Team Penske driver earns bonus for season triple crown achievement.
- O’Ward’s Misfortune Is Rossi’s Fortune
- Long Day for Jimmie Johnson
- Marcus Ericsson Back on Top
- Welcome Back, Simona
- Results, Updated Points
You might say Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden won two races for the price of one in Sunday’s Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America.
And boy did he cash in.
First, Newgarden won the 55-lap race, holding off runner-up and Indianapolis 500 winner Marcus Ericsson, as well as depriving pole sitter and third-place finisher Alexander Rossi of his first win since 2019.
Josef Newgarden’s win Sunday was his third of the season and 23rd of his IndyCar career.
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“I was just trying to stay focused on what I had to do,” Newgarden said of the five-lap sprint to the checkered flag off the final restart.
Wrapping up the top-5 were Romain Grosjean and Colton Herta.
But equally as important—and perhaps more importantly to the wallets of Newgarden and his team members—he earned a $1 million bonus by becoming the first driver to win on IndyCar’s three different types of tracks: oval (Texas), street course (Long Beach) and road course (Road America) by the PeopleReady Force for Good Challenge.
Newgarden and his team take home half that cool million, while the other half goes to charity.
“Just so proud to be here and PeopleReady, I kept forgetting about this million bucks, and now finally to get it done and most importantly to give that money to charity, half of that money is going to SeriousFun Children’s Network and Wags and Walks in Nashville,” Newgarden said. “I hope they’re happy about it because that’s a lot of money coming their way.
A $1 million bonus put a smile on the face of Josef Newgarden’s wife, Ashley, Sunday at Road America.
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“That’s what makes IndyCar so tough. It’s impossible to predict what’s going to happen. … To be able to hit all these disciplines with this team is, for me, it’s just the best series in the world. I just love driving IndyCar.”
Newgarden, who moves up two spots into third place in the driver standings, 32 points behind Ericsson and just five points behind Team Penske teammate Will Power, earned the win as Road America celebrated the 40th anniversary of its first Indy car race, held in 1982 (under CART sanctioning).
Ericsson now regains the points lead by 27 points over Power, who was No. 1 after winning last Sunday in the final race at Detroit’s Belle Isle.
Pato O’Ward had a rough day at Road America on Sunday.
Penske Entertainment/Joe Skibinski
O’Ward’s Misfortune Is Rossi’s Fortune
Rossi’s teammate starting next season at Arrow McLaren SP, Pato O’Ward, lost his engine with seven laps to go, forcing him to pull off the track and bring out a full-course yellow caution.
O’Ward’s misfortune (he finished 26th in the 27-driver field) proved to be fortunate to Rossi, who had been gaining the previous six laps on race leader Newgarden, cutting Newgarden’s 3.4-second lead to 2.8 seconds when the caution came out.
But alas, it was not enough for Rossi to rally back from, as Newgarden pulled away and Ericsson passed Rossi to take away the eventual runner-up spot.
“Probably a little disappointing when you start on pole and can’t convert,” Rossi said. “It was generally a good day I think. Josef had a little bit better pace than us. I think we were the second best car. We were pretty aggressive on the (final) restart there to try and do something, just kind of overstepped a little bit. That’s what allowed Marcus to get by. Ultimately I don’t know that we would have been able to win.
“A little disappointing, but all in all I think it was a very positive weekend for us for obvious reasons (including starting from the pole).”
Still, Rossi continues to ride a streak of momentum and building confidence.
“I think you get a little bit of confidence as results come,” Rossi said. “Yeah, I mean, I guess we’re still looking for a win. But it’s certainly been a lot different these past couple races than it has been for the races preceding that. That’s a good thing. There’s still areas we can improve and need to be better.”
Seven-time NASCAR Cup champion Jimmie Johnson continues to find the going difficult in IndyCar.
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Long Day for Jimmie Johnson
Even with Ericsson’s runner-up finish, it was still a rough day for team owner Chip Ganassi.
First, Jimmie Johnson’s struggles continued. Johnson wasn’t even able to get through Turn 3 on the opening lap before going through the gravel and landing in the grass.
The seven-time NASCAR Cup champion, now in his second IndyCar season, appeared to have made contact with Tatiana Calderon, who was trying to avoid making contact with her A.J. Foyt Racing teammate, Dalton Kellett.
Johnson stalled his Honda and was unable to get restarted before the rest of the field made it around the 14-turn, 4.104-mile road course, prompting a yellow caution flag to be thrown. He finally was able to get his engine going, but wound up one lap off the pace.
Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson finished second at Road America.
Penske Entertainment/Joe Skibinski
Johnson finished 24th, one lap behind the leaders. It was the 15th time in 20 career IndyCar starts that Johnson has finished 20th or worse.
