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| CHEVROLET IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIESBommarito Automotive Group 5001.25-mile, four turn ovalMadison, IllinoisSunday Race ReportJune 7, 2026 MADISON, Illinois (June 7, 2026) – For the sixth time in 11 races at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, Josef Newgarden and the No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet made the familiar trip to victory lane, his 34th career NTT INDYCAR SERIES win. Team Chevy now has either wins at the Madison, Illinois oval. Newgarden led five Chevrolet-powered cars in the top seven of a race that was interrupted by rain on three occasions. Christian Rasmussen, driving the No. 21 Splenda Chevrolet, had his second straight finish at the 1.25-mile, four-turn oval. Rinus VeeKay in the No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing, Scott McLaughlin in the No. 3 DEX Team Penske Chevrolet and David Malukas in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet rounded out the stellar effort for Team Chevy. Newgarden’s win is 239th all-time for Team Chevy and the 130th since the introduction of the 2.2L Twin-Turbo V6 in 2012. Team Penske now has 126 wins all-time with Chevrolet power, and 89 since the introduction of the 2.2L Twin-Turbo V6 in 2012. Bommarito Automotive Group 500 race results  What They’re Saying – Race – Bommarito Automotive Group 500 Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet won:“This team right here. This Astemo crew. Team Chevy, we had everything we needed tonight with Team Penske. Great job to the group. It was a methodical night. we had a good car at the start. It wasn’t perfect and it came to us just as we needed, as we tweaked on it. They called the race (the timing stand). It was a track position race. You have to give a lot of credit to Marcus. He was incredibly strong. I don’t think there was much between us. It was a matter of who was going to get positioning on each other and that’s what is going to seal the deal. He drove a great race and certainly could have won this as well. This team did the job tonight and that’s why we are here.”Christian Rasmussen, No. 21 Splenda Chevrolet finished 3rd:“Yeah, man, like I, that was all it had. I couldn’t, hang with those guys at the front. I was battling some understeer throughout the whole race, and I feel like we got, the car dialed in as well as we could. I was starting to get limited by my (corner) entries, but I was still like mid to exit on this end. But we had a good race car. We were moving forward. We were super strong on the high line, which was kind of the name of the game for us tonight, so that we can move forward. We had a third-place Splendakand we got third place.”Rinus VeeKay, No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Chevrolet finished 4th:“We had a good night. We had good pace, and we moved through traffic. Didn’t have a lot of lucky breaks to start the race, so kind of cycled back all the time, and the last few stops we hit the right thing. We did a great job as a team. JHR Chevy was very good. Just a bit too much understeer at the end there, being side by side with Christian (Rasmussen). Couldn’t get it done. Being a race car driver, you’re bummed with fourth place, because you go home somewhat empty handed. But still, really, really good job by the team. You know, this is how we should have raced in Phoenix. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to do that. Just really happy to show that pace, that strength for such a young and small team now. We’re beating the big boys right now.” Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 DEX Team Penske Chevrolet finished 5th:“An up and down day for the No. 3 Dex Chevy. The car wasn’t that great to start with, but we tuned her up as the race went on. Pretty happy overall with how the day went. We were looking at P15 for a little bit and we managed to get a top five. Good tune up on the cars. Then we just managed to wheel ourselves forward when we had better tires. A good run.” David Malukas, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet finished 7th:“Overall, a really good recovery on what was a tough start with the setup. We just missed the window, and we were going into every stop to mess with the front wing and do whatever we can we this car to get it into a raceable window. In the end we had to commit with it being loose on exits, on entries, everywhere on those last few runs just to have any sort of pace. So, I was holding on for dear life, but thankfully we brought it home. Big thank you to Chevy, Verizon and everybody on Team Penske to not give up and keep pushing on. We learned a lot.” Christian Lundgaard, No. 7 VELO Arrow McLaren Chevrolet finished 10th:“It was a very entertaining race. For once on an oval, I felt like I was driving the car, which is a big step up. I think we made a lot of improvements from Indy. It didn’t really feel like a tenth-place-finish car; my race felt a lot better than where the result ended up. There are a lot of positives from the night, a lot of good learnings, a lot to take from here to our next oval in Nashville.” Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet finished 11th:“Disappointing Sunday. It’s been a very tough start to our 2026 season. It hasn’t been good in many ways at all. It’s been consistent in top-fives where we could. Everywhere else it’s been a big challenge. Plenty of racing to go. Hopefully we can turn it around and get some solid results on the board.” Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 Homes For Our Troops Chevrolet finished 13th:“A long day and night. Wish it was a bit better for us; we’re just missing pace, tried to find the balance in the car, and you know, we did everything we could on the strategy, and I think that, as far as that goes, you can’t really ask for more. Just didn’t have the pace today to finish in the top 10.” Alexander Rossi, No. 20 ECR Java House Chevrolet finished 18th: Sting Ray Robb, No. 77 Juncos Hollinger – Goodheart Chevrolet finished 19th:“I guess this is a weekend to forget. A tough one. Really frustrating. Congratulations to Rinus. I’m really happy to see the team with a P4. I think that is our best finish of the year. Rally good to see. Think we are headed in the right direction. We will learn everything we can before the next oval .Looking forward to Road America. It is one of my favorite tracks we go to. Had a bad event last year there so hoping we can rebound well. Thanks to the No. 77 crew, they worked hard. So, hoping we can rebound from this one.” Caio Collet, No. 4 Combitrans Amazonia Chevrolet finished 22nd:”It’s hard. I think we did everything right today, from the strategy, to the driving, to everything. It’s racing.” Nolan Siegel, No. 6 Deloitte Arrow McLaren Chevrolet finished 24th:“I left Palou room on the inside. I knew he was there. I knew we weren’t really racing him. I was just kind of letting him go, and it felt to me like he hung me out there and then never turned in. I had to come down at some point. I’m disappointed. I’m disappointed for the team. This is a place we’ve been strong at in the past, but it obviously didn’t work out for us tonight. So, we’ll move on to Road America.” Up-next Team Chevy drivers and teams get a much-needed weekend off before heading for brats and beer at Road America, one of the favorite stops on the calendar. The XPEL Grand Prix at Road America, held on the 4.014-mile, 14-turn Road America road course, will air on FOX at 2 pm (Eastern) on Sunday, June 21. |
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| NTT INDYCAR SERIES News ConferenceMonday, June 8, 2026Josef NewgardenJonathan DiuguidPress Conference THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Josef Newgarden, now six-time winner here. Second win of 2026. 34th career win, which ties him all time for ninth place with Al Unser Jr. You also moved up to sixth in points. With the 53 laps you led tonight, that brings your total to 4,580 laps led, which means you pass the great Dario Franchitti for ninth place.Your thoughts on another crazy race here. JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It was crazy. I’m just glad we went the distance honestly. That was the big thing. With the rain, it almost turns it into a casino in some regards. I think the fast cars finished up front going the distance. Marcus was super good. I don’t know that we were much better than him. I think we were very equal. It turned into a track position game at the end because we were so comparable. I think we had some strengths on him. I think the team executed a really great race, which is ultimately what delivered the result at the end of the day. They just did a great job. Everyone stayed composed. It was a methodical win. THE MODERATOR: Jonathan Diuguid, president Team Penske.From the pit stand, your thoughts on a huge night. JONATHAN DIUGUID: A chaotic night. They asked us what we wanted to happen. I said I want it to stay green. Once we put Josef in front, I knew he wasn’t going to look back. That’s probably the best part of my day, when the rain didn’t show back up, we got to get the whole race in. THE MODERATOR: Eighth on back put on a fresh set of tires at the end. How worried were you looking through that? Was it problematic? JONATHAN DIUGUID: We talked about it before the race, anything after 20 laps on tires we were going to pit and take tires. I think there were 24 on that set. We saw some other cars earlier on in the race be able to stay out on used tires and stay up front. I knew once we had the lead and the clear air, it was going to be okay. THE MODERATOR: Open it up for questions. Q. How hard is it to try to guess what’s going on out there with the rain.JONATHAN DIUGUID: The biggest thing today was the rain wasn’t showing up on the radar. Not on the first one. The second one, there was a blip that came up. It’s difficult to predict. Good thing it was a hot, steamy and windy night in St. Louis. The track got dried up quickly. Q. Josef, what does it mean to you to get back into Victory Lane?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Everything felt pretty good tonight. The car was fast, felt normal. It was great. I’m just happy for the team. They deserve it. It’s been a hard stretch I think for everybody in the paddock. All of us are working incredibly hard to get to this point.A win at any point, especially after this stretch, is super rewarding. That’s what I’m most happy about. Q. What did you see in the moment when Christian passed you and you came close to touching?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: So I got a little confused. I thought Christian was a lap car. I didn’t realize that was Rossi that was a lap car. It’s my fault. I was going to let him go. He doesn’t matter, I’ll just follow on him. I don’t really want to be behind him. I still didn’t know he was on the lead lap. That is why when he came up to the podium, I am like, What are you doing here? How did you get here? You were a lap down. I think he got a little offended by that. I’m so glad that I repassed him. He’s kind of in the way, so… Yeah, that’s really the truth. I thought he was the lap car and Rossi was the one that I was going to fight if he was in the mix with Marcus. Ultimately I think we were able to get back by him because we had a great car. I think Marcus equally had a super good car. I think because we went the distance, you saw the quick cars finish up front tonight. If you’re being truthful about it, I think me and Marcus were pretty close on performance. It was just going to come down to execution. The team executed when we needed to. That’s what ultimately pulled off the victory. Q. You thought that was Christian all the way to the checkered flag?