Whether it’s winning three races and $1million with it, having his first baby, or helping to rebuild his #2 Penske team back up almost from scratch, it’s been a wild year for Josef Newgarden – who joins this episode of The Race IndyCar Podcast.
Newgarden earned the $1m – $500,000 of which goes to charity – for completing the trifecta of wins on a road course, street circuit and an oval over the first eight races, before any other driver even managed to win more than one race.
However, he discusses the “deflating moments” that have hamstrung his 2022 as despite his impressive wins – including in the most recent race at Road America – he still sits third, 32 points off the lead. How he turns that around is a big part of Newgarden’s focus which he discusses in detail.
He also delves into his team-mates’ interesting seasons, discussing resurgent Will Power’s mentality and how he operates in this space, while providing some behind the scenes detail on Scott McLaughin’s barren run and how he can be so hard on himself despite his relative inexperience.
There’s also some playing down of Newgarden’s chances going into the next two races, Mid-Ohio where he won last year and Iowa where he has dominated, as we look forward to the return of IndyCar action in just over a week’s time.
Finally, there’s the news that The Race IndyCar Podcast will feature a listeners’ questions special on next week’s episode.
You can tweet the hosts Jack Benyon and JR Hildebrand or email podcasts@the-race.com, either with a voicenote to be included on the episode, or just an old school written question for us to read out.
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