In the final restart of IndyCar’s April 7, 2018 race at Phoenix Raceway, Josef Newgarden had eight laps to charge from fourth to first.
He was able to do it in just under half the time.
Almost immediately after the green flag waved, the Team Penske driver raced past Alexander Rossi and James Hinchcliffe on the outside. He then set his sights on the race leader, Robert Wickens.
With four and a half laps remaining, Newgaden made his move on the rookie, passing Wickens on the outside as the cars entered Turn 1. He then scooted away and won by a margin of 2.995 seconds over Wickens.
As effortless as his charge to the front looked, Newgarden mostly was able to do it thanks to the help of his pit crew. With 18 laps remaining in the race, Newgarden, the leader at the time, came into the pits to get a fresh set of tires.
While the stop meant he would lose the lead, the fresh rubber clearly was superior, and for the eighth time in his career, Newgarden was a winner in IndyCar competition.
“I don’t think I did anything tonight, this was a team victory,” Newgarden told NBC Sports in Victory Lane. “They gave me the pit stops. They had the strategy. I was working with rocket scientists on the pit stand. Those guys are awesome!
“You never know if you made the right call, but they did. That Firestone rubber is good when it’s new.”
Despite finishing seconod, Wickens was also proud of his result. In just his second race in the series, the Canadian already had his first podium.
“To be honest, I was never expecting to win,” Wickens said. “When I found out that only three of us stayed out, I was just ecstatic to come home P2 because I thought we were kind of going to get killed there at the end.”
Also on this date:
1974: Bobby Unser won a 200-mile USAC Champ Car race at Trenton Speedway in Trenton, New Jersey. Trenton was a unique 1.5-mile kidney bean-shaped oval with a 20-degree right-hand dogleg on the backstretch. The facility hosted its last USAC race in 1979 and closed the following year.
1996: Damon Hill won the Grand Prix of Argentina, the third of eight victories in his championship season. Damon (son of Graham Hill) and Nico Rosberg are the only two Formula One champions whose fathers also won F1 titles.