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I didn’t know till I got to the podium. I was confused why he was there. I got it wrong in my mind. Q. You won Phoenix. Been so strong on the short ovals. Do you come into here I don’t want to say expecting to win, but if you don’t win are you more disappointed?JONATHAN DIUGUID: We expect to win every single weekend. If we don’t, we talk about it. Obviously our short oval program has been strong. Like Josef said, the field is extremely tight right now. 28 car was a prime example of that. Getting track position was critical to the win. No, to answer your question, we expect to be strong on short ovals. I think we’ve had the fastest cars in all the street course qualifying sessions, and just have missed out in the new Fast Six procedure. The cars are quick. We’re going to a permanent road course with Road America here, too. I’ve been working on some stuff for that race also. Our goal is to be competitive and fighting for the win every single weekend. That’s what you have to do to win the championship. Q. Is there anything about this track that fits into your wheelhouse?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Not in particular. I think when we’re good here, our cars are good. You look at the history of Team Penske, they’ve always had strong race cars here. When you have the fastest car in the field, it’s easier to win the race. That’s more times than not what I’ve got. I think that was the case today, too. Q. Al Unser Jr. Next win will be tied with Bobby Unser. What does it mean to be among that company of legends with so many years to go?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I got to be honest. My reaction is more, I enjoy working with the individuals around me, I really do. That’s no disrespect to the win list. You’re not going to find someone that is more competitive than me. I very much know the stats anything you want to look at in INDYCAR. I enjoy my time with my team. I really do. I like working with the team. So when I think about victories or I think about the amount of time I’ve been in the sport, that’s what I really lean on now. I like showing up to the track and try to do a great job. We did that tonight. It’s fun to go racing. It’s fun when we have fast cars, it’s fun when we execute. I just want to see us do that more often going forward. We’re in a pretty good place. We keep building momentum in a lot of ways as a team. To Jonathan’s point, what we expect from ourselves, I think we’re building a lot of that back, which is great to see this year. Q. You and Marcus had light contact, but nothing that sent you into the wall. How important is to it have the trust with you and all the other drivers racing up front?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I think you got to give a lot of respect to Marcus. He did a tremendous job tonight. He was super fast. I think he’s become a great oval driver in this series. If anything, I should have left him a little bit more room I think. I think I got a little bit high. Thankfully these cars, we’ve seen they’re very robust. Even a light touch doesn’t normally result in much. That’s why you also see such close, hard racing. It’s just the nature of INDYCAR these days. It was a good fight. He drove a great race. It was fun to battle with him tonight. Q. Josef, last year you’re flipping on the frontstretch. This year you win. How much does it mean to you to come back and restake your claim?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It was nice to not flip. I enjoyed that part of it. I did do a sick rail grind, okay? I’ve got a dope highlight reel. I’m going to be honest with you guys. If I stop tomorrow, it’s going to be like there’s a cool list of things I’ve done. I rode a car off at Road America in the kink. You haven’t lived until you’ve done that. I don’t know how many people have done a rail grind at Gateway. I’ve F’d up and hit a curb on turn four in Indianapolis, smoked my foot. Put that in the highlight reel. It’s been good. Nice to come back and get a win this weekend. We’ve had some other good moments, too. Q. Was this drive harder than the 2016 win at Iowa?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: No. Not tonight. The car was great. I felt good tonight. I felt spicy in the car. No, tonight was not hard. It was an easy night with the team. JONATHAN DIUGUID: (Indiscernible) and he let Rasmussen by to hit the fuel number I was talking about. JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I was confused. He probably told me the right thing. I messed it up. That’s going to be in the debrief. I’m going to be made fun of for that. Q. Josef, you were so disappointed last week with a top-10 finish, biggest mover, because you felt like the car was capable of winning. To be able to produce a win with a car that was clearly capable of winning this week, how good does this feel?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It’s great. We knew this was going to be a different story. We had a lot of conversations. I appreciate the team having my back and letting me go to work last weekend. They went to work. They did a lot for me. It’s frustrating when you’re in a race like that, you can tell the car has the potential to do more, the team executed in a way that should have produced more. It’s tough when you’re the missing link. I hate that. I don’t want to be that. It was the reality of the situation. We got through it together. We knew it was going to be different when we came here. I’m happy we were able to capitalize it on this weekend. Q. What was so different about this weekend than Detroit?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It’s not Detroit. Enough said. That was the big difference (smiling). Nice, smooth oval. Q. After practice yesterday, compared to after the win tonight, your thoughts on the new package that they brought here this weekend? Did you like it going in? Changed after yesterday’s practice, the lower downforce package?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I mean, I haven’t watched it back. I thought it produced a good show. I thought we had good race-ability. The key to these races is having multiple lanes. We had that all night. Provided we have that, you’ll have the potential for a good race. Felt like it was a pretty decent race. I don’t know what it looked like from the outside. Yeah, I think I should reserve my thoughts, but I think the car is going to be a little harder to drive. I really do. I think as a race car driver, it’s in your nature to want that. You always want more power, more difficulty. You want to be able to express your ability to drive the car more and more. That’s always my feeling when I’m asked about feedback. But when you look at the fan experience, you have to have two lanes working at this type of track. I think it’s expected nowadays. It’s not what it was like 20, 30 years ago. That wasn’t the norm in INDYCAR. Now we’ve gotten to the point where people are going to expect multi-lane racing.Provided we can do that, it’s good for the show. I think we had that tonight. Q. Josef, do you think the package maybe played into the fact you were fast?