Newgarden rues error but stays confident

Championship leader Newgarden slapped his Penske-Chevrolet into the barrier on the pitlane exit after his fourth pitstop on Lap 46 of the 60-lap race, and was then rammed by Dale Coyne Racing’s Sebastien Bourdais making a similar error.

Three more pitstops for repairs saw Newgarden finish 18^th, two laps down, while primary title rival Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing) finished second, and slashed his points deficit to the Penske driver from 31 to three points. The title will be decided in the Sonoma, Calif. finale in two weeks, a race which is worth double points.

Said Newgarden: “Regardless of the way today went it was going to come down to Sonoma. Obviously we’d have liked a bigger points cushion.

“[Coming into the pitbox] I slid forward too much and couldn’t stop. I thought we had [beaten] Will [Power] but obviously he did a good job cruising out of the pits, and I made a mistake just hitting the wall there.

“I just came out of the pits too hot, came off the [pitlane speed restrictor] button and slid wide. So a couple of mistakes on my part. Not good for the team but they’re resilient, they were there when I needed them today, and I’m sure they’ll give me what I need for Sonoma.”

Further explaining the accident, Newgarden commented: “It looks like a pretty big error but it’s easy to do when you’re pushing without tire warmers – but that’s the good thing about IndyCar: you want it to be difficult.

“I just made a miscalculation while watching Will, I went a bit too heavy on the brake pedal, lost grip, slid off. There might be something down, but I tend to think no, it was just my mistake on cold tires.”

Looking ahead to Sonoma in two weeks, Newgarden implied that not much would change in his attitude.

“It was always going to be a dogfight,” he remarked. “Whether we won this race and had a 60-point lead, we’d still have to finish pretty well at Sonoma. Sonoma’s going to be pretty tough – it’s double points. You’d have to have a 90-point lead or something crazy going into Sonoma, and that was going to be hard to get to.”

The points standings have Newgarden on 560 points, Dixon on 557, Helio Castroneves on 538, Simon Pagenaud on 526 and Power on 492.

“I think Will closed up a little bit and Simon [Pagenaud] and Helio [Castroneves] are going to be in this,” Newgarden said, “so it’s going to be a five-horse race, a lot of people in it, and the team that’s most prepared is gonna get it done.”

“I know we have the capability to do it. It’s going to come down to us executing which Team Penske knows how to do and we’ll try to make it happen.”