CHEVROLET IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIES 1.33-mile Nashville Superspeedway tri-ovalLebanon, TennesseeRace ReportAugust 31 LEBANON, Tennessee (August 31, 2025) – Josef Newgarden and the No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet won an exciting 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season finale, giving the Bowtie five trips to victory lane in the last seven races. Team Chevy dominated a chaotic race, leading 207 of 225 laps, with Scott McLaughlin in the No. 3 DEX Imaging Team Penske Chevrolet joining his teammate on the podium and Conor Daly in the No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Chevrolet finishing fifth.  Pole winner Pato O’Ward in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet dominated early, leading 116 of the first 126 laps until a mechanical issue ended his day early.  The No. 14 Phoenix Investors A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet, with Santino Ferrucci behind the wheel, was on the move early, going from 12th to fourth before a penalty sent him to the back of the field before finishing eighth, leading all drivers with 36 on-track passes.  Newgarden’s win is the 237th all-time for Chevrolet in the INDYCAR SERIES and the 127th since the introduction of the twin-turbo 2.2L V6 in 2012. Newgarden now has 32 career wins, all of them powered by Chevrolet, leading all Bowtie drivers. It was Newgarden’s 20th win on an oval and 14th trip to victory lane on a short oval (those 1.3-mile or under). Of Team Penske’s 246 wins, 124 have been Chevrolet-powered, including 87 since 2012. It was his first win at Nashville Superspeedway and the 14th different track that the 34-year-old has visited victory lane, extending his win streak to 11 years. McLaughlin’s daring last-lap pass rewarded him with his third podium of the season and the 22nd of his career. After a hard impact in Turn 2, David Malukas in the No. 4 Clarience Technologies A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet, out of an abundance of caution, was taken to the hospital. He was released after all scans came back clear.

Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix Race Results:

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet won: I’m just glad we got one without anything going wrong. For the No. 2 crew. Just happy to celebrate with this team. They deserve it. It’s rewarding for our team; they’ve done a great job. Obviously, Will won in Portland, which was a huge lift for everybody, and he really deserved it. I think he could have won this race today. It was a shame to see what happened to him. He’s a legend. It was great for our team, Astemo, and Team Chevy. Tough year, tough, tough year, but good to get a win here at the end.  How about doing it here at home in Nashville and the great crowd.  It’s pretty great. I think we should be racing in Nashville to end the year all the time. We don’t need to be going anywhere else. I don’t care if it’s this track or somewhere else. But, in the vicinity would be a good thing. It’s great to be at home. Pumped! Just pumped! Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 DEX Imaging Team Penske Chevrolet 3rd: “I’m not exhausted. I’m fine. I’m just really gutted for my guys. I just got a little high there. Just trying to protect my entry and, just got too high.  I can’t believe the DEX Imaging Chevy was okay. I think it was a little bent at the end, but I wanted a podium bad, and I just kept my foot in it. And the last lap, I just sent it, and I was like, if I hit the fence, I hit the fence. I don’t know. But the handle only went away little bit. But I just held it flat, and didn’t really care if we went in the fence or not. And thankfully, it stuck, and I was glad to get the boys a podium. But congrats to Josef. Congrats to the team Penske. It’s a great end to our year. We were good today. Just not good enough.”

Conor Daly, No. 76 Juncos Holliger Racing Chevrolet 5th: “Honestly, I was just hoping we were gonna finish it out there because I I didn’t know how good the reds would be, on a restart when they cool down. And Scott (McLaughlin) was proof. We both fired it into turn one on that last restart, and we nearly ended up both in the wall just with no grip. So, to hang on to a top five is really cool. Appreciate the All American Rejects for being a part of our car. And Chevrolet, honestly, thank you so much to Chevrolet all year. It’s just good to finish on a high note. This team deserved it after a tough start to the weekend. Just wish we could have finished it off on the podium.” Callum Ilott, No, 90 PREMA Racing Chevrolet 9th: “It was a good race. We stabilised in the mid pack throughout the middle of the race, and we decided that the Alternate was good towards the end of the race. I did have a bit of vibration during one of the stints which was a bit scary. However, we were able to move forwards after the last stop with the newer tires and made some decent moves. The crew did a good job in the pits and Chevrolet did a great job with the engine, so overall a positive way to end the season.” Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 Phoenix Investors A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet 8th:“Honestly, my crew did a phenomenal job all day. This one’s on me, and under the caution – you know? I was in the mindset of Gateway, and I pitted off of turn three, instead of off of turn four. Gave us an end of the line penalty when we were running sixth early on in the race, and that would have made for an easy day. “But, you know, we came back, finished eighth, passed probably 10 cars on one of those restarts. I mean, the guys did an incredible job over the wall, passed a bunch of people in pit lane as well. So a little hairy at the end there between a couple of competitors, and broke the front wing and finished off the last stint with the front wing all mangled too. So, honestly, it was a hell of a day. “I had a really good feeling for the high line in the first half of the race. Once the front wing broke and I was kind of sure it was if something was wrong, it was a little bit more of a gamble for me. And when I got towards the end of the race, I was just trying not to take too many more chances than I needed to. “I can’t wait until next year, and I want to thank Sexton Properties, Phoenix Investors, Vensure HR, ABC Supply, and Homes for our Troops. I mean, this whole team’s done a phenomenal job. Cannot wait to come back next year.” Alexander Rossi, No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Java House Chevrolet 10th: “It was going to be tough starting where we did. We stayed aggressive on strategy all day and got a respectable result. The No. 20 Java House Chevrolet was good all weekend, we just didn’t seem to have overall pace. Lots of positives to take from the year, lots of room to grow. We’ll start prepping for 2026 now.” Robert Shwartzman, No. 83 PREMA Racing Chevrolet 14th: “That’s the final round finished. I don’t really have much to say after we lost the Rookie of the Year battle in the final few laps after my drive through penalty. I was defending for my position on the restart and got the penalty, so we lost out on the title and on a top ten finish as I was running eighth at the time. It’s a shame because the car was really fast and I was having a lot of fun, so I’m sure we could’ve finished in the top ten even though I did make a mistake in the final pit stop. Thanks to the team for the great car, it felt really good all weekend, it’s just a shame with the final result.” Sting Ray Robb, No. 77 Juncos Holliger Racing Chevrolet 16th: “Year-end finale at Nashville Superspeedway. It was chaos. Seems like there was a lot of attrition out there. Some big hits for some of the leaders, which was pretty crazy to see, but that just shows you how competitive the series is and how tough the track was today. So, I’m really happy with this team. “You know, they’ve worked so hard this year, and I’m very thankful to be a part of it and to come back to a place where I won a championship before it feels like home. So, I know that we got some learning to do, but, this is going be a season to build on for sure. And I think that, Conor did a great job this year. Congrats to him for today for another top five. That was really fun to see. We’ll put our heads back on after a couple week break and then see what we can learn and see how we can move forward.” Nolan Siegel, No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet 17th: “We had a lot of pace. We qualified 7th yesterday with a really strong run, but then we had the engine change so we started 16th today. That put us in the thick of it in the race. This season we’ve had many days where there’s been a lot of potential, and we haven’t ended up finishing the weekend. I’ve made mistakes, other issues happened that were out of our control, we’ve just had bad luck. All in all, it was really important to build momentum for 2026. Today, to do a race distance, have a clean day, smooth day: that’s what we did.” Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet finished 21st: “The Verizon Chevy was fast today, and it definitely showed there to start the race. I wish it had all played out differently so we could end the season with a strong result that I know our team was capable of. Really excited for Josef (Newgarden) to get the win, though.”  Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet finished 24th: “We were moving today in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. All weekend it’s been such a joy to drive. Sadly, we ended up moving into the wall. That’s sometimes how it goes. These things are out of your control. All you can do is move on, keep on growing, keep on working on the things that we know we’ve been doing well, and also get better. Thank you to all the fans. Thank you to all of our partners who have been with us all year, and we look forward to 2026.” Christian Lundgaard, No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet finished 25th: “It’s been an amazing season with this team and credit to the No. 7 VELO Arrow McLaren Chevy crew for giving it our all from start to finish. They gave me a fast car all weekend, and we could have clinched third in the standings with the pace we had. Unfortunately our day ended with an issue outside our control, and that was it for the season. We’re keeping our spirits high and know we’ve got more to accomplish in 2026. Thanks to our team partners and the Arrow McLaren fans who’ve been cheering us on all year long.” David Malukas, No. 4 Clarience Technologies A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet finished 26th:  Christian Rasmussen, No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Splenda Stevia Chevrolet finished 27th: I got away pretty good at the start. I got a good jump and got an opportunity to go to the high side, which is where I wanted to be. It seemed like I lost the rear end. I’m not sure why. I guess it was just very low grip. It was low grip up there and around I went.