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: When you say ‘fast’… Q. The car was really fast.JOSEF NEWGARDEN: As a team? Q. Yes.JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I thought we had pretty good transfer from last year to this year. It was actually trickier. Our car last year was maybe a little bit better right off the jump, whereas this weekend we had to work on it. You could see some other people elevated with that. When you change the package, it sometimes just migrates to a different group that was maybe closer to where you needed to be. We had to find it. I still felt like we got pretty much where we needed to be in the end, which is what your goal is. I think coming back we can make it even better. Like J.D. said, we’ll talk about it and continue to try to improve. Q. Jonathan, what kind of challenges does a new package face for you?JONATHAN DIUGUID: I think the biggest thing is there’s a new tire here this weekend on the right front which was in response to some of the things that occurred last year. A few other teams tested here more than we did. Those teams were strong during the race.It’s really about leaning on the notes we have from previous years and the experience we have in the truck. I know Luke, Josef’s race engineer, worked very hard from when we showed up here and did the first practice session until the race. It’s not like we didn’t make any changes. There were large changes on the car, large setup adjustments. We have to come prepared and come with confidence and the tools. Like Josef said, the people that are in the truck and engineering office are the people who put the car where it was today, and Josef executed for us and finished in front. Q. Does St. Louis hold a special place in your heart? Do you circle it on the calendar?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I mean, I can only give you an honest answer. I love this track. It’s one of the more fun places that we go to race, without a doubt. I love short oval racing. I don’t think that’s a secret. But I don’t look forward to this place more than others. I like everywhere we go, to be quite honest with you. I actually look forward to the places that I suck at the most. Wherever I’ve had a bad result, I look forward going to the most because I want to rectify the problem. That’s the truth. INDYCAR is a game that you have to be super versatile in. You got to be very well-rounded as a team, nimble. You got to be good everywhere. It exposes the weakness if you’re not good everywhere. I don’t look forward to one place, say we got to score points here. We have to make sure that we’re excellent everywhere we show up. That’s what we’re working on every day together.Q. When Alex Palou runs out of fuel on pit road, is there communication? I saw you were catching him there.JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I mean, I’ll let Jonathan speak to that. He was in my ear the whole time. JONATHAN DIUGUID: The timing stand did a good job. We knew the 9 and 10 were very short on fuel. Scott came in and took emergency service. We were scanning his radios. Said you’re probably not going to make it to the pit box. Josef did his job.Alex was supposed to pull over to the left, which he didn’t. I think that is something we need to talk about. It caused some more problems for other people. Luckily we were right behind him so it didn’t cost us any time on pit road because we got to be able to get to the pit box and go forward. In general, having people run out of fuel in pit lane in the fast lane is not something we need to have going forward. We did a good job there and went to the front. Q. Josef, how are you going to spend the week off?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I don’t know. I don’t know. I’ll find out tomorrow. I’ll make a list. I think everybody’s going to enjoy the week off. I’m going to be doing what everybody else is doing.THE MODERATOR: Thank you. |
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| CHEVROLET IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIESBommarito Automotive Group 5001.25-mile, four turn ovalMadison, IllinoisSunday Race ReportJune 7, 2026 MADISON, Illinois (June 7, 2026) – For the sixth time in 11 races at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, Josef Newgarden and the No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet made the familiar trip to victory lane, his 34th career NTT INDYCAR SERIES win. Team Chevy now has either wins at the Madison, Illinois oval. Newgarden led five Chevrolet-powered cars in the top seven of a race that was interrupted by rain on three occasions. Christian Rasmussen, driving the No. 21 Splenda Chevrolet, had his second straight finish at the 1.25-mile, four-turn oval. Rinus VeeKay in the No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing, Scott McLaughlin in the No. 3 DEX Team Penske Chevrolet and David Malukas in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet rounded out the stellar effort for Team Chevy. Newgarden’s win is 239th all-time for Team Chevy and the 130th since the introduction of the 2.2L Twin-Turbo V6 in 2012. Team Penske now has 126 wins all-time with Chevrolet power, and 89 since the introduction of the 2.2L Twin-Turbo V6 in 2012. Bommarito Automotive Group 500 race results What They’re Saying – Race – Bommarito Automotive Group 500 Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet won:“This team right here. This Astemo crew. Team Chevy, we had everything we needed tonight with Team Penske. Great job to the group. It was a methodical night. we had a good car at the start. It wasn’t perfect