INDYCAR: Josef Newgarden almost sweeps last place at Milwaukee
by William Soquet / LASTCAR.info Staff Writer
PHOTOS: Penske Entertainment / Joe Skibinski (Ericsson), NBC Sports (Newgarden)
Marcus Ericsson finished last for the 7th time in his NTT IndyCar Series career in Saturday’s Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250 Race 1 when his #28 Delaware Life Honda crashed out after completing 146 of the race’s 250 laps.
It was his first since the Indianapolis 500, ten races ago. Across IndyCar Series history, it was the seventh for the #28, the 119th for Honda and the 234th for a crash.
Josef Newgarden finished last for the 5th time in his NTT IndyCar Series career in Sunday’s Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250 Race 2 when his #2 Snap-On Tools Chevrolet crashed out after four of the race’s 250 laps.
It was his first since Texas in 2016, 133 races ago. Across IndyCar Series history, it was the 16th for the #2, the 117th for Chevrolet and the 235th for a crash.
Both last-place drivers came into the Milwaukee race weekend on extended redemption arcs. Newgarden has almost turned into IndyCar’s heel through a collection of events almost unthinkable a few years ago, when he was primed to be the IndyCar golden boy for years to come. He called off his podcast with teammate Scott McLaughlin and closed down to a very tight inner circle in a pursuit to win everything. That pursuit started with a win at St. Petersburg that was later taken away for push-to-pass violations – Newgarden only avoided last place by virtue of his teammate, Scott McLaughlin, facing the same fate after finishing one position lower. While the #2 team put together a number of solid runs throughout the season, including a thrilling win at the Indianapolis 500, controversy reared its ugly head again at Gateway. There, Newgarden kept the field at a crawl as the leader coming to a late restart, resulting in torn-up race cars and another shadowy win. He came to Milwaukee seventh in points, but certainly near the top of the list in terms of attention.
As for Ericsson, his early-season struggles are well-documented. But the #28, for a time, was on track for a reverse season of 2023. Romain Grosjean, Ericsson’s predecessor, started the year off hot but completely imploded during the summer months, making the team rethink its decision to offer an extension and instead sign Ericsson. While the former Ganassi driver earned his stripes out of the gate with Andretti, he nabbed a spot on the podium with a runner-up drive at Detroit the week after Indianapolis. That kicked off a stretch of five consecutive top-ten finishes for the car, and Ericsson worked up to 11th in points after sitting 19th following the 500. However, a string of miscues – finishing two laps down at Iowa, crashing at Toronto, and a mechanical failure at Gateway – put the crew pretty much back at square one. A sixth-place effort at Portland was hopefully the start of another good stretch to close out the season.
Once again, there was a surprise IndyCar driver in the field in Christian Rasmussen. The rookie thought that he finished out his road and street course season with Ed Carpenter Racing following Portland, but news broke the Tuesday before Milwaukee that team owner Ed Carpenter had yielded the seat to Rasmussen for the final three races of the year. While nothing the team put out expressly noted this, the decision was likely tied to a tight Leaders Circle battle that could see the team win or miss out on $1 million of budget for next season. Carpenter admitted that he has not been performing up to expectations this year, and the choice was made to put Rasmussen in.
In the lone practice session for the weekend, the paths for Newgarden and Ericsson digressed widely. Newgarden led the session - a surprise to almost no one - as he was one of the few drivers in the field with previous IndyCar experience at Milwaukee. He made four starts with Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing before the series departed the track, and was already showing substantial ability back then. He claimed the pole position for the 2015 race and notched Top Fives in both 2014 and 2015. Ericsson landed 21st on the charts, eight-tenths behind Newgarden and four-tenths ahead of the slowest driver, Katherine Legge.
The doubleheader format for the weekend meant that qualifying was a single-car, two-lap event: the first lap setting the starting position for the first race and the second setting the starting position for the other. Newgarden took the second spot for Race 1 and the pole for Race 2. Ericsson was 9th for Race 1 and 16th for Race 2. Pietro Fittipaldi set the slowest first lap and the slowest second lap.