NTT INDYCAR SERIES News ConferenceSunday, August 31, 2025Josef NewgardenJonathan DiuguidPress Conference THE MODERATOR: We’re joined by the champion of the race, Josef Newgarden. First win of the season. 32nd career win, which ties him with Al Unser Jr. for ninth all time. Also joined by Penske Racing president Jonathan Diuguid. Josef, better late than ever to get a win here in 2025. Your thoughts, to do it here in Nashville? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Very special. Never a bad time to show up and have a good day. I think the team really performed like you expect from Team Penske. I think we’ve had the same core that Team Penske’s always had throughout this whole year in a lot of ways. You saw it again today, just the men and women across the board. Really didn’t matter which car. There was a point midway through the race, I came on the radio, Look at Will, looked amazing, incredible. He could have won the race today. I think Scott could have won the race. That’s the cool thing about Team Penske. You walk into that building, it really doesn’t matter which car you’re looking at, I would be privileged to step in any one of them. I think they give you a shot to win the race. It’s cool to be part of this team. We’ve got great leadership and depth across the board. I think that’s what carried us through this weekend to bring in this result. THE MODERATOR: Jonathan, a nice finish for 2025, two at the podium, the win at Portland. A lot of good things happening towards the end. JONATHAN DIUGUID: Yeah, obviously to win the last race of the season is a good stepping off point for next year, the best way you can end the championship or season. It’s been a difficult year for us, but we’ve had strong performances the last few races. Like Josef mentioned, all three cars led laps today throughout different phases. New downforce configuration this weekend. We didn’t know how it was going to pan out. When it came time to go, Scott and Josef was at the front, Will was up there earlier on. A really solid day for the entire group. THE MODERATOR: Open it up for questions. Q. Josef, if you were sitting here a year ago, this would have been a normal thing. Felt like there’s a lot of relief after what has been the craziest year where nothing went right. Talk about this, a classic Newgarden feel to this victory. JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I don’t have a great answer for you. It doesn’t feel that different. Nothing went diabolically wrong. I tried to throw it in the bin there in the final pit stop. On the edge, but not over it (smiling). Like a meteor didn’t come out of the sky today, which was nice. Other than that, it felt like a normal day in a lot of respects. It was not an easy race. I did not have the car where I wanted it at the start right away. I’m like, Okay, we’re nowhere where we need to be, let’s be patient. We just did our thing like we always do: assessed everybody, hung there, went when we needed to go. We got the car in a really good spot in the end. I was like, Now we have a race-winning car. Let’s close the deal. That whole sequence felt very normal to me. Just proud of the team. More than anything, when I show up and I’m ready to see the team rewarded for the effort. I really mean that. You have no idea what goes on. Some of you guys do know what goes on. It is grueling to get to these races and to get through the weekend, put a car on the track that’s capable of winning, hitting all your marks every second of the race. It’s just so difficult to do. To get that reward for the team… We had it in Portland, which was great for everybody. We had it today. That’s probably the highlight for me, just to see everybody rewarded for the effort and what they put in the end. Q. (Question about many drivers with problems in the race.) JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I become so oblivious to it at this point, I’m not even looking for it anymore. If it happened, I would expect it, so… Yeah, I was just driving today. Q. John, two wins from the last three races. You said y’all aren’t really trying to do anything differently. The ingredients are there. Just needed to have clean runs. Speak to that. Seems proof that the formula is there. JONATHAN DIUGUID: Yeah, no, Josef mentioned it before, we got a good, strong core. Didn’t mean that we didn’t have difficult conversations about where we needed to be. Different issues with other cars, people making mistakes, it shows how tight the field is. We didn’t lift off the gas for these last few races, we pushed down further. I think that goes to show how we showed up today and how we raced on all three cars. Q. Josef, we used to talk about how significant it was for you to win at Indy. You won there. Talked about winning here. It’s not the same, close, but where does it rank? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Oh, definitely up there. This was a hard race to win today. There was no gimmes. Got such depth across the board, everybody is so close as far as the competitive landscape, it’s just hard to find an advantage on anyone nowadays. This was a hard race to win. It’s satisfying when you win a race in this environment. Then to win it at my hometown was really gratifying. I mean, I used to come here when was 12, 13 years old and I would watch stockcar races, INDYCAR races. I’d watch anything that came here. I sat in those stands, wherever I was able to go at the end of the race. Had no idea that I would have a racing career at that point in my life. It’s cool to come full circle and to be so close to home. I love being here in Nashville, too, for the season finale. I like it for INDYCAR. It’s a great destination for us. Good for Nashville and certainly good for the series. I think we should continue that tradition. I love this track. Whether it’s here, somewhere else in the future, as long as we’re in the Nashville vicinity, I’m going to be a happy guy. Q. Talk about how much this means to you in terms of your confidence level going into 2026. JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Honestly no difference. I think it’s probably more a team question. This season, tough year on the team. I think the schedule was tough this year. Everybody just kept working, kept their head down, kept doing their jobs. If anything, that’s what’s gratifying I think for us as a unit. It definitely can send us into the off-season and we can go to work. At the end of the day we need to go to work. We need to have a better 2026, and we’re ready to do that. Q. Obviously your team has been informed about the tire troubles of Pato O’Ward. What was going through your mind when you had this information? Did you feel it could happen to you as well? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I immediately got feedback from the team that we were doing a pretty good job at managing our temperatures. We seemed to be in line with our metrics. That gave me a lot of comfort. I think we heightened our awareness to it after that. The guys were feeding me a lot of information after that to make sure I stayed in line. I wasn’t too worried because of what they were telling me. Q. Penske started off the season, especially at the Indy 500, as a team who almost nothing went your way. How does this result revitalize the team going into 2026? JONATHAN DIUGUID: I think Josef mentioned it. The INDYCAR season ends beginning of September. There’s long winter off months. Being able to finish with a win, it’s the last race that everyone went to. It’s hugely rewarding and a good springboard for 2026. Q. Josef, when you saw Scott have his trouble after such a tumultuous season, what did that feel like in the cockpit where suddenly you’re in the lead, got a break that went your way? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I’ll be straight up with you, I was about to pass him. I didn’t care. I was like whatever. That’s a real answer for you. Q. Obviously the end of the season has been much better than the beginning of the season for Team Penske. Was there a moment internally that was a pivot point in positivity? JONATHAN DIUGUID: No, not really. Obviously our short oval package is quite strong. We were strong in Iowa, Milwaukee, strong here this weekend. The calendar helped us a little bit. As Josef mentioned, we have to improve on some other types of circuits. Today it was about execution. That’s the biggest thing, showing the group and the team we could still do it. Just brings a level of excitement back. Q. After such a difficult season, is it a relief to take victory at home, knowing you would have entered a winter with a winless year? What does that mean to you, winning at home? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Please don’t be mad at me. It really didn’t cross my mind. I wasn’t worried about any of that. For me, genuinely you got to focus on just doing the best job that you can, everything within your control. I think the same on the team side. If you do that, you leave, you do the best job you could, you can be satisfied to some degree leaving the track. That was my only focus. I had a little bit of a mistake there at that last pit stop. If that had hurt us ultimately for the result, I would have been bummed by that because that was in my control. But that was the focus is what I’m trying to tell you. I just was trying to hit my marks as best that I could today. That’s all that was going through my mind. Q. Up-and-down season. Did you take an extra moment to take this all in? The competition level in INDYCAR, these are hard to come by. JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Definitely. I mean, not yet, to answer your question. I’m ready to go home. Q. Josef, busy off-season coming up with a baby on the way. How much are you looking forward to not racing, just getting back and being a dad and husband again for a little while? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I mean, candidly I’m looking forward to it. I’d like to go away and start to miss it again. Sometimes that’s what you want, is to miss something. That’s my plan. Q. You mentioned throughout the season keeping the faith a little bit, looking at each race and trying to take it individually. How do you think that helped you throughout the season? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I mean, I think whenever there’s difficulty, I’m going to let Jonathan speak to this, it was a trying year for the team. I think for us just to stay focused. It’s one thing individually, but I think it’s even harder from a whole team standpoint to do that. JONATHAN DIUGUID: What Josef was mentioning, when you’re not winning, you can question everything. You can question Josef’s performance to the pit crew to the car setup to reliability, everything that affected our year. We really have to sit down and focus on our processes, try to trust in what you believe is right. I think what we’ve seen over the past couple races is that the processes work. We have a little bit more work to do to get back to the top of where we’re used to being. In general it’s easy to get sidetracked, get down on yourself, questioning everything. That’s where the team excelled, we just sat and talked about the facts, how we need to improve together. Q. Did you try to go whole doughnut there on the celebration? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I did, yeah. I was going to do that. I got the angle wrong. I’ll just leave is there. I wanted to go in the crowd. I thought that was cool if they opened the gate. I almost lied about it. I was just going to half slide. But I messed it up, unfortunately. I was going to burn that thing to the ground, too. That’s the saddest thing for me. Chevrolet probably wouldn’t have been happy about that. It’s probably good what happened, to be quite honest with you. I was going to go until it stopped. Q. You said something like this was for the pigs. Can you explain that at all? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I said no one’s going to understand that. Chad Gordon, my crew chief on the 2 car, he gave an incredible pre-race speech in Milwaukee. I think you’ll have to ask him about this. I don’t know that I’m going to relay this speech. It involved pig farming. He had a stuffed pig today. It was for the pigs. Yeah, I don’t know how to elaborate much more on this. He gave a great team speech and we all felt it. We rallied behind that at the end of today. That’s about the only way I can surmise it for you. Q. Was this about bacon or poop? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: No, no, no. It was with team moral. JONATHAN DIUGUID: More wholesome than that. JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Very wholesome. Q. Does this win at all change how you will look back on this season? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Boy, that’s a good question. I don’t know. No. I mean, probably not, if I really think about it. Mostly because I’ve seen the win potential in this team all year, I mean, so many different times. Whether it’s Indianapolis or it’s a place like Long Beach or St. Petersburg. Actually, I think the glaring weak point for us right now is road courses. But there’s been a lot of strength across the calendar. This win, it’s not even like it’s validation. I saw the potential of it all year for the group. I don’t really feel differently about it being realized. I’m just happy for everybody. Happy that they’re able to enjoy it. JONATHAN DIUGUID: Does keep your season winning streak alive. JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I got to be honest, I didn’t care about that anymore. I really didn’t. I know we have that. But what does it matter? I used to be a big stats guy. I don’t care about stats anymore. That doesn’t anymore, I guess is my point. Q. Did you feel something wrong with the tires or do you feel like the tires are weaker? It was said maybe we have to talk with the company because the tires are wrong with all the competition. JONATHAN DIUGUID: I think there were some tire issues today. Majority of the field got it right. The tires performed well all day, both the alternates and the primaries. Not to say that they did anything wrong. Like Josef mentioned, we kind of did our homework and knew what we needed to do. We’ve suffered with tire issues on short ovals from years ago, tried to understand what we needed to do. That’s what paid off today, not having a tire failure. But the degradation of our tires was quite low relative to everybody else. Q. Josef, as you head into this off-season, you told us yesterday you would love a week or two, then be able to get back at it, you’ve used these off-seasons to evaluate your approach. Do you have any plans on using this off-season to look at or change anything up about how you go about trying to attack 2026? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Not at the moment. Q. About 22 laps to go, you take the lead from Scott McLaughlin. The caution flies. What was your thought there? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: At that point we were in prime position to seal the victory. That was the only thing in my mind, was let’s close the deal here. When you get an opportunity to close the deal in an INDYCAR race, you want to do that. Harder than it looks, to be quite honest with you. It’s like climbing a mountain to get to that point. You put yourself in position to say, Okay, we’ve run this day, we are here, let’s close the deal and get the result. I knew for us, they’re giving me this scorecard, this is how many laps, this is what you need to do. I’m looking at my tools, looking at everything, planning how do I need to drive this last 12 or 13 laps when it goes green. That’s what’s going through my mind. We’ve done all this work, gotten to this point, let’s close the deal and realize the victory. THE MODERATOR: Anytime you can tie the great Al Unser Jr. in the stat sheet, that’s a pretty good year. Congratulations. JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Thank you.

