Newgarden secures crucial pole at Sonoma in Penske 1-4 sweep - MotorSportsTalk

SONOMA, Calif. – Josef Newgarden delivered his second – and easily his most important – career pole position for Sunday’s GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma (6:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN) in qualifying today.

Newgarden’s eventual lap of 1:15.5205 was a new track record and only edged teammate Will Power at 1:15.5556 for the top spot. The pole is Newgarden’s first since Milwaukee 2015, which was done on the same day as the race.

Beyond the front row it was Simon Pagenaud third and Helio Castroneves fourth, with Takuma Sato and Scott Dixon completing the top six.

The Team Penske team has now qualified in the top four positions for the third time this year after also doing so at Road America and Gateway. Castroneves and Power had the two pole positions at those two races.

Newgarden enters the weekend with a three-point lead but now garners a crucial bonus point.

“We were first out. I think it would have been risky for us to save a set of reds like the second group. And we knew we knew we’d be on our back foot there in the Fast Six. But, this car was phenomenal. It’s cool because this is the Verizon P1 award. I’ve been driving a Hum car many races this year by Verizon and I haven’t been able to get it in this place, so I’m happy to have those guys on board. They do so much for this sport. And it’s a good start for our weekend,” Newgarden said.

The full report is below.

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In Q1, Josef Newgarden laid waste to the previous track record. The driver of the No. 2 hum by Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet obliterated Simon Pagenaud’s previous mark of 1:16.2530, with Newgarden lapping the 2.385-mile circuit at a lap of 1:15.7917.

Beyond Newgarden, Andretti Autosport’s trio of Alexander Rossi, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Takuma Sato were next, followed by two of Chip Ganassi Racing’s drivers in Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan. Dixon, at more than 1.1 seconds behind Newgarden, had to be left stupefied by the pace displayed.

Those knocked out included Conor Daly, best of the rest in the first of two ABC Supply Co. Chevrolets for A.J. Foyt, fellow Americans Charlie Kimball and Spencer Pigot, and Indy Lights veterans Jack Harvey and Zachary Claman DeMelo. Claman DeMelo, in his maiden IndyCar start, was less than a tenth behind Harvey and will roll off 21st in his No. 13 Paysafe Honda.

Q2 saw the other three Penske drivers only run on blacks, and Helio Castroneves gambled by running only once in the session. Still, his time held up enough at a best time of 1:16.5534 to be fifth in his group.

Will Power led it at 1:16.1236 with Simon Pagenaud second at 1:16.2220 – both times ahead of Pagenaud’s previous track record mark – and with both times on blacks. Marco Andretti was third, top Honda in the session, at 1:16.3298 on the reds ahead of Graham Rahal, Castroneves and Sebastien Bourdais.

Those knocked out were Max Chilton, who said this was one of his better qualifying efforts even if the result didn’t back it up, James Hinchcliffe, Ed Jones, JR Hildebrand and Carlos Munoz.

All the Penskes needed to go to reds in Q2, and one by one they set their mark.

First Power dropped a 1:15.9919, followed by Castroneves at 1:15.9602, then Newgarden at 1:15.7325, and then Pagenaud at 1:15.7120 – which beat Newgarden’s earlier track record set in Q1.

Behind the Penske quartet, Sato and Dixon upheld Honda’s honor versus the four Chevrolets to advance.

Dixon though had to dodge several bullets to advance through to the Firestone Fast Six for the ninth time in as many opportunities this season. And with all of Hunter-Reay, Rossi, Rahal, Bourdais, Andretti and Kanaan coming short, Dixon made it through.

Several fast laps were exchanged in the Fast Six but ultimately it was Newgarden prevailing – only just – by 0.0351 of a second.

RESULTS

SONOMA, California – Qualifying Saturday for the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma Verizon IndyCar Series event on the 2.385-mile(s) Sonoma Raceway, with qualifying position, car number in parentheses, driver, aero kit-engine, time and speed in parentheses:

