Intense and imperfect: Josef Newgarden wins Indycar opener in St. Pete

Josef Newgarden took a dominant victory in St. Petersburg to set a high bar for his rivals in the 2024 Indycar season and give a clear look into his winning mentality.

The #2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet driver led 92 of 100 laps after starting on pole position, his first since 2022.

"It felt comfortable today really, really comfortable," said Newgarden. "I had a lot of fun."

"Early on in the race, I'm going, "I'm not here to wait around, we're going to win this!""

The 33-year-old from Tennessee ended a 27-race pole drought with the NTT P1 Award on Saturday in St. Petersburg but it wasn't all smooth sailing, with Felix Rosenqvist putting his #60 AutoNation/Sirius XM Honda on the front row after missing pole by just over five-thousandths of a second.

Rosenqvist was the bridesmaid on Saturday after setting a new track record in the group of 12 but qualifying second by the closest margin at a road course in over a decade.

It was a true opening day spectacle for Indycar in Florida with clear, sunny conditions as Newgarden sped away from the field from pole, challenged only during caution and losing the lead briefly when Christian Lundgaard moved into the top spot during the pit window, out of sync with the field after an early puncture.

Newgarden was the picture of focus on Saturday after qualifying, embodying the mindset he is taking into the 2024 season.

He was the man to beat on oval tracks in 2023, taking victory in four out of five races, including the 107th Indianapolis 500, missing a sweep only after a crash while battling for the lead at World Wide Technology Raceway.

His performance was far more varied on road and street tracks, especially as "calamity after calamity" struck in the final stretch of the season.

Asked after qualifying if his new pace on the street circuit should be a cause for relief, he replied "not to me."

"Just because we had a strong year on ovals last year doesn't guarantee we're going to have an identical result this year," said the #2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet driver

"It very well could be that we show up and we've fixed a lot of our street and road course performance and all of a sudden we take a step back on the ovals."

"I just think you have to be vigilant, I'm not going to rest on anything from prior seasons.

"The balance is still pretty mixed, as it should be. We've got a nice split between road, street, and ovals

"I don't think you can hide behind the fact that you have to be good across the board. You can't be weak anywhere.

"I'm not going to lean on a couple of new oval additions, I don't think any of us can do that."

Focused and vigilant, Newgarden may say his rivals shouldn't fear his form just yet, but they may well have reason to after the race on Sunday in St. Petersburg.

Newgarden, who deleted his social media accounts prior to the season and says he has had to stifle his perfectionist tendencies to allow himself to love the sport again, romped home from the final green flag to take the chequered flag by almost eight seconds over the #5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet of Pato O'Ward.

"I've had to let go that mentality," he says. "There's no sustainability in my perfection."

"I'm a perfectionist, I'm an introvert, I get hyper fixated on just trying to maximise everything.

"My mentality was in a lot of ways was win or nothing. All the way throughout my career, even today it was creeping in."

He admits it is not the first time that the sport has consumed him.

In his worst times, he says it became just a job and a way to provide for his family.

Now, he acknowledges that the privilege of being an Indycar driver means that he has the agency to fight for his own future and enjoyment in such a results-based environment.

It's a challenging role, he says, not a difficult one.

"Not pulling away from my passion and my desire, but I'm trying to recentre my enjoyment, and I do enjoy working with a race team so much."

"I mean, it's more than just driving the car really well, on any given day. It's an entire process, stepping into a group with many different people coming together and trying to figure out a problem.

"That problem is different every single weekend, and it's just so much fun to go through that with a team and we did that this weekend."

He thanks the team and manufacturer Chevrolet for their work on the balance of the car for the street circuit, a clear deviation from the 2023 setup.

He admits that the team has acknowledged their faults from last year and identified where to improved.

"I'm getting back to the basics of loving that," he sighs, in perhaps a more frightening admission than his pace on track.

This is a driver who has won an assured victory and leaves his car sanguine with love for the feeling of car racing.

On Saturday he was the archetypal American racing driver, focused and able to churn out verbose and detailed answers with no hesitation.

In hindsight, with the race complete, perhaps that focus was suppressing a hint of tension, anticipation; self-doubt that he might not perform, that his positive mindset wouldn't translate in the grand prix.

"I really felt that today I just enjoyed driving," he exhales, levitating a foot above the floor of the media centre.

"I really had a good time. And you know, it all worked out too, so that makes it a little bit more enjoyable."

"But, you know, I think the sentiment is where it needs to be."

Newgarden returns to earth for The $1 Million Challenge, a non-championship Indycar round on Sunday March 24 at The Thermal Club near Palm Springs.