NTT INDYCAR SERIES News ConferenceSunday, August 31, 2025Scott McLaughlinPress Conference THE MODERATOR: Third-place finishing driver today, Scott McLaughlin. One of those races you look back and watch, a lot of action. SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah. THE MODERATOR: Your thoughts on finishing 2025 with a podium? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I had an absolute blast, man. That was so much fun. Restarts were intense. Yeah, it did string out a little bit, as it always does, mid to late stint. I think the exchanges and the restarts were phenomenal. Yeah, obviously bittersweet for me. Third is great. I’m glad I sort of held on to that at the end. I felt like I could have held off Josef there. He was controlling his lane. I just turned a little late, got caught. Nearly saved it. Once you’re sort of out there, it’s hard to get it back. Thankful I was able to straighten the wheel just before I hit the fence. The car was straight. I was able to push on, yeah. Very good end to our season. Great team win. But I’m pissed off at myself. THE MODERATOR: For? Could have been more? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I feel like it’s just been one of those years, haven’t quite put everything together. Had plenty of speed. Very lucky to get a podium today. I have to give massive props to Kyffin Simpson. Probably the best oval race I’ve had. Felt like 2006 or something. Pinned around the outside, gave me some room. If he came up, I was in the fence hard. Big props to Kyff. Really, really happy to race him. I thought the racing out there was really fair. I don’t know what happened to Malukas and Foster. Yeah, I thought it was a really good, proper goddamn INDYCAR oval race. Yeah, anyway, let’s get this going. I want to go to Broadway (smiling). THE MODERATOR: Open it up for questions for Scott McLaughlin. Q. In the long off-season is there a possibility we see you somewhere else, maybe in Europe? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I’m racing at Suzuka in a couple weeks in a Corvette. Working on a couple other things right now. Won’t be at Petit. It’s my daughter’s birthday, first birthday. I’ll actually be in Australia at the time spending a little bit of time there. Not racing anything, just going to hang by the beach, have a bit of fun. I don’t know. Couple little forks in the iron, in the pot. THE MODERATOR: Stokes. Iron in the fire. SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Iron in the fire. There we go. Yeah, that’s where we’re at. Q. Would you mind taking us through those final laps with you’re battles with Kyffin Simpson. What did you think when he overtook you in the closing laps? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I made sure as soon as he got in front of me, I kept that lane open as much as I could. I didn’t care if I was the only one up there. I used it until I couldn’t. Kept there, kept there. I got a really good run off one, sort of psyched him to go to defend me. I wasn’t going to pass him on the inside into three. I wanted him to go so it cramped his entry. Then I was able to get a really good run through three, four. Basically just held it flat. It was one of those ones where if I’m in the fence, worst case probably sixth. Like I said, that kid raced me with a lot of respect. He’s getting better and better every week. I really did enjoy racing him. Like I said, probably my best battle ever on an oval. Q. We need some more of these bigger ovals on the schedule. They’re a lot of fun. This season for Team Penske as a whole, up and down. Talk about St. Pete to today, the roller coaster of a season you’ve had with the team. What does it mean to finish on the podium and take that momentum into the off-season? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, I think we’ve had really good speed all year, as we’ve always said. Not quite Palou. He’s been standout. That’s on top of everyone. Massive props to him. Everyone needs to be better. Certainly a different team, different look, different look inside. It’s got a great future. I see light at the end of the tunnel. Very excited for what’s ahead. I think Roger is pumped and ready to go. Wants not only INDYCAR to be amazing, but our team, too. He’s pushing us. Yeah, it’s exciting. Yeah, I’m glad to finish out the way it is. It’s nice to have a beautiful, long off-season. At the same time I kind of wish we had six or seven races left. It’s not realistic. These big ovals are great. We need people to come to them. At the end of the day it’s on everyone to work yourselves, everyone be positive, get people coming to our races. Very excited for the future of INDYCAR. I can’t wait to be a part of it. Hopefully we can, yeah, as a team grow and grow. Q. What does this do for your confidence going into the off-season, having had a strong end to the season? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, I don’t think I lost a heap of confidence throughout the year. It’s just nice to have a couple good results. Like I said, it’s bittersweet to end right now, knowing we were coming into our own a little bit, having strong results. It’s kind of nice to have this off-season now. I felt like we just got our feet on the ground with people. Now we can really work this off-season to be better, work together, smoothen things out. We know exactly where we need to be better. We have the people, the personnel, to improve. I’m very excited for that. But yeah, it’s a long off-season. Is it a needed off-season? I think so. It’s going to be really nice for us. Yeah, I’m sad as a race car driver I’m not racing my car next week. Q. It’s been a tough season across the board for everybody at Team Penske. A little bit of cause to celebrate when Will won a couple weeks ago. Roger finally I don’t want to say looked ecstatic, but he looked relieved when he left Victory Lane. How important was it to finally see the guy that runs everything to get a break? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, I mean, I’m glad Josef won because I would have got a kick up the ass. Fantastic. I’m very happy for Roger. He’s been through a lot obviously. But he’s a great leader, someone that I respect immensely. Yeah, very happy for him to just get some results. As we know, we are strong on ovals. We needed to be better at other places. Important we had a win here. Important that we won on an oval. Yeah, it’s just nice to give him some results and give him something to be happy with. Q. When you had the moment out of turn two, how quickly did you go from being upset that you nearly lost it to the fact that you realized you’re not in that bad of shape? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, I dropped the right rear. I tried to save it. Went up the track a little bit. Then I knew I was definitely gone. I tried to sort of pedal it a little bit and straighten the wheel when I hit the fence. Thankfully that saved it. I was pleased. Entry of three, this thing is kind of still straight. For me it was just about cleaning the tires off. Benny, my engineer/strategist, was super good on the radio, kept me calm, which is sometimes hard to do. Yeah, the restart, I think Conor Daly, he had alternates on, a mushy feeling tire. Softer, but felt a little bit loose on the restart. That’s why I lost out to Palou there. Yeah, I’m sad I probably didn’t get to keep second because I think I had something there for Josef. Would have been fun. Hey, we’re good. Keep pushing. Q. Penske started off the season and especially at the Indy 500 as a team where almost nothing went your way. How does this result revitalize the team going into 2026? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Like I said, it’s bittersweet to end right now because we’re on a bit of a momentum. Gives us a chance to reset, recuperate, smoothen things out within the team. We’re in a great spot right now. Really genuinely see a lot of light at the end of the tunnel. Everyone is getting better. We’ve got to get better ourselves. But I’m really trusting and confident that the (indiscernible) gets better, get better for next year, start the season right in 2026. 2026? Jesus. Q. You mentioned your battle with Kyffin. You were teammates in IMSA. You hear a lot of drivers talk about the best oval racing happens when you trust the driver that is alongside of you. Talk about your relationship. SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Outside of the LMP2 thing, I haven’t raced Kyffin a ton, at least on an oval. I put a lot of trust in what Kyffin was doing. I raced him how I would race Alex Palou or Josef or anyone like that. He raced me like them. That’s a huge credit to him and his development. I know he’s put a lot of work in to be better, be stronger. Obviously he’s in a Ganassi car, which is strong. We all know that. Still got to pedal the thing. He ran a really good race. Yeah, man, I couldn’t believe how long we were side by side for, especially in P3, P4. I thought it would have run out, he would have washed it up. Honestly thought I was in the fence probably four or five laps to go. I thought he was going to wash up. I was sort of prepared for it. Yeah, like stellar job by him. I’m no oval veteran. Like, I got a little bit more experience. It was nice to race a dude that genuinely respected the outside lane. Honestly, man, it felt like I was Helio and Sam Hornish. It was sick. It was really cool. I was trying to give the fans something. When I went across the line, I could see everybody – probably cheering Josef – but thought they were cheering me (laughter). We had a good time. Good kid. THE MODERATOR: Great way to finish up 2025. Congratulations. SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Cheers.

CHEVROLET IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIESBorchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix1.33-mile Nashville Superspeedway tri-ovalLebanon, TennesseeRace ReportAugust 31 LEBANON, Tennessee (August 31, 2025) – Josef Newgarden and the No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet won an exciting 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season finale, giving the Bowtie five trips to victory lane in the last seven races. Team Chevy dominated a chaotic race, leading 207 of 225 laps, with Scott McLaughlin in the No. 3 DEX Imaging Team Penske Chevrolet joining his teammate on the podium and Conor Daly in the No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Chevrolet finishing fifth.  Pole winner Pato O’Ward in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet dominated early, leading 116 of the first 126 laps until a mechanical issue ended his day early.  The No. 14 Phoenix Investors A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet, with Santino Ferrucci behind the wheel, was on the move early, going from 12th to fourth before a penalty sent him to the back of the field before finishing eighth, leading all drivers with 36 on-track passes.  Newgarden’s win is the 237th all-time for Chevrolet in the INDYCAR SERIES and the 127th since the introduction of the twin-turbo 2.2L V6 in 2012. Newgarden now has 32 career wins, all of them powered by Chevrolet, leading all Bowtie drivers. It was Newgarden’s 20th win on an oval and 14th trip to victory lane on a short oval (those 1.3-mile or under). Of Team Penske’s 246 wins, 124 have been Chevrolet-powered, including 87 since 2012. It was his first win at Nashville Superspeedway and the 14th different track that the 34-year-old has visited victory lane, extending his win streak to 11 years. McLaughlin’s daring last-lap pass rewarded him with his third podium of the season and the 22nd of his career. After a hard impact in Turn 2, David Malukas in the No. 4 Clarience Technologies A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet, out of an abundance of caution, was taken to the hospital. He was released after all scans came back clear.

Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix Race Results:

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet won: I’m just glad we got one without anything going wrong. For the No. 2 crew. Just happy to celebrate with this team. They deserve it. It’s rewarding for our team; they’ve done a great job. Obviously, Will won in Portland, which was a huge lift for everybody, and he really deserved it. I think he could have won this race today. It was a shame to see what happened to him. He’s a legend. It was great for our team, Astemo, and Team Chevy. Tough year, tough, tough year, but good to get a win here at the end.  How about doing it here at home in Nashville and the great crowd.  It’s pretty great. I think we should be racing in Nashville to end the year all the time. We don’t need to be going anywhere else. I don’t care if it’s this track or somewhere else. But, in the vicinity would be a good thing. It’s great to be at home. Pumped! Just pumped! Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 DEX Imaging Team Penske Chevrolet 3rd: “I’m not exhausted. I’m fine. I’m just really gutted for my guys. I just got a little high there. Just trying to protect my entry and, just got too high.  I can’t believe the DEX Imaging Chevy was okay. I think it was a little bent at the end, but I wanted a podium bad, and I just kept my foot in it. And the last lap, I just sent it, and I was like, if I hit the fence, I hit the fence. I don’t know. But the handle only went away little bit. But I just held it flat, and didn’t really care if we went in the fence or not. And thankfully, it stuck, and I was glad to get the boys a podium. But congrats to Josef. Congrats to the team Penske. It’s a great end to our year. We were good today. Just not good enough.”

Conor Daly, No. 76 Juncos Holliger Racing Chevrolet 5th: “Honestly, I was just hoping we were gonna finish it out there because I I didn’t know how good the reds would be, on a restart when they cool down. And Scott (McLaughlin) was proof. We both fired it into turn one on that last restart, and we nearly ended up both in the wall just with no grip. So, to hang on to a top five is really cool. Appreciate the All American Rejects for being a part of our car. And Chevrolet, honestly, thank you so much to Chevrolet all year. It’s just good to finish on a high note. This team deserved it after a tough start to the weekend. Just wish we could have finished it off on the podium.” Callum Ilott, No, 90 PREMA Racing Chevrolet 9th: “It was a good race. We stabilised in the mid pack throughout the middle of the race, and we decided that the Alternate was good towards the end of the race. I did have a bit of vibration during one of the stints which was a bit scary. However, we were able to move forwards after the last stop with the newer tires and made some decent moves. The crew did a good job in the pits and Chevrolet did a great job with the engine, so overall a positive way to end the season.” Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 Phoenix Investors A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet 8th:“Honestly, my crew did a phenomenal job all day. This one’s on me, and under the caution – you know? I was in the mindset of Gateway, and I pitted off of turn three, instead of off of turn four. Gave us an end of the line penalty when we were running sixth early on in the race, and that would have made for an easy day. “But, you know, we came back, finished eighth, passed probably 10 cars on one of those restarts. I mean, the guys did an incredible job over the wall, passed a bunch of people in pit lane as well. So a little hairy at the end there between a couple of competitors, and broke the front wing and finished off the last stint with the front wing all mangled too. So, honestly, it was a hell of a day. “I had a really good feeling for the high line in the first half of the race. Once the front wing broke and I was kind of sure it was if something was wrong, it was a little bit more of a gamble for me. And when I got towards the end of the race, I was just trying not to take too many more chances than I needed to. “I can’t wait until next year, and I want to thank Sexton Properties, Phoenix Investors, Vensure HR, ABC Supply, and Homes for our Troops. I mean, this whole team’s done a phenomenal job. Cannot wait to come back next year.” Alexander Rossi, No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Java House Chevrolet 10th: “It was going to be tough starting where we did. We stayed aggressive on strategy all day and got a respectable result. The No. 20 Java House Chevrolet was good all weekend, we just didn’t seem to have overall pace. Lots of positives to take from the year, lots of room to grow. We’ll start prepping for 2026 now.” Robert Shwartzman, No. 83 PREMA Racing Chevrolet 14th: “That’s the final round finished. I don’t really have much to say after we lost the Rookie of the Year battle in the final few laps after my drive through penalty. I was defending for my position on the restart and got the penalty, so we lost out on the title and on a top ten finish as I was running eighth at the time. It’s a shame because the car was really fast and I was having a lot of fun, so I’m sure we could’ve finished in the top ten even though I did make a mistake in the final pit stop. Thanks to the team for the great car, it felt really good all weekend, it’s just a shame with the final result.” Sting Ray Robb, No. 77 Juncos Holliger Racing Chevrolet 16th: “Year-end finale at Nashville Superspeedway. It was chaos. Seems like there was a lot of attrition out there. Some big hits for some of the leaders, which was pretty crazy to see, but that just shows you how competitive the series is and how tough the track was today. So, I’m really happy with this team. “You know, they’ve worked so hard this year, and I’m very thankful to be a part of it and to come back to a place where I won a championship before it feels like home. So, I know that we got some learning to do, but, this is going be a season to build on for sure. And I think that, Conor did a great job this year. Congrats to him for today for another top five. That was really fun to see. We’ll put our heads back on after a couple week break and then see what we can learn and see how we can move forward.” Nolan Siegel, No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet 17th: “We had a lot of pace. We qualified 7th yesterday with a really strong run, but then we had the engine change so we started 16th today. That put us in the thick of it in the race. This season we’ve had many days where there’s been a lot of potential, and we haven’t ended up finishing the weekend. I’ve made mistakes, other issues happened that were out of our control, we’ve just had bad luck. All in all, it was really important to build momentum for 2026. Today, to do a race distance, have a clean day, smooth day: that’s what we did.” Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet finished 21st: “The Verizon Chevy was fast today, and it definitely showed there to start the race. I wish it had all played out differently so we could end the season with a strong result that I know our team was capable of. Really excited for Josef (Newgarden) to get the win, though.”  Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet finished 24th: “We were moving today in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. All weekend it’s been such a joy to drive. Sadly, we ended up moving into the wall. That’s sometimes how it goes. These things are out of your control. All you can do is move on, keep on growing, keep on working on the things that we know we’ve been doing well, and also get better. Thank you to all the fans. Thank you to all of our partners who have been with us all year, and we look forward to 2026.” Christian Lundgaard, No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet finished 25th: “It’s been an amazing season with this team and credit to the No. 7 VELO Arrow McLaren Chevy crew for giving it our all from start to finish. They gave me a fast car all weekend, and we could have clinched third in the standings with the pace we had. Unfortunately our day ended with an issue outside our control, and that was it for the season. We’re keeping our spirits high and know we’ve got more to accomplish in 2026. Thanks to our team partners and the Arrow McLaren fans who’ve been cheering us on all year long.” David Malukas, No. 4 Clarience Technologies A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet finished 26th:  Christian Rasmussen, No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Splenda Stevia Chevrolet finished 27th: I got away pretty good at the start. I got a good jump and got an opportunity to go to the high side, which is where I wanted to be. It seemed like I lost the rear end. I’m not sure why. I guess it was just very low grip. It was low grip up there and around I went.

