Newgarden’s Face Of The Franchise Problem

I’ve gone back and forth about how to write this piece for a good 18 months. In many ways, I already have if you’ve been reading my IndyCar race reviews for over half a decade. But it’s really hard to have a conversation about the series without at some point talking about Josef Newgarden.

I’ve been an IndyCar fan for 10 years now, and for a good while, I gushed about what Newgarden was, is and could have been. A handsome, charismatic, future face of the franchise, who was prepared to put in the work to promote the series, didn’t take himself too seriously, but had the skills to back it up. He was funny, charming and I loved watching him go to work. I cheered when Team Penske hired him in 2017 to replace Helio Castroneves and I was delighted when he won his first Astor Cup at the end of that season on his first attempt. I even made a video about it¹! I genuinely thought it was the start of IndyCar throwing all their marketing weight behind him to help promote the series to the masses. It never quite happened that way.

Ridiculous success followed. Another Astor Cup in 2019. Some minor irritations to be a series runner-up three times in a row 2020 and 2022, with crew chiefs being swapped out, but still racking up wins, no-one had more in that time period. As of today, he has as many as Rick Mears and he still has plenty of time to climb into the Top 5 of the all-time list. And of course, at his 12th attempt, he finally won a 500. Then followed it up with another. Now we can start building first ballot Hall of Fame arguments about you. The last two seasons alongside those 500 wins were a little sketchy, but when you race in a series where the 500 means more than anything else, it buys a very long leash.

But it’s felt like since 2023, things have changed with Newgarden. The performances have been stripped down to 500 and short oval dominance in its rawest form. That season, he won four races, all ovals. That dropped to two last year. He’s winless in 2025 so far and hasn’t won on a road or street track in three years. This season, the wheels have completely fallen off, with as many finishes outside of the Top 20 (5) than finishes in the Top 10 (5). Some of it has been luck, like the 500 and Gateway, but other times, he’s been fully accountable for his errors, like Road America and Mid-Ohio. Even with a solid Iowa weekend, Newgarden sits 14th in the standings, with Alex Palou outsourcing him by 2:5-1. 

But things have changed off the track too. The once buoyant, chirpy, face of the series has seemed more dour, more miserable. He snapped at fans on Twitter when he and Grosjean collided in Nashville. Old Josef would never do that. He got dropped from Penske’s IMSA squad despite winning the Rolex 24 because his average stint speeds were so low. He tried being an Amazon influencer and failed. He dropped his popular Bus Bro series on YouTube with teammate Scott McLaughlin and ditched his social media manager, with a clear distancing in their relationship as teammates, where it now feels all business. 

He took the brunt of the first Penske cheating scandal when he was disqualified in St Petersburg for an illegal use of push-to-pass and the general paddock sentiment was: “We don’t buy it”, when he cried in Barber in frustration at how it all played out. I know many fans felt the same way. 

Last year, Josef claimed he was ditching all his side projects (Besides the children’s book) to focus on the racing. In 2025, he took it one step further and unfollowed everyone on his social media. With FOX now onboard with the series as a broadcaster, he got the first TV commercial for the series (with Tom Brady!!), and got all the hype going into the 500 as a three-peat attempt, with Erin Andrews interviews, appearances on First Things First and other big hitting FOX Sports programming. It felt like a fresh start… Then they checked his car’s attenuator. 

“Sir, another cheating scandal has hit Team Penske”, and Josef again was the face of it, when his 2024 winning car in the museum was used as the smoking gun for evidence. He wasn’t to blame, his team’s arrogance was, and yet… the most viral part of the weekend was Alex Palou laughing at him as his car was being fixed. 

The last week has felt like the ugliest part of the Newgarden discourse. Mid-Ohio, he was being openly mocked by the FOX Sports broadcast team for not talking to them during bad times. There was some genuine criticism here – It sucks when the face of the series doesn’t want to do media, even if it’s understandable given Newgarden was in the middle of an awful run of form. It’s a two-way street when it comes to that delicate relationship and it needs a degree of balance. As the interviewee, you can always say no. But when you’re using Cleatus, your NFL mascot to mock Newgarden by walking off the camera during the weekend while on the broadcast… that feels mean-spirited.

On Saturday night, Newgarden had his best result of the year, a second place finish at Race 1 in Iowa. Newgarden led 232 out of 275 laps, taking his total laps led in Iowa past 2,000. He lost on a marginal final pit stop run where Pato O’Ward gained a second via an overcut. Newgarden was understandably upset about just missing out in a race he dominated, especially to his oval nemesis. And then he got roasted for that too in the post-race presser:

“I see him very differently. His attitude & everything is definitely not the Josef I’ve always praised, I would say. I’m gonna ask Kit-Kat to send a care package to his home. He’s got a lot of salt to get rid of.”

Pato O’Ward gets “People’s Champion” privilege for a lot of the nasty words he says in interviews. I haven’t forgotten the comments he made implying Marcus Ericsson was a coward for not sending one on Alex Palou at the 500, given Pato literally did that in 2023 and wrecked himself with seven laps to go. Marcus, for all the slander, has won the biggest race of them all. Pato earned a lot of sympathy for blowing three chances at the big one. Lando Norris would kill for a fraction of the compassion. 

These people are racing drivers, they’re here to win. They’re allowed to be upset when they don’t. Especially when you’re Newgarden, who has to be frustrated with… almost everything that’s happened on and off the track in the last three years. 

Iowa this past weekend was a shining example of what Newgarden can still be. He was the class of the field. Dominated Race 1 and only lost on a marginal overcut, came back through the field twice on two horribly timed cautions, led 72 laps but had to settle for 10th due to a late caution for Colton Herta in the wall. Newgarden drove his ass off and was outstanding, and he got a second and 10th when two wins were more than on the table. And even then, FOX showed the video of Newgarden heading to his RV as the race was over, even if they got him back for an interview after the broadcast ran out of time. That felt like an intentional creative decision.

Results aside, it feels like Newgarden’s become the paddock’s pinata. Something has changed, whether it be him, or the way he’s been treated, or both. It feels like open season for one of the biggest names in the series. And no-one’s been able to specifically say why. Marshall Pruett hinted at it in his mailbag but never explicitly said why. Tony Donohue was poking the bear on X during Iowa. James Hinchcliffe alluded to the end of Bus Bros on broadcast but again, explicitly didn’t say why. Newgarden’s “public heel turn” feels like it was partially induced by the environment around him but no-one wants to put their name on why it’s happened. It feels nasty, targeted and grim. 

I get why the room’s split on Newgarden. Even I, one of his former biggest fans, have muted some of my support for him in recent times. But I’m starting to get the impression that he’s a symptom of a larger malaise amongst IndyCar, its media and some of its more vocal fans. More on that in a bit.

Newgarden’s one of IndyCar’s greats. Top 5 this century, maybe Top 20 all-time when it’s all said and done. His last two seasons in particular have been poor by his standards. He deserves time, given how spectacular he’s been for Penske in the past, to see if he can figure this out. But I’m also starting to think he needs some compassion off the track too. Because that Newgarden I remember coming into the series with, was the series’ greatest weapon to get itself over. Now he’s getting “go away” heat, and it makes me uncomfortable to see what he’s become. 

The (Not Really A) Lightning Round

We got no running on Friday due to a Tornado 1.5 miles away from the track. As you do.

6,000 tickets sold for the two days in Iowa. That’s completely unacceptable on all counts. What the hell happened to Iowa? See people in old colleague Joey Barnes’ mentions, the overriding sentiment was horrible lack of local promotion, high ticket prices even after the concerts were cancelled, and a general lack of effort after losing the HyVee sponsorship to NASCAR. Such a shame that one of the most important weekends of IndyCar’s calendar and a critical component to their season with their ovals has been so badly neglected. I’ll be shocked if they’re back next year. 

Fair play to Pato O’Ward, he’s always in contention on an oval, and he took full advantage of that overcut and in-lap to steal the lead and hold off Newgarden for the Race 1 win. Pato’s often given himself a bit too much to do with sketchy qualifying speed in 2025, but his race pace has been excellent, he was due a win, and glad both he and McLaren have one.

And then Race 2, Alex Palou… I actually feel kinda bad that people are choosing to shit on some of his wins. Whatever you say about Race 2  – Palou was a podium sitter at worst; he, David Malukas and Josef Newgarden were in a different league, its just the latter two were unlucky on strategy when Palou could run just a little bit longer. It was the most impressive Alex has ever looked on an oval, even more so than his 500 win. That fight with Malukas and the defence Palou put up was one of the best fights of 2025, period. Superb racing. 

Palou now has a short oval win and it feels like the final infinity stone. He now has a 129-point lead and can win it all at Laguna Seca in a fortnight’s time. Where Palou has an average finish of 1.75. We gushed about Alex winning a title one race early in 2023. He might do it with three to spare this year. 

Scott McLaughlin deserves some flowers for that ridiculous comeback in Race 1. From a qualifying crash, to Penske getting the car fixed in three hours, to Scott going on a rampage and eventually finishing fourth? Sensational, his best drive of the season. A real shame he got collected at Turn 1 in Race 2, would have been fascinating to see where he’d have featured. Same goes for Conor Daly, who had a podium level car in both races before the horrible timing of that final caution. Man’s really become fantastic as a short oval specialist. 

Speaking of Daly, FOX was shameless in trying to create artificial beef when Ferrucci was 100% to blame for his driving with Daly in the first place. 

Couple more Penske notes – They will leave this season with nothing. All three of their drivers are now mathematically ineligible to win the title. They’re in it for pride now. Also, for all of Penske’s struggles, AJ Foyt Racing’s cars are now 10th and 11th in points and ahead of McLaughlin and Newgarden. Hmm. 

I also love that Chevrolet finally got their first win of the season in Race 1 with their cars in 7 out of the Top 8 spots, and then Honda took that personally and took a clean sweep of the podium in Race 2. Funny. 

Props to Prema in Race 2, rolled the dice and got Robert Schwartzman a P9 finish, the best since the team debuted. He’d only be 15 points off the Leader’s Circle if Prema were eligible for it. Jacob Abel has had a really tough time but 11th place will certainly lift some spirits in the Dale Coyne camp. 

Best wishes to Nolan Siegel, who wasn’t cleared for Race 2 with what seemed to be a concussion after a nasty crash in Race 1. Glad no funny business was involved there, even if it almost meant Tony Kaanan getting the seat for a start and park. That man can’t help himself!

Andretti needs to have an internal investigation as to how badly they screwed up that weekend. Four crashes across the weekend (And two for Kyle Kirkwood, effectively ending his Championship push), and similar right front tire failures for all three Andretti cars. Shambolic from a team of that statute. 

And finally, Myles Rowe became the first black driver to ever win an Indy NXT race. An important, awesome milestone for North American Motorsport.

The Verdict – Race 1, 6/10 / Race 2, 8/10, Average: 7/10 – Another reason why it’s so frustrating Iowa might not be back, it actually produced a really great second race. When an IndyCar oval hits, it hits different, and while you may not like the outcome, the story of Newgarden trying to win it three times over made for great TV. Glory to corn. Ish. See you in Toronto. 

1. It’s really shit by 2025 standards but it’s here if you want to listen to it: https://youtu.be/ZFTUs6_7ouo?si=BNUuOU9LqkNxxCfZ ↩︎