Then, just two laps later, two other Chip Ganassi Racing drivers came together, as Indianapolis 500 winner Marcus Ericsson clipped wheels with defending NTT IndyCar Series champion and last year’s winner at Road America, Alex Palou, sending Palou into the gravel in Turn 5 and suffering damage to his front suspension.
“I just think he was trying to win the race on the third lap and yep, the car broke and that’s it, game over,” Palou said of Ericsson on NBC. “I was surprised my teammate hit me, not that the car broke. The car is a single-seater, so when you have a hard hit like that, it just broke. It was just bad luck.”
Then Palou said something that may prompt Ganassi to bring Palou and Ericsson together for a talk: “But we can play this game as well, so we’ll see.”
Palou finished last in the 27-driver field.
“From inside the car, the door was open there,” Ericsson said. “I went for the move. Alongside him at the apex, made the corner. From my side, he turns into me from the outside lane. You hate to see your teammate retire from a contact with you. That’s the last thing you want to do.
“I don’t see I did anything wrong. It was a fully race move. Might have been early in the race, but this race is a track-position race. If you get an opportunity, you need to go for it. As I said, there was nothing wrong with that move. That was clear on the TV (replay).”
Marcus Ericsson regained the season points lead with a runner-up finish in Wisconsin.
Penske Entertainment/Joe Skibinski
Marcus Ericsson Back on Top
Ericsson regains the top spot in the NTT IndyCar Series driver standings. Will Power drops to second, 27 points behind Ericsson, while Newgarden is third, 32 points back.
“It’s going to be tough all the way (to the end of the season),” Ericsson said. “It’s so competitive in the series at the moment. Any given weekend can be a new winner. It’s hard to be even in the top 10 if you don’t get everything right.
“I think it’s going to be a tough season, a long season. We put ourselves in a really good position now, leading. So we just got to keep doing what we’ve been doing. Yeah, I think we’re in a strong position, but it’s going to require a lot of hard work, keep doing what we’ve been doing.”
Simona de Silvestro was back in an IndyCar race for the first time since the 2021 Indy 500.
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Welcome Back, Simona
For the first time since the 2015 Indianapolis 500, there were two female racers in the field.
Simona De Silvestro, making her first start since last year’s Indy 500 (and 70th career IndyCar start), finished 21st for Paretta Autosport. It was the first of three planned races for De Silvestro and Paretta Autosport, with the other two scheduled events at Mid-Ohio and the street course race in Nashville.
Meanwhile, NTT IndyCar Series rookie Tatiana Calderon finished 25th for A.J. Foyt Racing.
Results, Updated Points
Results Sunday of the Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America presented by AMR NTT IndyCar Series event on the 4.048-mile Road America, with order of finish, starting position in parentheses:
1. (2) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 55, Running2. (4) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 55, Running3. (1) Alexander Rossi, Honda, 55, Running4. (6) Romain Grosjean, Honda, 55, Running5. (11) Colton Herta, Honda, 55, Running6. (7) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 55, Running7. (8) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 55, Running8. (22) Graham Rahal, Honda, 55, Running9. (9) Scott Dixon, Honda, 55, Running10. (13) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 55, Running11. (12) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 55, Running12. (10) Simon Pagenaud, Honda, 55, Running13. (20) Jack Harvey, Honda, 55, Running14. (18) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 55, Running15. (19) Takuma Sato, Honda, 55, Running16. (14) David Malukas, Honda, 55, Running17. (17) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 55, Running18. (21) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 55, Running19. (15) Will Power, Chevrolet, 55, Running20. (24) Kyle Kirkwood, Chevrolet, 55, Running21. (27) Simona De Silvestro, Chevrolet, 55, Running22. (16) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 55, Running23. (23) Dalton Kellett, Chevrolet, 55, Running24. (26) Jimmie Johnson, Honda, 54, Running25. (25) Tatiana Calderon, Chevrolet, 54, Running26. (5) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 46, Mechanical
27. (3) Alex Palou, Honda, 36, Contact
Race StatisticsWinner’s average speed:117.174 mphTime of Race:01:53:02.8097Margin of victory:3.3710 secondsCautions:5 for 9 laps
Lead changes:10 among 7 drivers
Lap Leaders:Rossi, Alexander 1 – 14Ericsson, Marcus 15 – 16Sato, Takuma 17Rosenqvist, Felix 18 – 24Newgarden, Josef 25 – 27Rossi, Alexander 28 – 29Grosjean, Romain 30Lundgaard, Christian 31Newgarden, Josef 32 – 41Ericsson, Marcus 42
Newgarden, Josef 43 – 55
NTT INDYCAR SERIES Point Standings: Ericsson 293, Power 266, Newgarden 261, O’Ward 248, Palou 246, Dixon 224, Rossi 218, Rosenqvist 203, McLaughlin 199, Pagenaud 197.
Keyword: How Josef Newgarden's IndyCar Win at Road America Was Worth a Cool $1 Million Bonus