and it came to us just as we needed, as we tweaked on it. They called the race (the timing stand). It was a track position race. You have to give a lot of credit to Marcus. He was incredibly strong. I don’t think there was much between us. It was a matter of who was going to get positioning on each other and that’s what is going to seal the deal. He drove a great race and certainly could have won this as well. This team did the job tonight and that’s why we are here.”Christian Rasmussen, No. 21 Splenda Chevrolet finished 3rd:“Yeah, man, like I, that was all it had. I couldn’t, hang with those guys at the front. I was battling some understeer throughout the whole race, and I feel like we got, the car dialed in as well as we could. I was starting to get limited by my (corner) entries, but I was still like mid to exit on this end. But we had a good race car. We were moving forward. We were super strong on the high line, which was kind of the name of the game for us tonight, so that we can move forward. We had a third-place Splendakand we got third place.”Rinus VeeKay, No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Chevrolet finished 4th:“We had a good night. We had good pace, and we moved through traffic. Didn’t have a lot of lucky breaks to start the race, so kind of cycled back all the time, and the last few stops we hit the right thing. We did a great job as a team. JHR Chevy was very good. Just a bit too much understeer at the end there, being side by side with Christian (Rasmussen). Couldn’t get it done. Being a race car driver, you’re bummed with fourth place, because you go home somewhat empty handed. But still, really, really good job by the team. You know, this is how we should have raced in Phoenix. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to do that. Just really happy to show that pace, that strength for such a young and small team now. We’re beating the big boys right now.” Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 DEX Team Penske Chevrolet finished 5th:“An up and down day for the No. 3 Dex Chevy. The car wasn’t that great to start with, but we tuned her up as the race went on. Pretty happy overall with how the day went. We were looking at P15 for a little bit and we managed to get a top five. Good tune up on the cars. Then we just managed to wheel ourselves forward when we had better tires. A good run.” David Malukas, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet finished 7th:“Overall, a really good recovery on what was a tough start with the setup. We just missed the window, and we were going into every stop to mess with the front wing and do whatever we can we this car to get it into a raceable window. In the end we had to commit with it being loose on exits, on entries, everywhere on those last few runs just to have any sort of pace. So, I was holding on for dear life, but thankfully we brought it home. Big thank you to Chevy, Verizon and everybody on Team Penske to not give up and keep pushing on. We learned a lot.” Christian Lundgaard, No. 7 VELO Arrow McLaren Chevrolet finished 10th:“It was a very entertaining race. For once on an oval, I felt like I was driving the car, which is a big step up. I think we made a lot of improvements from Indy. It didn’t really feel like a tenth-place-finish car; my race felt a lot better than where the result ended up. There are a lot of positives from the night, a lot of good learnings, a lot to take from here to our next oval in Nashville.” Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet finished 11th:“Disappointing Sunday. It’s been a very tough start to our 2026 season. It hasn’t been good in many ways at all. It’s been consistent in top-fives where we could. Everywhere else it’s been a big challenge. Plenty of racing to go. Hopefully we can turn it around and get some solid results on the board.” Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 Homes For Our Troops Chevrolet finished 13th:“A long day and night. Wish it was a bit better for us; we’re just missing pace, tried to find the balance in the car, and you know, we did everything we could on the strategy, and I think that, as far as that goes, you can’t really ask for more. Just didn’t have the pace today to finish in the top 10.” Alexander Rossi, No. 20 ECR Java House Chevrolet finished 18th: Sting Ray Robb, No. 77 Juncos Hollinger – Goodheart Chevrolet finished 19th:“I guess this is a weekend to forget. A tough one. Really frustrating. Congratulations to Rinus. I’m really happy to see the team with a P4. I think that is our best finish of the year. Rally good to see. Think we are headed in the right direction. We will learn everything we can before the next oval .Looking forward to Road America. It is one of my favorite tracks we go to. Had a bad event last year there so hoping we can rebound well. Thanks to the No. 77 crew, they worked hard. So, hoping we can rebound from this one.” Caio Collet, No. 4 Combitrans Amazonia Chevrolet finished 22nd:”It’s hard. I think we did everything right today, from the strategy, to the driving, to everything. It’s racing.” Nolan Siegel, No. 6 Deloitte Arrow McLaren Chevrolet finished 24th:“I left Palou room on the inside. I knew he was there. I knew we weren’t really racing him. I was just kind of letting him go, and it felt to me like he hung me out there and then never turned in. I had to come down at some point. I’m disappointed. I’m disappointed for the team. This is a place we’ve been strong at in the past, but it obviously didn’t work out for us tonight. So, we’ll move on to Road America.” Up-next Team Chevy drivers and teams get a much-needed weekend off before heading for brats and beer at Road America, one of the favorite stops on the calendar. The XPEL Grand Prix at Road America, held on the 4.014-mile, 14-turn Road America road course, will air on FOX at 2 pm (Eastern) on Sunday, June 21. |
