By Noah Poser
Josef Newgarden is a two-time Indy 500 champion, which means there’s nowhere to hide from expectations ahead of Sunday’s 110th Running of the Indianapolis 500.
After pacing final practice on Carb Day with a lap of 228.342 mph in his No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet, that task has only grown more difficult. Despite starting 23rd, he enters the weekend as one of the favorites.
Still, he tried to temper expectations in his post-session press conference.
“I don’t know that we were that great today. I put up a fast lap. That’s really all it is, ” Newgarden said. “There is positivity to that when the car can do that lap – that is a good thing – but that’s not the whole story when it comes to our race car.
“I think we’ve been relatively solid all month, but you get these fluctuations every single day with temperature and wind. And you take the car apart, you put it back together, and it’s never quite the same thing every time you go out.”
In other words, it’s anybody’s guess how the Team Penske driver will fare in “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”
If Newgarden does get the job done for a third time, he would become the 11th driver to hoist the Borg-Warner Trophy three or more times, and the first since Johnny Rutherford in 1974 to win the Indy 500 from a starting position of 23rd or worse. Rutherford started 25th that year.
With practice and qualifying behind him, the two-time INDYCAR champion is now fully focused on Sunday.
“The one day that’s going to matter is in 48 hours,” Newgarden said. “That’s what it boils down to. I think our race car has been in a really good spot for the most part, even through all the variability that I just spoke about. We’ve just got to make sure it’s right as Sunday comes around.”
Christian Rasmussen finished second on the Carb Day charts, followed by David Malukas in third, Indiana native Conor Daly in fourth and two-time Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato in fifth.
Pole sitter and defending Indy 500 winner Alex Palou was sixth. Kyle Kirkwood ended the day seventh, with Scott McLaughlin eighth and Marcus Armstrong ninth.
Dennis Hauger was the fastest of the four rookies in 10th, while 2008 Indy 500 winner Scott Dixon turned the most laps on the day with 96 in his No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.