Tag: Luke Mason

Penske engineer Luke Mason finds immortality in only his sixth race

Luke Mason has been Josef Newgarden’s race engineer for all of six races. The Australian has won two of them, including the Indianapolis 500, before he’s reached the halfway point of his first season as an IndyCar race engineer. “It’s the Indy 500!” …

Luke Mason has been Josef Newgarden’s race engineer for all of six races. The Australian has won two of them, including the Indianapolis 500, before he’s reached the halfway point of his first season as an IndyCar race engineer.

“It’s the Indy 500!” Mason told RACER, his lips quivering from the rush of adrenaline and emotion while standing next to Indy’s yard of bricks. “You spend your whole life working towards achieving this one goal, and having done it now, I’m speechless. It’s such a good crew, this group of people; not just the No. 2 car or theNo. 3 or the No. 12, but the whole crew. Everyone back at the shop; it’s been a big goal. It’s no secret that we haven’t done well enough here at the Speedway.

“Coming into this year after a championship victory last year, it was priority number one to get Roger’s 19th win.”

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Among the most remarkable aspects of Newgarden’s win was his steady and unstoppable march forward from 17th on the grid. According to Mason, he had one of the easiest days imaginable on the timing stand thanks to nailing the perfect chassis setup for the American to drive into victory lane.

“We didn’t touch the front wing,” he said. “We didn’t touch tire pressures all day. We kept asking Josef if he wanted changes and were trying to make sure that we were in the right window for the shootout at the end. And he kept saying everything was fine, so we just didn’t touch it all day. The plan going in was to be the best on pit road. We got the best driver in the car, so every stop, we’d pick up two or three spots and then another two or three spots. We were ahead of schedule by halfway.

“Pretty happy with that. And obviously we’ve got to be fair; there’s a lot of good cars that got taken out in various situations. At the same time, we’ve got to capitalize and we knew that if we put him in a position to go drive and steal this victory, he was going to do it. He’s Josef Newgarden, and that’s what he does best.”

Newgarden and engineer Mason strike gold fast in Texas

Another Texas IndyCar race win for Josef Newgarden, another first-time win for Newgarden’s new race engineer. Not only did Team Penske’s two-time NTT IndyCar Series champion earn back-to-back victories at Texas Motor Speedway last weekend, but he …

Another Texas IndyCar race win for Josef Newgarden, another first-time win for Newgarden’s new race engineer.

Not only did Team Penske’s two-time NTT IndyCar Series champion earn back-to-back victories at Texas Motor Speedway last weekend, but he also completed a rare year-to-year feat of introducing his race engineers on the No. 2 Chevy to their first triumphs as engineering leaders in IndyCar.

In 2022, it was Eric Leichtle, who went on to capture five wins with Newgarden on the way to placing second in the championship. After Leichtle took a job with SpaceX during the offseason, it was time to find the American’s replacement, and who better than his assistant race engineer, Australia’s Luke Mason?

Presented with the opportunity to take the engineering reins on Newgarden’s Dallara DW12, Mason only needed two races to steer the Tennessean to victory lane.

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“I think the world of Luke,” Newgarden told RACER. “Just to look back a year ago, I felt the same way about Eric. I think Eric did a tremendous job for us in 2022. I can’t speak highly enough about the job that he did. Then for Luke to step into the role, I’ve just got a high level of confidence in that man. He is just so excellent at what he does. He is a phenomenal race engineer. You got to understand the definition of ‘race engineer’ to really understand that praise. But he is phenomenal. I’m excited for him.”

Just as Mason was an important part of Leichtle’s cast on last year’s timing stand, Newgarden praised the revised support engineering core who form the No. 2’s technical collective.

“[Their success] obviously extends much further than Luke,” Newgarden added. “Luke has a great team behind him: [assistant engineer] James [Schnabel], we have Mustafa [Malik], aka ‘Simba,’ on the stand now, a new guy on our team doing performance and helping Luke. You have the entire crew obviously behind him. It’s a big team effort. But I think the world of Luke and the entire team. Just to repeat, I feel really good about where we’re at.”

In typical Newgarden fashion, the Texas win introduced a new celebratory wrinkle to the series as Schnabel, who was on the No. 2 car in 2022 and also doubles as race engineer for Penske-affiliated Indy NXT driver Ernie Francis Jr., was awarded Mjolnir — aka Thor’s hammer — at Texas, which replaces the Chalice of Excellence, the former intra-crew award presented to a member of Newgarden’s team.

Forget the Chalice of Excellence, now it’s all about Thor’s hammer. James Schnabel lofts Mjolnir with Newgarden in victory lane. Brett Farmer/Motorsport Images

And in a final Texas-related note for Newgarden, statistician Scott Richards reports that with his win, the 32-year-old has joined an elite group after securing an oval victory in his eighth consecutive season, most among all active IndyCar drivers, and second only to a pair of legends in Johnny Rutherford (1973-1981) and Bobby Unser (1968-1976) who hold the record with nine straight years of oval wins.