Josef Newgarden was fastest in the final Indianapolis 500 practice on Friday, then headed into Sunday’s race from the 23rd spot on the grid. The two-time series champion said, “I put up a fast lap,” after the session, but added that speed over one lap is only part of the picture.
“I think we’ve been relatively solid all month.... We’ve just got to make sure it’s right as Sunday comes around,” Newgarden said. That is a better place to be than a year ago, when he still won the season-ending race at Nashville Superspeedway but finished 12th in the standings in 2025.
The starting position matters because Newgarden has made the Indianapolis 500 his signature race. He won the event in back-to-back years in 2023 and 2024, and he also owns INDYCAR titles from 2017 and 2019. A driver with that record starting 23rd is a reminder that one strong practice run does not erase the challenge ahead, especially on a day when track position can decide whether a contender spends the afternoon moving forward or getting trapped in traffic.
Newgarden enters the race with a different feel around Team Penske and its INDYCAR program after an offseason reset and organizational changes under Jonathan Diuguid, who took over the operation last June. Newgarden has already said he sensed “a good rebalancing in a lot of ways,” adding, “I see the light at the end of the tunnel,” and “I feel like we’re getting back into a rhythm and a lot of respect.”
Diuguid, who also served as Newgarden’s strategist for the 2024 Indy 500 win, said he believed the driver was carrying a lot of stress at the end of last year and needed the offseason reset. He said there were “very difficult, very frank conversations” through October and November after the season ended, but that Newgarden arrived at the opener at St Petersburg ready to race.
The early results in 2026 have backed that up. Six races into the season, Newgarden sat fifth in the standings with one win after the oval race at Phoenix, along with two top-fives and four top-10s. That is a steadier start than his final 2025 points finish suggested, and it gives him a legitimate shot to build on the momentum if Sunday breaks his way.
Newgarden said he feels the progress and that the program is moving in the right direction. The unanswered question is whether that progress can survive the full length of the Indianapolis 500 from deep in the field. For a driver who has already won the race twice in a row, the answer on Sunday will say more than any practice chart ever could.