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| NTT INDYCAR SERIES News ConferenceMonday, June 8, 2026Josef NewgardenJonathan DiuguidPress Conference THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Josef Newgarden, now six-time winner here. Second win of 2026. 34th career win, which ties him all time for ninth place with Al Unser Jr. You also moved up to sixth in points. With the 53 laps you led tonight, that brings your total to 4,580 laps led, which means you pass the great Dario Franchitti for ninth place.Your thoughts on another crazy race here. JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It was crazy. I’m just glad we went the distance honestly. That was the big thing. With the rain, it almost turns it into a casino in some regards. I think the fast cars finished up front going the distance. Marcus was super good. I don’t know that we were much better than him. I think we were very equal. It turned into a track position game at the end because we were so comparable. I think we had some strengths on him. I think the team executed a really great race, which is ultimately what delivered the result at the end of the day. They just did a great job. Everyone stayed composed. It was a methodical win. THE MODERATOR: Jonathan Diuguid, president Team Penske.From the pit stand, your thoughts on a huge night. JONATHAN DIUGUID: A chaotic night. They asked us what we wanted to happen. I said I want it to stay green. Once we put Josef in front, I knew he wasn’t going to look back. That’s probably the best part of my day, when the rain didn’t show back up, we got to get the whole race in. THE MODERATOR: Eighth on back put on a fresh set of tires at the end. How worried were you looking through that? Was it problematic? JONATHAN DIUGUID: We talked about it before the race, anything after 20 laps on tires we were going to pit and take tires. I think there were 24 on that set. We saw some other cars earlier on in the race be able to stay out on used tires and stay up front. I knew once we had the lead and the clear air, it was going to be okay. THE MODERATOR: Open it up for questions. Q. How hard is it to try to guess what’s going on out there with the rain.JONATHAN DIUGUID: The biggest thing today was the rain wasn’t showing up on the radar. Not on the first one. The second one, there was a blip that came up. It’s difficult to predict. Good thing it was a hot, steamy and windy night in St. Louis. The track got dried up quickly. Q. Josef, what does it mean to you to get back into Victory Lane?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Everything felt pretty good tonight. The car was fast, felt normal. It was great. I’m just happy for the team. They deserve it. It’s been a hard stretch I think for everybody in the paddock. All of us are working incredibly hard to get to this point.A win at any point, especially after this stretch, is super rewarding. That’s what I’m most happy about. Q. What did you see in the moment when Christian passed you and you came close to touching?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: So I got a little confused. I thought Christian was a lap car. I didn’t realize that was Rossi that was a lap car. It’s my fault. I was going to let him go. He doesn’t matter, I’ll just follow on him. I don’t really want to be behind him. I still didn’t know he was on the lead lap. That is why when he came up to the podium, I am like, What are you doing here? How did you get here? You were a lap down. I think he got a little offended by that. I’m so glad that I repassed him. He’s kind of in the way, so… Yeah, that’s really the truth. I thought he was the lap car and Rossi was the one that I was going to fight if he was in the mix with Marcus. Ultimately I think we were able to get back by him because we had a great car. I think Marcus equally had a super good car. I think because we went the distance, you saw the quick cars finish up front tonight. If you’re being truthful about it, I think me and Marcus were pretty close on performance. It was just going to come down to execution. The team executed when we needed to. That’s what ultimately pulled off the victory. Q. You thought that was Christian all the way to the checkered flag?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I didn’t know till I got to the podium. I was confused why he was there. I got it wrong in my mind. Q. You won Phoenix. Been so strong on the short ovals. Do you come into here I don’t want to say expecting to win, but if you don’t win are you more disappointed?JONATHAN DIUGUID: We expect to win every single weekend. If we don’t, we talk about it. Obviously our short oval program has been strong. Like Josef said, the field is extremely tight right now. 28 car was a prime example of that. Getting track position was critical to the win. No, to answer your question, we expect to be strong on short ovals. I think we’ve had the fastest cars in all the street course qualifying sessions, and just have missed out in the new Fast Six procedure. The cars are quick. We’re going to a permanent road course with Road America here, too. I’ve been working on some stuff for that race also. Our goal is to be competitive and fighting for the win every single weekend. That’s what you have to do to win the championship. Q. Is there anything about this track that fits into your wheelhouse?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Not in particular. I think when we’re good here, our cars are good. You look at the history of Team Penske, they’ve always had strong race cars here. When you have the fastest car in the field, it’s easier to win the race. That’s more times than not what I’ve got. I think that was the case today, too. Q. Al Unser Jr. Next win will be tied with Bobby Unser. What does it mean to be among that company of legends with so many years to go?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I got to be honest. My reaction is more, I enjoy working with the individuals around me, I really do. That’s no disrespect to the win list. You’re not going to find someone that is more competitive than me. I very much know the stats anything you want to look at in INDYCAR. I enjoy my time with my team. I really do. I like working with the team. So when I think about victories or I think about the amount of time I’ve been in the sport, that’s what I really lean on now. I like showing up to the track and try to do a great job. We did that tonight. It’s fun to go racing. It’s fun when we have fast cars, it’s fun when we execute. I just want to see us do that more often going forward. We’re in a pretty good place. We keep building momentum in a lot of ways as a team. To Jonathan’s point, what we expect from ourselves, I think we’re building a lot of that back, which is great to see this year. Q. You and Marcus had light contact, but nothing that sent you into the wall. How important is to it have the trust with you and all the other drivers racing up front?