CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Team Penske driver Josef Newgarden added Indy500 winner to his resume over the weekend, accomplishing the feat in his twelfth try. Newgarden joined WCNC Charlotte sports reporter and anchor Ashley Stroehlein to discuss the thrilling finish, celebrating with fans, and more.
Q: Josef, I'm sure the last few days have been a complete whirlwind. I know you've been on this NYC tour; I saw you at new heights on the Empire State Building in New York. What has life been like since you won the Indy 500?
A: Yeah, funny enough, I don't like heights, but I'm super comfortable in a 240 mph race car at Indianapolis. It's been amazing, a long, long journey to win the Indianapolis 500. It's certainly our most difficult race of the year, you know, the one that seemed most elusive on our calendar, you know, we won a championship, but this 500, much like the Daytona 500 is something that everybody wants to put on their resume. So having done it for 12 years, and to finally get it to work out 11 years later it just means a lot more, and I think because of all the heartbreak that you go through when you don't win the event.
Q: Going back to the race, and that final shootout and the move that you made, when you have the red flag, and you're thinking, okay, I'm sitting here in second, that's where I'm restarting how is this going to go down? Can you kind of take me through your mental state there, and then just obviously, that final lap.
A: There was a lot that happened at the end -- it's unpredictable how these races go. We had three red flags. So essentially, three restarts. They all had a different look and feel, this was all within the last 10 laps. So, there's just a lot of nerves when you're in that front group, you have an opportunity to win. Each time we came into the pits for a red flag to wait to go back out you can see the crowd of 330,000 plus and you feel the energy, you hear them and it's just it's hard to not get emotional. Within that moment, you're just trying to focus on the task at hand because you still have to run the end of the race. The final one was certainly the most stressful and difficult and it came down to a one-lap shootout.
For me, I was in a really good position. I think it worked out that I restarted second, and I just tried to turn my pass at the right moment. I think the timing was good. We won the race, but it wasn't easy. I felt like coming off the final corner, Marcus, who was behind me still had a good run and it wasn't a given that we were going to beat him to the line. So, I did quite a bit aggressive move off that final corner just to try and break the draft it was just enough. I definitely knew about 100 feet before the line that it was going to happen. And it was just a crazy feeling -- seeing that victory.
Q: You elected to, after you won the race, to go and celebrate with those fans. I think I read somewhere like you've been planning on that, if you'd ever won the Indy500 you were going to go celebrate with them. What was that moment like? We were watching it on TV here in Charlotte. We're like, we love it, but oh my gosh, is he ever going to get out of that crazy pit of fans there?
A: Yeah, it was incredible to be able to do that. I had been wanting to do that ever since I started as a rookie, 12 years ago. I knew exactly where I wanted to park the car, where I wanted to go and I told myself if I'm ever lucky enough to win this race this is exactly what I'm doing. I'm going to go in the crowd, I'm going to enjoy it with everybody, and it was incredible. You know, I think the only thing that went differently in my mind was when I got through the fence, I felt like I was going to be able to climb a lot higher in the stands. I wanted to go to the very top and I quickly realized that I wasn't going to make it much further than the first couple of rows and it did turn pretty hectic. There were a lot of people around. They were all very excited and at that point, I was like 'I don't know that I could stay out here very long. I probably should start to head back to the track, find the team', but it was so cool. I mean, for me, the crowd the energy, that's what makes Indianapolis. There's no place like it and, you know, everything I could have imagined it would be like is exactly how it was. It just was overwhelming as far as the energy and joy. So just pretty cool to share that with everybody.
Contact Ashley Stroehlein at astro@wcnc.com and follow her on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.