Grid penalties for extra engines were handed to plenty of teams by IndyCar, with the penalties affecting the grid for the first race only. Newgarden slid from second to 11th, while Ericsson moved up from 9th to 7th (benefitting from Newgarden and Marcus Armstrong). Fittipaldi also received a grid penalty, killing any shot of starting the race in a better position.
The shuffle was on at the front of the field for the start of race one, and by the end of the first lap, the running order read Newgarden in 9th and Ericsson in 10th. Neither car progressed more on a track where it was difficult to pass, but not impossible. It was much the same story at the back of the field, where Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing was having a weekend to forget. Fittipaldi, Christian Lundgaard, and Graham Rahal ran 27th-26th-25th for the opening stint and were all lapped by the 32nd circuit.
Nolan Siegel took over last place when he became the first car to pit on Lap 53, but Lundgaard took it over on Lap 59 after he pitted. Fittipaldi then slotted into last after his pit stop a few laps later, destined for another stint at the tail of the field. However, Kyffin Simpson came into the pits around Lap 71 and took over last, despite being on the lead lap before that. He then pitted a few laps later and stayed there, this time to fix an issue with the car’s radio. The #4 car dropped about a dozen laps in arrears due to the issue, far below anyone else in the running order.
Following the first pit cycle, Ericsson settled into 9th and Newgarden into 16th. After the second cycle, it was mostly the same story, as the #28 was 9th and the #2 was 15th. The two cars were ironically the first to pit in the third cycle, with Newgarden getting service on Lap 131 and Ericsson coming in one lap later. At the tail-end of stops, they were 2nd and 3rd behind Pato O’Ward, with Newgarden leading the pair.
On Lap 147, Ericsson made a move on Newgarden coming down the frontstretch. The pair entered Turn 1 sidepod-to-sidepod, with Ericsson’s left side wheels on the first seam on the track, running the second line, and Newgarden just inches above him. Both drove deep into the corner, and in the middle of Turns 1 and 2, wheels touched. The back of Ericsson’s car turned and ripped the sidepod of Newgarden’s car, sending both spinning into the outside wall. The cars came to rest close to one another, and the drivers had a brief sign language conversation with helmets and suits on before being transported to the IndyCar medical center. Race control did not take any action on the incident.
There was no further attrition in the race, leaving Simpson 25th. Romain Grosjean, who received contact on a late restart, was 24th after having that fixed in green-flag conditions in the pits. Sting Ray Robb was 23rd after an incident of his brought out a late caution.
Ericsson’s last-place finish also kept the LASTCAR championship battle alive. Coming into the weekend, Rasmussen was the only driver with three last-place finishes, and Scott Dixon the only driver with two. Ericsson’s last-place finish was his second of the season and drew him even in the Bottom Five finishes category, picking up his fifth. Rasmussen finished 12th, a good day for a car in need of Owners Points.
The star of Saturday was Conor Daly, reprising his role yet again as a sub driver. Running the remainder of the campaign for Juncos Hollinger Racing, Daly was tapped to get the car inside the Leaders Circle. Although he has held his own on road courses, Daly is known for being an oval merchant in the IndyCar Series. He was true to form on Saturday, flying around the outside on restarts and passing 51 cars in total after starting 25th. A well-timed caution kept him on the lead lap late, but he moved up to a podium spot during the final green flag run and kept it for his first podium since Belle Isle in 2016.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*Ericsson’s 146 laps complete were the most for a Milwaukee last-place finisher since Buddy Rice completed 156 before crashing on June 3, 2007.
*The #28 had previously finished last at Milwaukee. Ryan Hunter-Reay crashed on the opening lap from the seventh starting spot on June 19, 2011.
RACE 1 BOTTOM FIVE
27) #28-Marcus Ericsson / 146 laps / crash
26) #2-Josef Newgarden / 146 laps / crash
25) #4-Kyffin Simpson / 238 laps / running
24) #77-Romain Grosjean / 243 laps / running
23) #41-Sting Ray Robb / 244 laps / running
Sunday’s back half of the doubleheader brought renewed hope for Newgarden, starting on pole, and an uphill climb for Ericsson, starting 16th. Newgarden’s backup car was not a PPG livery like his Saturday car was – it was a Snap-On Tools car. The black-and-grey marked a sleek difference from the blue and white the day before.
Before the race even began, however, it looked like there were major implications for the overall IndyCar championship that happened to coincide with the LASTCAR championship. Points leader Alex Palou pulled his car off to the Turn 1 apron with an apparent hybrid issue, with scenes similar to those of when Scott Dixon failed to start the race at Mid-Ohio earlier this year. When IndyCar hits its allotted number of pace laps, the race starts, even if it is under caution. Palou recycled the power on his car, but it was eventually pushed back to the pits by the safety team.
IndyCar was finally ready to throw the green flag at the beginning of Lap 5. However, the starter didn’t like how the back of the field was bunched up, so the start was waved off. Linus Lundqvist, who started 3rd on Saturday and led a handful of laps, started 5th on Sunday. He did not slow down until it was too late, slamming into the back of the 3rd-place starter. That car was driven by his teammate, Marcus Armstrong. Armstrong was a little bit higher up on track than Newgarden, so the contact from Lundqvist turned Armstrong into the passenger sidepod of Newgarden. That impact sent Newgarden nose-first into the inside wall, ending his day. Armstrong was never able to recover from the damage either and finished 26th.
Despite a few near-misses this year (a pair of 26ths and a 25th), the last-place finish was Newgarden’s first since 2016 – all the way back to when he was driving for Ed Carpenter Racing.
Palou eventually made it back out on track 27 laps down, and things played in his favor from there. Whereas Saturday’s race only saw two cars fail to finish, there were a whole host of DNFs on Sunday. Nolan Siegel was 25th, only completing 24 laps before a gearbox issue took him out of the running. Arrow McLaren teammate Pato O’Ward only made it 87 times around before succumbing to the same issue. Graham Rahal was punted by Christian Rasmussen midway through the race, rounding out the Bottom Five. An additional five cars failed to finish as well, putting Palou up to 19th in the final order.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*Newgarden was the first polesitter to finish last since Will Power crashed out after five laps at St. Petersburg on October 25, 2020.
*Newgarden was credited with four laps led. He is the first last-place finisher to lead multiple laps since Power led four at that same St. Petersburg race on October 25, 2020.
*Christian Rasmussen and Marcus Ericsson are the only two drivers mathematically eligible to win the LASTCAR drivers championship heading into Nashville. Ericsson would need to finish last and have Rasmussen finish outside the Bottom Five to win; otherwise Rasmussen wins.
*Honda has clinched the 2024 LASTCAR IndyCar manufacturers championship.
RACE 2 BOTTOM FIVE
27) #2-Josef Newgarden / 5 laps / crash
26) #11-Marcus Armstrong / 6 laps / crash
25) #6-Nolan Siegel / 24 laps / gearbox
24) #5-Pato O’Ward / 87 laps / gearbox
23) #15-Graham Rahal / 123 laps / crash
2024 LASTCAR INDYCAR SERIES MANUFACTURER STANDINGS
1st) Honda (9)
2nd) Chevrolet (7)
2024 LASTCAR INDYCAR SERIES OWNERS STANDINGS
1st) Chip Ganassi Racing, Dale Coyne Racing, Ed Carpenter Racing (3)
2nd) Andretti Global, Team Penske (2)
3rd) A.J. Foyt Racing, Juncos Hollinger Racing, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (1)
2024 LASTCAR INDYCAR SERIES DRIVERS STANDINGS