1. (2) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 01:15.5205 (113.691)
2. (12) Will Power, Chevrolet, 01:15.5556 (113.638)
3. (1) Simon Pagenaud, Chevrolet, 01:15.6356 (113.518)
4. (3) Helio Castroneves, Chevrolet, 01:15.8032 (113.267)
5. (26) Takuma Sato, Honda, 01:16.2208 (112.646)
6. (9) Scott Dixon, Honda, 01:16.3978 (112.385)
7. (28) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Honda, 01:16.1815 (112.705)
8. (98) Alexander Rossi, Honda, 01:16.1934 (112.687)
9. (15) Graham Rahal, Honda, 01:16.1968 (112.682)
10. (18) Sebastien Bourdais, Honda, 01:16.5811 (112.116)
11. (27) Marco Andretti, Honda, 01:16.8221 (111.765)
12. (10) Tony Kanaan, Honda, 01:16.9718 (111.547)
13. (4) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 01:17.1016 (111.360)
14. (8) Max Chilton, Honda, 01:16.7581 (111.858)
15. (83) Charlie Kimball, Honda, 01:17.1417 (111.302)
16. (5) James Hinchcliffe, Honda, 01:16.9539 (111.573)
17. (20) Spencer Pigot, Chevrolet, 01:17.2662 (111.122)
18. (19) Ed Jones, Honda, 01:17.0231 (111.473)
19. (7) Jack Harvey, Honda, 01:17.2722 (111.114)
20. (21) JR Hildebrand, Chevrolet, 01:17.1602 (111.275)
21. (13) Zachary Claman DeMelo, Honda, 01:17.2814 (111.100)
22. (14) Carlos Munoz, Chevrolet, 01:17.2507 (111.145)

INDIANAPOLIS — The first Indy 500 victory for Josef Newgarden also was the richest in race history from a record 2023 purse of just more than $17 million.

The two-time NTT IndyCar Series champion, who continued his celebration Monday morning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway earned $3.666 million for winning the 107th running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

The purse and winner’s share both are the largest in the history of the Indianapolis 500.

It’s the second consecutive year that the Indy 500 purse set a record after the 2022 Indy 500 became the first to crack the $16 million mark (nearly doubling the 2021 purse that offered a purse of $8,854,565 after a crowd limited to 135,000 because of the COVID-19 pandemic).

The average payout for IndyCar drivers was $500,600 (exceeding last year’s average of $485,000).

Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Roger Penske, whose team also fields Newgarden’s No. 2 Dallara-Chevrolet, had made raising purses a priority since buying the track in 2020. But Penske but was unable to post big money purses until the race returned to full capacity grandstands last year.

The largest Indy 500 purse before this year was $14.4 million for the 2008 Indy 500 won by Scott Dixon (whose share was $2,988,065). Ericsson’s haul made him the second Indy 500 winner to top $3 million (2009 winner Helio Castroneves won $3,048,005.

Runner-up Marcus Ericsson won $1.043 million after falling short by 0.0974 seconds in the fourth-closest finish in Indy 500 history.

The 107th Indy 500 drew a crowd of at least 330,000 that was the largest since the sellout for the 100th running in 2016, and the second-largest in more than two decades, according to track officials.

“This is the greatest race in the world, and it was an especially monumental Month of May featuring packed grandstands and intense on-track action,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said in a release. “Now, we have the best end card possible for the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500: a record-breaking purse for the history books.”

Benjamin Pedersen was named the Indy 500 rookie of the year, earning a $50,000 bonus.

The race’s purse is determined through contingency and special awards from IMS and IndyCar. The awards were presented Monday night in the annual Indy 500 Victory Celebration at the JW Marriott in downtown Indianapolis.

The payouts for the 107th Indy 500:

1. Josef Newgarden, $3,666,000
2. Marcus Ericsson, $1,043,000
3. Santino Ferrucci, $481,800
4. Alex Palou, $801,500
5. Alexander Rossi, $574,000
6. Scott Dixon, $582,000
7. Takuma Sato, $217,300
8. Conor Daly, $512,000
9. Colton Herta, $506,500
10. Rinus VeeKay, $556,500
11. Ryan Hunter‐Reay, $145,500
12. Callum Ilott, $495,500
13. Devlin DeFrancesco, $482,000
14. Scott McLaughlin, $485,000
15. Helio Castroneves, $481,500
16. Tony Kanaan, $105,000
17. Marco Andretti, $102,000
18. Jack Harvey, $472,000
19. Christian Lundgaard, $467,500
20. Ed Carpenter, $102,000
21. Benjamin Pedersen (R), $215,300
22. Graham Rahal, $565,500*
23. Will Power, $488,000
24. Pato O’Ward, $516,500
25. Simon Pagenaud, $465,500
26. Agustín Canapino (R), $156,300
27. Felix Rosenqvist, $278,300
28. Kyle Kirkwood, $465,500
29. David Malukas, $462,000
30. Romain Grosjean, $462,000
31. Sting Ray Robb (R), $463,000
32. RC Enerson (R), $103,000
33. Katherine Legge, $102,000

*–Broken down between two teams, $460,000 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, $105,500 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports