What Do Josef Newgarden, Team Penske Have To Do To Win Races?

NEWTON, Iowa — Josef Newgarden led a combined 304 laps at Iowa Speedway over the weekend.

He doesn’t have too much to show for it.

Yes, he finished second in Saturday’s race. But when a driver leads 232 of 275 laps, that driver believes that a trophy should accompany the effort. 

On Sunday, he still had arguably the best car but circumstances resulted in him leading 72 laps and finishing 10th.

Those results show what everyone has seen all year: Penske cars do have speed but execution and other bad luck have soured their season.

After a 2-3-4 finish Saturday with Newgarden, Will Power and Scott McLaughlin, they finished 10-24-26 in the second race of the weekend doubleheader. That was after Power had an engine issue for the second consecutive week and McLaughlin crashed when Devlin DeFrancesco got loose underneath him.

“We just have to keep doing what you are doing,” Newgarden said. “Team Penske is working incredibly hard. [Saturday] was a good day for everybody. You could see the spirits lift.

“They don’t need to change what they are doing. They are doing a great job. They brought a fast car here again today.”

It could be argued that no matter what’s occurring, doing the same thing would produce the same results. 

Power is eighth in the standings, McLaughlin is 12th and Newgarden sits in 14th.

“I have zero doubt in our process and what we do,” Newgarden said earlier in the weekend after winning the pole for the Saturday race. “I’ve been here a long time. I’ve worked with the best of the best.

“We have really good people. Still do. And I think the worst thing to do would be to change what our process is. To overreact would be the wrong decision. That’s definitely not what we should be doing.”

Newgarden called this a “unique” stretch. 

For a proud organization like Team Penske, it certainly isn’t easy. 

Newgarden had a slow pit stop that cost him track position Saturday and then, with another dominant car on Sunday, he had the misfortune of the yellow coming out when he was pitting. 

On a short track (0.894-mile) such as Iowa Speedway, he lost a lap in the sequence and then, when he got his lap back, he had to rally from the rear of the field. He regained the lead but another somewhat slow pit stop quickly followed by a caution cost him track position late in the race.

Newgarden has 31 career victories and hates to lose. So even the second-place finish Saturday was not one that thrilled him.

“With this [aero] package I was flat out,” Newgarden said about trying to pass Pato O’Ward at the end of the race Saturday. “I couldn’t do anything different. He got position, and that was that.”

As Newgarden was answering questions politely but not with long answers, Power needled him.

“Josef loves to answer questions at the moment,” Power said. “He’s seething. Seething. He didn’t win. He was close, man.”

For Power and McLaughlin, they could feel more of the same this year with good days and bad days. 

McLaughlin wrecked in qualifying on Saturday, meaning he had to start at the rear for both races. He worked his way from 27th to fourth in the first race, an incredible run. But his race on Sunday ended on the first lap when Devlin DeFrancesco got loose underneath him and they both wiped out.

“It’s the story of our year,” McLaughlin said.

McLaughlin could blame himself, as the crash Saturday put him in that position. Power had an engine issue that Chevrolet will look into.

“These things come at such inconvenient times, but everyone goes through it,” Power said. “It’s just one of those things.”

It obviously hasn’t been a smooth year for Penske, which released its three top INDYCAR executives after a technical issue during Indy 500 qualifying was the second significant violation since the start of the 2024 season.

Earlier this month, the organization announced that Jonathan Diuguid had been promoted to President of the INDYCAR and sports car programs while Travis Law was named Competition Director for the programs. Both Diuguid and Law had experience in INDYCAR but had been focusing on sports car roles in recent years. The NASCAR leadership did not change.

McLaughlin said Friday at Iowa that things do seem settled with the leadership in place.

“I wouldn’t want to be with another team in terms of when we’re down in this right now,” McLaughlin said. “With the resources, the people, I really think we’re going to be just fine.

“It’s going to take some time, but I feel like this is meant to happen and we’ll get going.”

The one thing that is important to realize, McLaughlin said, is that all three drivers, when they haven’t had the speed they wanted, are fighting similar issues. So where the team is focusing on getting better is across the board of the three teams.

“We’ve had a very good run,” McLaughlin said. “It’s just matter of maybe it was meant to happen, maybe this was meant to just put us through the hardest point to realize how good it is when we are going well.

“That’s how I’m looking at it. I’m full of positivity. … [Other teams] are doing great jobs. We’re working hard.”

Now they need to see the work turn into wins.

“We had plenty of potential to win a race all year,” Power said. “It is just a strange year.”

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.