Over the offseason following the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series campaign, Josef Newgarden decided that a couple of things needed to change ahead of his eighth season driving for Team Penske.
After splitting with brand manager, Brian Simpson, and ceasing his involvement with the popular video series Bus Bros with Scott McLaughlin, Newgarden unfollowed everybody on social media, including his wife.
It was all a way to get refocused on his job, but there have been questions about Newgarden’s ability to seal the deal on road and street courses in IndyCar. Since the start of the 2022 season, Newgarden has won seven of 10 oval races. In that same time period, the Tennessee native’s last road course win was at Road America in June of 2022. His last street course win was Long Beach just two months earlier that same season.
But the most damning statistic is reserved for this January at the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Newgarden was the fourth driver in the No. 7 Porsche Penske entry in the GTP class. According to analytics firm The B Pillar, Newgarden was the third-slowest driver in the entire GTP field.
The only two drivers slower than Newgarden? Romain Dumas who was one month past his 46th birthday and 52-year-old automotive dealer Ben Keating.
What was going on? It might be as simple as Newgarden had fallen out of love with racing and he needed to rediscover his passion.
“It did start becoming a job,” Newgarden said in the post-race press conference. “This is how I make my living, and it’s how I provide for my family, and I’m showing up — it’s not a grueling job. Anyone would be lucky to be in the position that I’m in.
“But if you’re fortunate enough to be here and do this, you should enjoy it. It’s a very difficult job at the end of the day, too, because it’s purely results based. It’s hard to be in this type of job or position and know that you’re either here or not here based on your results. You’re either winning or you don’t have your seat. That’s literally how it works. It’s kind of hard to find that enjoyment factor.
“I’d always had it. I’d learned how to thrive in the pressure and still enjoy the job, and I think it just slipped away at one point. I was buried with a lot of other things, and I just tried to simplify my life and get back to happiness, and I think I’ve done that in a lot of ways. I feel really happy. I feel motivated.”
The defending Indianapolis 500 winner showed…
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