar season’s eighth race at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, many thought the championship had been decided.

Dixon’s win, his fourth of the year and the 50th of his career, gave him a 50% win rate on the year, and he had opened up a massive 117-point lead over Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden in second place in the championship standings.

To put that in perspective, drivers can score between five and 54 points in a single race, provided at least 25 drivers competed. If only 24 compete, that window shrinks from six to 54, and if only 23 compete, that window shrinks from seven to 54.

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So Newgarden was basically three races behind with six races to go.

With just six races remaining on the schedule, making up a 117-point deficit, especially over a five-time champion who simply doesn’t make crucial errors and is known for his consistency, was justifiably seen as all but impossible.

Indeed, Dixon won the 2020 championship to become just the second driver to win six IndyCar titles. But Newgarden’s rally, while it came up short, was one of the greatest rallies that this sport has seen, and it simply cannot be ignored.

Newgarden beat Dixon in all six races to close out the season after beating him just twice in the first eight, and he won three of those six events at three very different tracks.

Despite the fact that Dixon did not finish outside of the top 10 during this six-race span, Newgarden outscored him by a whopping 101 points (252 to 151) to claw to within 16 points of a lead that once seemed insurmountable.

The driver of the #1 Chevrolet entered the season finale on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida 32 points behind the driver of the #9 Honda, and he did everything he could possibly do by getting to the front and taking the checkered flag.

But unfortunately for him, his rally came up shy, as Dixon, who would have needed to finish in 12th place or lower (18 points), based on the 51 points Newgarden scored, in order for Newgarden to win the championship, finished in third behind the wheel of his #9 Honda to score 35 points.

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It was his first podium finish since his most recent victory, and that’s what it took to avoid a 117-point collapse at the hands of the two-time champion who will undoubtedly enter the offseason as the early 2021 title favorite as a result of this incredible surge.

IndyCar: Josef Newgarden’s incredible rally can’t be ignored

By Asher Fair | Oct 27, 2020

Josef Newgarden may have come up shy of his third IndyCar championship, but his rally is one of the greatest rallies the sport has ever seen.