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I think you got to give a lot of respect to Marcus. He did a tremendous job tonight. He was super fast. I think he’s become a great oval driver in this series. If anything, I should have left him a little bit more room I think. I think I got a little bit high. Thankfully these cars, we’ve seen they’re very robust. Even a light touch doesn’t normally result in much. That’s why you also see such close, hard racing. It’s just the nature of INDYCAR these days. It was a good fight. He drove a great race. It was fun to battle with him tonight. Q. Josef, last year you’re flipping on the frontstretch. This year you win. How much does it mean to you to come back and restake your claim?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It was nice to not flip. I enjoyed that part of it. I did do a sick rail grind, okay? I’ve got a dope highlight reel. I’m going to be honest with you guys. If I stop tomorrow, it’s going to be like there’s a cool list of things I’ve done. I rode a car off at Road America in the kink. You haven’t lived until you’ve done that. I don’t know how many people have done a rail grind at Gateway. I’ve F’d up and hit a curb on turn four in Indianapolis, smoked my foot. Put that in the highlight reel. It’s been good. Nice to come back and get a win this weekend. We’ve had some other good moments, too. Q. Was this drive harder than the 2016 win at Iowa?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: No. Not tonight. The car was great. I felt good tonight. I felt spicy in the car. No, tonight was not hard. It was an easy night with the team. JONATHAN DIUGUID: (Indiscernible) and he let Rasmussen by to hit the fuel number I was talking about. JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I was confused. He probably told me the right thing. I messed it up. That’s going to be in the debrief. I’m going to be made fun of for that. Q. Josef, you were so disappointed last week with a top-10 finish, biggest mover, because you felt like the car was capable of winning. To be able to produce a win with a car that was clearly capable of winning this week, how good does this feel?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It’s great. We knew this was going to be a different story. We had a lot of conversations. I appreciate the team having my back and letting me go to work last weekend. They went to work. They did a lot for me. It’s frustrating when you’re in a race like that, you can tell the car has the potential to do more, the team executed in a way that should have produced more. It’s tough when you’re the missing link. I hate that. I don’t want to be that. It was the reality of the situation. We got through it together. We knew it was going to be different when we came here. I’m happy we were able to capitalize it on this weekend. Q. What was so different about this weekend than Detroit?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It’s not Detroit. Enough said. That was the big difference (smiling). Nice, smooth oval. Q. After practice yesterday, compared to after the win tonight, your thoughts on the new package that they brought here this weekend? Did you like it going in? Changed after yesterday’s practice, the lower downforce package?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I mean, I haven’t watched it back. I thought it produced a good show. I thought we had good race-ability. The key to these races is having multiple lanes. We had that all night. Provided we have that, you’ll have the potential for a good race. Felt like it was a pretty decent race. I don’t know what it looked like from the outside. Yeah, I think I should reserve my thoughts, but I think the car is going to be a little harder to drive. I really do. I think as a race car driver, it’s in your nature to want that. You always want more power, more difficulty. You want to be able to express your ability to drive the car more and more. That’s always my feeling when I’m asked about feedback. But when you look at the fan experience, you have to have two lanes working at this type of track. I think it’s expected nowadays. It’s not what it was like 20, 30 years ago. That wasn’t the norm in INDYCAR. Now we’ve gotten to the point where people are going to expect multi-lane racing.Provided we can do that, it’s good for the show. I think we had that tonight. Q. Josef, do you think the package maybe played into the fact you were fast?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: When you say ‘fast’… Q. The car was really fast.JOSEF NEWGARDEN: As a team? Q. Yes.JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I thought we had pretty good transfer from last year to this year. It was actually trickier. Our car last year was maybe a little bit better right off the jump, whereas this weekend we had to work on it. You could see some other people elevated with that. When you change the package, it sometimes just migrates to a different group that was maybe closer to where you needed to be. We had to find it. I still felt like we got pretty much where we needed to be in the end, which is what your goal is. I think coming back we can make it even better. Like J.D. said, we’ll talk about it and continue to try to improve. Q. Jonathan, what kind of challenges does a new package face for you?JONATHAN DIUGUID: I think the biggest thing is there’s a new tire here this weekend on the right front which was in response to some of the things that occurred last year. A few other teams tested here more than we did. Those teams were strong during the race.It’s really about leaning on the notes we have from previous years and the experience we have in the truck. I know Luke, Josef’s race engineer, worked very hard from when we showed up here and did the first practice session until the race. It’s not like we didn’t make any changes. There were large changes on the car, large setup adjustments. We have to come prepared and come with confidence and the tools. Like Josef said, the people that are in the truck and engineering office are the people who put the car where it was today, and Josef executed for us and finished in front. Q. Does St. Louis hold a special place in your heart? Do you circle it on the calendar?