Josef Newgarden twice got the better of Will Power during Sunday’s Verizon IndyCar Series race around Barber Motorsports Park, and thus secured an excellent third place finish for the Ed Carpenter Racing driver.
Newgarden first took the Team Penske driver on the first green flag lap, before repeating the move with just two laps remaining to secure the podium spot.
Although the young American felt the car felt good all afternoon, he admitted it was not as strong as the two drivers ahead of him in the race, Simon Pagenaud and Graham Rahal, but Newgarden feels the result bodes well for the month of May that includes the Grand Prix of Indy and the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500.
“Pretty decent weekend for sure!” said Newgarden afterwards. “It’s great to go out with a great result in the Fuzzy’s Vodka car. We’ve had the 100th Running bottle on board, I was really happy to get a good result for those guys.
“I’m really proud to be a part of Ed Carpenter Racing and of everything that we are doing. We were good today. I think we were there, we just didn’t have enough for those first few guys. We weren’t far off!
“This is a great lead in to May, it’s going to be a really fun month. We have J.R. (Hildebrand) coming back on board for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, then we are all back together with Ed (Carpenter) for the Indianapolis 500. I can’t wait!”