NTT INDYCAR SERIES News ConferenceSunday, August 31, 2025Josef NewgardenJonathan DiuguidPress Conference THE MODERATOR: We’re joined by the champion of the race, Josef Newgarden. First win of the season. 32nd career win, which ties him with Al Unser Jr. for ninth all time. Also joined by Penske Racing president Jonathan Diuguid. Josef, better late than ever to get a win here in 2025. Your thoughts, to do it here in Nashville? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Very special. Never a bad time to show up and have a good day. I think the team really performed like you expect from Team Penske. I think we’ve had the same core that Team Penske’s always had throughout this whole year in a lot of ways. You saw it again today, just the men and women across the board. Really didn’t matter which car. There was a point midway through the race, I came on the radio, Look at Will, looked amazing, incredible. He could have won the race today. I think Scott could have won the race. That’s the cool thing about Team Penske. You walk into that building, it really doesn’t matter which car you’re looking at, I would be privileged to step in any one of them. I think they give you a shot to win the race. It’s cool to be part of this team. We’ve got great leadership and depth across the board. I think that’s what carried us through this weekend to bring in this result. THE MODERATOR: Jonathan, a nice finish for 2025, two at the podium, the win at Portland. A lot of good things happening towards the end. JONATHAN DIUGUID: Yeah, obviously to win the last race of the season is a good stepping off point for next year, the best way you can end the championship or season. It’s been a difficult year for us, but we’ve had strong performances the last few races. Like Josef mentioned, all three cars led laps today throughout different phases. New downforce configuration this weekend. We didn’t know how it was going to pan out. When it came time to go, Scott and Josef was at the front, Will was up there earlier on. A really solid day for the entire group. THE MODERATOR: Open it up for questions. Q. Josef, if you were sitting here a year ago, this would have been a normal thing. Felt like there’s a lot of relief after what has been the craziest year where nothing went right. Talk about this, a classic Newgarden feel to this victory. JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I don’t have a great answer for you. It doesn’t feel that different. Nothing went diabolically wrong. I tried to throw it in the bin there in the final pit stop. On the edge, but not over it (smiling). Like a meteor didn’t come out of the sky today, which was nice. Other than that, it felt like a normal day in a lot of respects. It was not an easy race. I did not have the car where I wanted it at the start right away. I’m like, Okay, we’re nowhere where we need to be, let’s be patient. We just did our thing like we always do: assessed everybody, hung there, went when we needed to go. We got the car in a really good spot in the end. I was like, Now we have a race-winning car. Let’s close the deal. That whole sequence felt very normal to me. Just proud of the team. More than anything, when I show up and I’m ready to see the team rewarded for the effort. I really mean that. You have no idea what goes on. Some of you guys do know what goes on. It is grueling to get to these races and to get through the weekend, put a car on the track that’s capable of winning, hitting all your marks every second of the race. It’s just so difficult to do. To get that reward for the team… We had it in Portland, which was great for everybody. We had it today. That’s probably the highlight for me, just to see everybody rewarded for the effort and what they put in the end. Q. (Question about many drivers with problems in the race.) JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I become so oblivious to it at this point, I’m not even looking for it anymore. If it happened, I would expect it, so… Yeah, I was just driving today. Q. John, two wins from the last three races. You said y’all aren’t really trying to do anything differently. The ingredients are there. Just needed to have clean runs. Speak to that. Seems proof that the formula is there. JONATHAN DIUGUID: Yeah, no, Josef mentioned it before, we got a good, strong core. Didn’t mean that we didn’t have difficult conversations about where we needed to be. Different issues with other cars, people making mistakes, it shows how tight the field is. We didn’t lift off the gas for these last few races, we pushed down further. I think that goes to show how we showed up today and how we raced on all three cars. Q. Josef, we used to talk about how significant it was for you to win at Indy. You won there. Talked about winning here. It’s not the same, close, but where does it rank? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Oh, definitely up there. This was a hard race to win today. There was no gimmes. Got such depth across the board, everybody is so close as far as the competitive landscape, it’s just hard to find an advantage on anyone nowadays. This was a hard race to win. It’s satisfying when you win a race in this environment. Then to win it at my hometown was really gratifying. I mean, I used to come here when was 12, 13 years old and I would watch stockcar races, INDYCAR races. I’d watch anything that came here. I sat in those stands, wherever I was able to go at the end of the race. Had no idea that I would have a racing career at that point in my life. It’s cool to come full circle and to be so close to home. I love being here in Nashville, too, for the season finale. I like it for INDYCAR. It’s a great destination for us. Good for Nashville and certainly good for the series. I think we should continue that tradition. I love this track. Whether it’s here, somewhere else in the future, as long as we’re in the Nashville vicinity, I’m going to be a happy guy. Q. Talk about how much this means to you in terms of your confidence level going into 2026. JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Honestly no difference. I think it’s probably more a team question. This season, tough year on the team. I think the schedule was tough this year. Everybody just kept working, kept their head down, kept doing their jobs. If anything, that’s what’s gratifying I think for us as a unit. It definitely can send us into the off-season and we can go to work. At the end of the day we need to go to work. We need to have a better 2026, and we’re ready to do that. Q. Obviously your team has been informed about the tire troubles of Pato O’Ward. What was going through your mind when you had this information? Did you feel it could happen to you as well? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I immediately got feedback from the team that we were doing a pretty good job at managing our temperatures. We seemed to be in line with our metrics. That gave me a lot of comfort. I think we heightened our awareness to it after that. The guys were feeding me a lot of information after that to make sure I stayed in line. I wasn’t too worried because of what they were telling me. Q. Penske started off the season, especially at the Indy 500, as a team who almost nothing went your way. How does this result revitalize the team going into 2026? JONATHAN DIUGUID: I think Josef mentioned it. The INDYCAR season ends beginning of September. There’s long winter off months. Being able to finish with a win, it’s the last race that everyone went to. It’s hugely rewarding and a good springboard for 2026. Q. Josef, when you saw Scott have his trouble after such a tumultuous season, what did that feel like in the cockpit where suddenly you’re in the lead, got a break that went your way? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I’ll be straight up with you, I was about to pass him. I didn’t care. I was like whatever. That’s a real answer for you. Q. Obviously the end of the season has been much better than the beginning of the season for Team Penske. Was there a moment internally that was a pivot point in positivity? JONATHAN DIUGUID: No, not really. Obviously our short oval package is quite strong. We were strong in Iowa, Milwaukee, strong here this weekend. The calendar helped us a little bit. As Josef mentioned, we have to improve on some other types of circuits. Today it was about execution. That’s the biggest thing, showing the group and the team we could still do it. Just brings a level of excitement back. Q. After such a difficult season, is it a relief to take victory at home, knowing you would have entered a winter with a winless year? What does that mean to you, winning at home? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Please don’t be mad at me. It really didn’t cross my mind. I wasn’t worried about any of that. For me, genuinely you got to focus on just doing the best job that you can, everything within your control. I think the same on the team side. If you do that, you leave, you do the best job you could, you can be satisfied to some degree leaving the track. That was my only focus. I had a little bit of a mistake there at that last pit stop. If that had hurt us ultimately for the result, I would have been bummed by that because that was in my control. But that was the focus is what I’m trying to tell you. I just was trying to hit my marks as best that I could today. That’s all that was going through my mind. Q. Up-and-down season. Did you take an extra moment to take this all in? The competition level in INDYCAR, these are hard to come by. JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Definitely. I mean, not yet, to answer your question. I’m ready to go home. Q. Josef, busy off-season coming up with a baby on the way. How much are you looking forward to not racing, just getting back and being a dad and husband again for a little while? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I mean, candidly I’m looking forward to it. I’d like to go away and start to miss it again. Sometimes that’s what you want, is to miss something. That’s my plan. Q. You mentioned throughout the season keeping the faith a little bit, looking at each race and trying to take it individually. How do you think that helped you throughout the season? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I mean, I think whenever there’s difficulty, I’m going to let Jonathan speak to this, it was a trying year for the team. I think for us just to stay focused. It’s one thing individually, but I think it’s even harder from a whole team standpoint to do that. JONATHAN DIUGUID: What Josef was mentioning, when you’re not winning, you can question everything. You can question Josef’s performance to the pit crew to the car setup to reliability, everything that affected our year. We really have to sit down and focus on our processes, try to trust in what you believe is right. I think what we’ve seen over the past couple races is that the processes work. We have a little bit more work to do to get back to the top of where we’re used to being. In general it’s easy to get sidetracked, get down on yourself, questioning everything. That’s where the team excelled, we just sat and talked about the facts, how we need to improve together. Q. Did you try to go whole doughnut there on the celebration? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I did, yeah. I was going to do that. I got the angle wrong. I’ll just leave is there. I wanted to go in the crowd. I thought that was cool if they opened the gate. I almost lied about it. I was just going to half slide. But I messed it up, unfortunately. I was going to burn that thing to the ground, too. That’s the saddest thing for me. Chevrolet probably wouldn’t have been happy about that. It’s probably good what happened, to be quite honest with you. I was going to go until it stopped. Q. You said something like this was for the pigs. Can you explain that at all? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I said no one’s going to understand that. Chad Gordon, my crew chief on the 2 car, he gave an incredible pre-race speech in Milwaukee. I think you’ll have to ask him about this. I don’t know that I’m going to relay this speech. It involved pig farming. He had a stuffed pig today. It was for the pigs. Yeah, I don’t know how to elaborate much more on this. He gave a great team speech and we all felt it. We rallied behind that at the end of today. That’s about the only way I can surmise it for you. Q. Was this about bacon or poop? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: No, no, no. It was with team moral. JONATHAN DIUGUID: More wholesome than that. JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Very wholesome. Q. Does this win at all change how you will look back on this season? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Boy, that’s a good question. I don’t know. No. I mean, probably not, if I really think about it. Mostly because I’ve seen the win potential in this team all year, I mean, so many different times. Whether it’s Indianapolis or it’s a place like Long Beach or St. Petersburg. Actually, I think the glaring weak point for us right now is road courses. But there’s been a lot of strength across the calendar. This win, it’s not even like it’s validation. I saw the potential of it all year for the group. I don’t really feel differently about it being realized. I’m just happy for everybody. Happy that they’re able to enjoy it. JONATHAN DIUGUID: Does keep your season winning streak alive. JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I got to be honest, I didn’t care about that anymore. I really didn’t. I know we have that. But what does it matter? I used to be a big stats guy. I don’t care about stats anymore. That doesn’t anymore, I guess is my point. Q. Did you feel something wrong with the tires or do you feel like the tires are weaker? It was said maybe we have to talk with the company because the tires are wrong with all the competition. JONATHAN DIUGUID: I think there were some tire issues today. Majority of the field got it right. The tires performed well all day, both the alternates and the primaries. Not to say that they did anything wrong. Like Josef mentioned, we kind of did our homework and knew what we needed to do. We’ve suffered with tire issues on short ovals from years ago, tried to understand what we needed to do. That’s what paid off today, not having a tire failure. But the degradation of our tires was quite low relative to everybody else. Q. Josef, as you head into this off-season, you told us yesterday you would love a week or two, then be able to get back at it, you’ve used these off-seasons to evaluate your approach. Do you have any plans on using this off-season to look at or change anything up about how you go about trying to attack 2026? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Not at the moment. Q. About 22 laps to go, you take the lead from Scott McLaughlin. The caution flies. What was your thought there? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: At that point we were in prime position to seal the victory. That was the only thing in my mind, was let’s close the deal here. When you get an opportunity to close the deal in an INDYCAR race, you want to do that. Harder than it looks, to be quite honest with you. It’s like climbing a mountain to get to that point. You put yourself in position to say, Okay, we’ve run this day, we are here, let’s close the deal and get the result. I knew for us, they’re giving me this scorecard, this is how many laps, this is what you need to do. I’m looking at my tools, looking at everything, planning how do I need to drive this last 12 or 13 laps when it goes green. That’s what’s going through my mind. We’ve done all this work, gotten to this point, let’s close the deal and realize the victory. THE MODERATOR: Anytime you can tie the great Al Unser Jr. in the stat sheet, that’s a pretty good year. Congratulations. JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Thank you.

NTT INDYCAR SERIES News ConferenceSunday, August 31, 2025Scott McLaughlinPress Conference THE MODERATOR: Third-place finishing driver today, Scott McLaughlin. One of those races you look back and watch, a lot of action. SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah. THE MODERATOR: Your thoughts on finishing 2025 with a podium? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I had an absolute blast, man. That was so much fun. Restarts were intense. Yeah, it did string out a little bit, as it always does, mid to late stint. I think the exchanges and the restarts were phenomenal. Yeah, obviously bittersweet for me. Third is great. I’m glad I sort of held on to that at the end. I felt like I could have held off Josef there. He was controlling his lane. I just turned a little late, got caught. Nearly saved it. Once you’re sort of out there, it’s hard to get it back. Thankful I was able to straighten the wheel just before I hit the fence. The car was straight. I was able to push on, yeah. Very good end to our season. Great team win. But I’m pissed off at myself. THE MODERATOR: For? Could have been more? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I feel like it’s just been one of those years, haven’t quite put everything together. Had plenty of speed. Very lucky to get a podium today. I have to give massive props to Kyffin Simpson. Probably the best oval race I’ve had. Felt like 2006 or something. Pinned around the outside, gave me some room. If he came up, I was in the fence hard. Big props to Kyff. Really, really happy to race him. I thought the racing out there was really fair. I don’t know what happened to Malukas and Foster. Yeah, I thought it was a really good, proper goddamn INDYCAR oval race. Yeah, anyway, let’s get this going. I want to go to Broadway (smiling). THE MODERATOR: Open it up for questions for Scott McLaughlin. Q. In the long off-season is there a possibility we see you somewhere else, maybe in Europe? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I’m racing at Suzuka in a couple weeks in a Corvette. Working on a couple other things right now. Won’t be at Petit. It’s my daughter’s birthday, first birthday. I’ll actually be in Australia at the time spending a little bit of time there. Not racing anything, just going to hang by the beach, have a bit of fun. I don’t know. Couple little forks in the iron, in the pot. THE MODERATOR: Stokes. Iron in the fire. SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Iron in the fire. There we go. Yeah, that’s where we’re at. Q. Would you mind taking us through those final laps with you’re battles with Kyffin Simpson. What did you think when he overtook you in the closing laps? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I made sure as soon as he got in front of me, I kept that lane open as much as I could. I didn’t care if I was the only one up there. I used it until I couldn’t. Kept there, kept there. I got a really good run off one, sort of psyched him to go to defend me. I wasn’t going to pass him on the inside into three. I wanted him to go so it cramped his entry. Then I was able to get a really good run through three, four. Basically just held it flat. It was one of those ones where if I’m in the fence, worst case probably sixth. Like I said, that kid raced me with a lot of respect. He’s getting better and better every week. I really did enjoy racing him. Like I said, probably my best battle ever on an oval. Q. We need some more of these bigger ovals on the schedule. They’re a lot of fun. This season for Team Penske as a whole, up and down. Talk about St. Pete to today, the roller coaster of a season you’ve had with the team. What does it mean to finish on the podium and take that momentum into the off-season? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, I think we’ve had really good speed all year, as we’ve always said. Not quite Palou. He’s been standout. That’s on top of everyone. Massive props to him. Everyone needs to be better. Certainly a different team, different look, different look inside. It’s got a great future. I see light at the end of the tunnel. Very excited for what’s ahead. I think Roger is pumped and ready to go. Wants not only INDYCAR to be amazing, but our team, too. He’s pushing us. Yeah, it’s exciting. Yeah, I’m glad to finish out the way it is. It’s nice to have a beautiful, long off-season. At the same time I kind of wish we had six or seven races left. It’s not realistic. These big ovals are great. We need people to come to them. At the end of the day it’s on everyone to work yourselves, everyone be positive, get people coming to our races. Very excited for the future of INDYCAR. I can’t wait to be a part of it. Hopefully we can, yeah, as a team grow and grow. Q. What does this do for your confidence going into the off-season, having had a strong end to the season? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, I don’t think I lost a heap of confidence throughout the year. It’s just nice to have a couple good results. Like I said, it’s bittersweet to end right now, knowing we were coming into our own a little bit, having strong results. It’s kind of nice to have this off-season now. I felt like we just got our feet on the ground with people. Now we can really work this off-season to be better, work together, smoothen things out. We know exactly where we need to be better. We have the people, the personnel, to improve. I’m very excited for that. But yeah, it’s a long off-season. Is it a needed off-season? I think so. It’s going to be really nice for us. Yeah, I’m sad as a race car driver I’m not racing my car next week. Q. It’s been a tough season across the board for everybody at Team Penske. A little bit of cause to celebrate when Will won a couple weeks ago. Roger finally I don’t want to say looked ecstatic, but he looked relieved when he left Victory Lane. How important was it to finally see the guy that runs everything to get a break? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, I mean, I’m glad Josef won because I would have got a kick up the ass. Fantastic. I’m very happy for Roger. He’s been through a lot obviously. But he’s a great leader, someone that I respect immensely. Yeah, very happy for him to just get some results. As we know, we are strong on ovals. We needed to be better at other places. Important we had a win here. Important that we won on an oval. Yeah, it’s just nice to give him some results and give him something to be happy with. Q. When you had the moment out of turn two, how quickly did you go from being upset that you nearly lost it to the fact that you realized you’re not in that bad of shape? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, I dropped the right rear. I tried to save it. Went up the track a little bit. Then I knew I was definitely gone. I tried to sort of pedal it a little bit and straighten the wheel when I hit the fence. Thankfully that saved it. I was pleased. Entry of three, this thing is kind of still straight. For me it was just about cleaning the tires off. Benny, my engineer/strategist, was super good on the radio, kept me calm, which is sometimes hard to do. Yeah, the restart, I think Conor Daly, he had alternates on, a mushy feeling tire. Softer, but felt a little bit loose on the restart. That’s why I lost out to Palou there. Yeah, I’m sad I probably didn’t get to keep second because I think I had something there for Josef. Would have been fun. Hey, we’re good. Keep pushing. Q. Penske started off the season and especially at the Indy 500 as a team where almost nothing went your way. How does this result revitalize the team going into 2026? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Like I said, it’s bittersweet to end right now because we’re on a bit of a momentum. Gives us a chance to reset, recuperate, smoothen things out within the team. We’re in a great spot right now. Really genuinely see a lot of light at the end of the tunnel. Everyone is getting better. We’ve got to get better ourselves. But I’m really trusting and confident that the (indiscernible) gets better, get better for next year, start the season right in 2026. 2026? Jesus. Q. You mentioned your battle with Kyffin. You were teammates in IMSA. You hear a lot of drivers talk about the best oval racing happens when you trust the driver that is alongside of you. Talk about your relationship. SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Outside of the LMP2 thing, I haven’t raced Kyffin a ton, at least on an oval. I put a lot of trust in what Kyffin was doing. I raced him how I would race Alex Palou or Josef or anyone like that. He raced me like them. That’s a huge credit to him and his development. I know he’s put a lot of work in to be better, be stronger. Obviously he’s in a Ganassi car, which is strong. We all know that. Still got to pedal the thing. He ran a really good race. Yeah, man, I couldn’t believe how long we were side by side for, especially in P3, P4. I thought it would have run out, he would have washed it up. Honestly thought I was in the fence probably four or five laps to go. I thought he was going to wash up. I was sort of prepared for it. Yeah, like stellar job by him. I’m no oval veteran. Like, I got a little bit more experience. It was nice to race a dude that genuinely respected the outside lane. Honestly, man, it felt like I was Helio and Sam Hornish. It was sick. It was really cool. I was trying to give the fans something. When I went across the line, I could see everybody – probably cheering Josef – but thought they were cheering me (laughter). We had a good time. Good kid. THE MODERATOR: Great way to finish up 2025. Congratulations. SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Cheers.

Chevrolet wins at Nashville Superspeedway: 1 2025 – Josef Newgarden – Team Penske2002 – Alex Baron – Blair Racing Chevrolet poles at Nashville Superspeedway: 2 2025 – Pato O’Ward – Arrow McLaren2005 – Tomas Scheckter – Panther Racing Chevrolet podiums at Nashville Superspeedway: 7 Chevrolet podiums at Nashville Superspeedway by driver: Josef Newgarden (2), Alex Barron (1), Gil de Ferran (1), Sam Hornish (1), Scott McLaughlin (1), Pato O’Ward (1) Chevrolet podiums at the Milwaukee Mile by team: Team Penske (4), Arrow McLaren (1), Blair Racing (1), Panther Racing (1) Chevrolet laps led at Nashville Superspeedway: 272 Chevrolet laps led at Nashville Superspeedway by driver: Pato O’Ward (137), Josef Newgarden (114), Sam Hornish (99), Alexander Rossi (48), Tony Renna (35), Scott Sharp (16), Alex Barron (11), Scott McLaughlin (7), Will Power (5), Conor Daly (2), David Malukas (1)Chevrolet laps led at Nashville Superspeedway by team: Arrow McLaren (169), Team Penske (126), Panther Racing (103), Kelley Racing (51), Blair Racing (11), Juncos Hollinger Racing (2), A.J. Foyt Racing (1) Manufacturer History at Nashville Superspeedway Wins (with competition): 3 – Honda (2024, 2005, 2004)3 – General Motors (Chevrolet/Oldsmobile)2 – Chevrolet (2002, 2025)1 – Oldsmobile (2001)1 – Toyota (2003) Poles (with competition): 2 – Honda (2024, 2004)2 – General Motors (Chevrolet/Oldsmobile)1 – Chevrolet (2005)1 – Infiniti (2002)1 – Oldsmobile (1)1 – Toyota (2003)