Fury before victory for Newgarden
As Josef Newgarden stepped from his car last Friday night, he was furious. Fate, in the form of flashing yellow lights and flapping yellow flags, had robbed him of a victory that had looked certain since qualifying. Now, hot from the evening’s exertions in an aeroscreen-equipped IndyCar around the 170mph, 0.894-mile bowl that is Iowa Speedway, he was almost doing a jig of agitation.
“Not to sound too overconfident, but we had the car to beat tonight, hands down,” he declared from behind his face mask. “It’s just bad luck. The yellow coming out when it came out, you can’t predict that stuff. You weigh the pros and cons when you’re trying to go long or trying to go short with your pit windows.
“I had a rocketship, and I’m sad we couldn’t put our car in Victory Lane because I feel that we had that potential.”
Not helping his mood was that two of his prime title rivals, Penske team-mate Simon Pagenaud and runaway championship leader Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing, had finished first and second, despite starting at and near the back of the field respectively.
Newgarden took his frustration back to the hotel and
