It’s not impossible for Josef Newgarden to win his third championship this season, but the odds of capturing the 2024 NTT IndyCar Series title are certainly more favorable for Team Penske teammates Will Power and Scott McLaughlin.
Those long odds for Newgarden’s No. 2 Chevrolet program make his victory on Saturday at World Wide Technology Raceway — the first of five rapid-fire races to close a season that ends in less than 30 days — an interesting scenario for Team Penske president Tim Cindric to consider.
Entering Sunday’s race in Portland, Newgarden holds eighth in the Drivers’ standings, 126 points behind championship leader Alex Palou from Chip Ganassi Racing in the No. 10 Honda. McLaughlin, in fifth, is 73 points down to Palou in the No. 3 Chevy, and in fourth, Penske’s closest threat with a deficit of 66 points to Palou is Power in the No. 12 Chevy.
With a maximum of 54 points available to any driver at each race, and with more than double the points distance to Palou than Power, Newgarden is a longshot to leap past his teammates and the other title contenders. It leaves Cindric, Newgarden’s boss and race strategist, in a position to decide how the two-time series champion and two-time Indianapolis 500 winner executes the next four races.
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More wins by Newgarden, which are possible at each of the remaining events, would tip his odds in a more favorable position, but the likelihood of the No. 2 becoming a genuine contender for the IndyCar crown is remote. If Newgarden has a Power or McLaughlin sitting behind him in sight of a checkered flag, could Cindric implement team orders and ask his driver to move aside and let Penske’s strongest championship hopes take the bigger helping of points?
“In IndyCar, I don’t think we ever really hold anyone back,” Cindric told RACER. “Maybe to our detriment some years, but we’ve let our guys race for wins. And we’ll continue to do that, as will the other guys. If there’s only one or two people in front of him, then you could maybe say he has an outside chance if he sweeps the rest of the races.
“But with that many people in in the hunt there, it’s not realistic to talk about a championship. I think he’s resolved to just trying to finish the season on a high note. There’s three or four guys behind the 10 car that if the 10 has trouble, there’s opportunity there to at least be within a race (worth of points) right now. With four to go, somebody would have to dominate the last three or four races, and then have the 10 car struggled at one or two to really have a shot at it.
“From a team perspective, I think they’ll all race each other in a good way. But when you’re fighting for wins, it’s hard to give up a win.”
“Power went into WWTR with second in hand and less than one race — 49 points — needed to reel in Palou. He fell to fourth and 66 back after being hit and wrecked on a late restart led by Newgarden, and despite the added difficulty created in his quest to win a third championship, Power agrees with Cindric on the team’s let-them-race philosophy.
“I’ve just got to put myself in the position to be at the front to start with, and I think it’ll be more obvious where the three of us stand in the last three races,” Power told RACER. “It’s very difficult to tell a driver to give up a win. It just is. I understand that situation. It’s just tough because I’ve been on both sides of that. And you get the end of season, it’s so hard to win in IndyCar, and to tell the driver to give up a win…certainly at the very last race, no question, that’s always been the case at Penske. If that what it takes to win the championship for Penske, that’s what you do. But it’s hard to make that ask when you’re four or five races to go.
“We spoke as a team before (WWTR) and basically said, ‘You know where each other stands in the championship. If you’re in a position to help your teammate, you can,’ but we’re talking about if you’re fifth and he’s sixth.”
Like his teammates, Power wants to earn his results in the final standings.
“In Formula 1, yes, they do that sort of thing and actually switch positions quite early in the season, but I’ve always liked that at Penske, they always put it on the drivers to race each other and be responsible for racing each other the right way; there hasn’t been team orders in the past,” he said.
“They don’t pick number ones. They have three ‘A’ drivers, three top level drivers, all capable of winning championships and races. And it’s a tough balance. You’re always going to be fighting your teammate for wins and championships. It’s just going to be that way if you drive for this team.”