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I mean, I can only give you an honest answer. I love this track. It’s one of the more fun places that we go to race, without a doubt. I love short oval racing. I don’t think that’s a secret. But I don’t look forward to this place more than others. I like everywhere we go, to be quite honest with you. I actually look forward to the places that I suck at the most. Wherever I’ve had a bad result, I look forward going to the most because I want to rectify the problem. That’s the truth. INDYCAR is a game that you have to be super versatile in. You got to be very well-rounded as a team, nimble. You got to be good everywhere. It exposes the weakness if you’re not good everywhere. I don’t look forward to one place, say we got to score points here. We have to make sure that we’re excellent everywhere we show up. That’s what we’re working on every day together.Q. When Alex Palou runs out of fuel on pit road, is there communication? I saw you were catching him there.JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I mean, I’ll let Jonathan speak to that. He was in my ear the whole time. JONATHAN DIUGUID: The timing stand did a good job. We knew the 9 and 10 were very short on fuel. Scott came in and took emergency service. We were scanning his radios. Said you’re probably not going to make it to the pit box. Josef did his job.Alex was supposed to pull over to the left, which he didn’t. I think that is something we need to talk about. It caused some more problems for other people. Luckily we were right behind him so it didn’t cost us any time on pit road because we got to be able to get to the pit box and go forward. In general, having people run out of fuel in pit lane in the fast lane is not something we need to have going forward. We did a good job there and went to the front. Q. Josef, how are you going to spend the week off?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I don’t know. I don’t know. I’ll find out tomorrow. I’ll make a list. I think everybody’s going to enjoy the week off. I’m going to be doing what everybody else is doing.THE MODERATOR: Thank you. |
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| Chevrolet at World Wide Technology Raceway At Gateway General Motors Wins: 9 Chevrolet Wins: 8 2026 – Josef Newgarden – Team Penske2024 – Josef Newgarden – Team Penske2022 – Josef Newgarden – Team Penske2021 – Josef Newgarden – Team Penske2020 Race #2 – Josef Newgarden – Team Penske2018 – Will Power – Team Penske2017 – Josef Newgarden – Team Penske2002 – Gil de Ferran – Team Penske Oldsmobile Wins: 1 2001 – Al Unser, Jr. – Galles Racing General Motors Poles: 9 Chevrolet Poles: 8 2025 – Will Power – Team Penske2024 – Scott McLaughlin – Team Penske2023 – Scott McLaughlin – Team Penske2022 – Will Power – Team Penske2021 – Will Power – Team Penske2020 Race #1 – Will Power – Team Penske2019 – Josef Newgarden – Team Penske2017 – Will Power – Team Penske2002 – Gil de Ferran – Team Penske Oldsmobile Poles: 1 2001 – Sam Hornish – Panther Racing General Motors Podiums: 27 Chevrolet Podiums 26 Chevrolet driver podiums at World Wide Technology Raceway At Gateway: Josef Newgarden (6), Pato O’Ward (5), Scott McLaughlin (3), Will Power (2), Christian Rasmussen (2), Alex Barron (1), Ed Carpenter (1), Helio Castroneves (1), Gil de Ferran (1), Tony Kanaan (1), Simon Pagenaud (1) Chevrolet team podiums at World Wide Technology Raceway At Gateway: Team Penske (14), Arrow McLaren (5), ECR (3), A.J. Foyt Racing (1), Blair Racing (1) Oldsmobile Podiums: 3 Oldsmobile driver podiums at World Wide Technology Raceway At Gateway: Mark Dismore (1), Sam Hornish (1) and Al Unser, Jr. (1). Oldsmobile team podiums at World Wide Technology Raceway At Gateway: Galles Racing (1), Kelley Racing (1), and Panther Racing (1) General Motors Laps Led: 2031 Chevrolet Laps Led: 1866 Chevrolet laps led by driver at World Wide Technology Raceway At Gateway: Josef Newgarden (677), Will Power (450), Pato O’Ward (167), Helio Castroneves (137), Scott McLaughlin (130), Gil de Ferran (81), David Malukas (67), Conor Daly (37), Alex Barron (29), Sebastien Bourdais (18), Simon Pagenaud (14), Alexander Rossi (14), Santino Ferrucci (8), Sting Ray Robb (8), Nolan Siegel (8), Caio Collet (7), Christian Rasmussen (6), Callum Ilott (5), Felipe Giafone (2), and Felix Rosenqvist (1) Chevrolet laps led by team at World Wide Technology Raceway At Gateway: Team Penske (1489), Arrow McLaren (188), A.J. Foyt Racing (108), Juncos Hollinger Racing (36), Blair Racing (29), ECR (8), Prema Racing (5), Mo Nunn Racing (2) and Carlin (1). Oldsmobile Laps Led: 165 Oldsmobile laps led by driver at World Wide Technology Raceway At Gateway: Sam Hornish (81), Al Unser, Jr. (75), Mark Dismore (8), and Airton Dare (1) Oldsmobile laps led by team at World Wide Technology Raceway At Gateway: Panther Racing (81), Galles Racing (75), Kelley Racing (8) and Team Xtreme (1) Manufacturer history at World Wide Technology Raceway At Gateway Wins – General Motors (9)Chevrolet (8) – 2026, 2024, 2022, 2021, 2020 R2, 2018, 2017, 2002Honda (5) – 2025, 2023, 2020 R1, 2019, 1998Toyota (2) – 2003, 2000Oldsmobile (1) – 2001Ford (1) – 1999Mercedes (1) – 1997 Earned Poles – 16 (in 2018, the field was set by championship points due to weather)General Motors (9)Chevrolet (8) – 2025, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020 R1, 2019, 2017, 2002Honda (3) – 2026, 2020 R2, 1999Toyota (2) – 2003, 2000Oldsmobile (1) – 2001Mercedes (1) – 1998Ford (1) – 1997 |