Can Josef Newgarden Win The Indy 500 From The Last Row?

Reigning two-time Indianapolis 500 champion Josef Newgarden starts 32nd on Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

May 25, 2025 by Kyle McFadden

Can Josef Newgarden Win The Indy 500 From The Last Row?

Just how good is Josef Newgarden at Indianapolis Motor Speedway?

Let's just say nobody's won the Indianapolis 500 from 20th or worse since 1987 when Al Unser won from that spot, yet the 32nd-starting Newgarden has wholesome confidence he can win from the very last row.

Heck, no winner at The Greatest Spectacle in Racing has come from deeper than 28th. Ray Harroun won the inaugural 1911 event from there and so did Louis Meyer in1936 when he started the celebratory milk-drinking tradition. Has it been mentioned nobody's ever won three straight Borg-Warner Trophies, too?

So just how good is Newgarden at IMS and the Indy 500? When asked if he can still win despite the seemingly insurmountable odds — on top of the penalties and drama Team Penske has brought on itself — Newgarden's boldness speaks for itself.

"Oh, absolutely," the 34-year-old said. "Absolutely."

Newgarden's looked perhaps the strongest of the Indy 500 hopefuls throughout the Month of May. He's ranked toward the top of the speed charts nearly every run, even topping Friday's Carb Day. He's also looked supremely confident in traffic, always a common denominator among Indy 500 winners.

Even 19th-starting Kyle Larson is expecting Newgarden to catch him and everyone else rather quickly.

"It's going to be really exciting for fans to watch Josef carve his way to the front," Larson said. "I think he's definitely got a fast car, one of the most experienced drivers out there, bravest -- one of the bravest guys out there too.

"It will be tough to pick his way forward, but I think he'll be able to execute his way to the front along with a good car. He'll be great on restarts. He will execute good pit stops. It's the unknown of if there's an accident in front of him and stuff that he can't avoid, things like that. He'll have no problem getting his way to the front."

Newgarden, like his usual self that's never short on confidence, agrees.

"I think he's right, you can win this race from any seat in the house," Newgarden said earlier this week. "There's no bad seat in this house. I like saying that, too. I love listening to where people sit and hearing their stories. There's just no bad seat at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I think that goes for the starting grid, too."

Capturing both his Indy 500s on the final lap — actually, in the same corner: turn three — Newgarden is as calculated as they come. Even when addressing Team Penske's penalties and subsequent firing of three executives, IndyCar team president Tim Cindric included, he sidetrack from the ultimate goal.

"I don't want to disappoint or offend anybody. I'm here to talk about the race," Newgarden said earlier this week when asked to address ramifications of his team's penalties. "I'm here with my team. I'm ready to go racing. I love this race. My goodness, I've been enjoying being here this whole time. I look forward to it every year, as we all do. Ready to go to work with our group."

When asked about the penalties for a second time: "I just see a bigger mountain. That's all I see."

And when asked for a third time: "Yeah, I'm not going to comment further on the actions that have happened with the team this week, like I said earlier."

Even as calculated as Newgarden is, there's no blow-by-blow game plan he'll abide by at the 2.5-mile oval because "Indy is this mysterious place" that's often temperamental, requiring drivers and teams to react in the moment.

"It's different every year. I didn't predict anything the first two races. I didn't know how they were going to flow," he said. "First one in '23 was quite chaotic with the reds. It was very hard to track what was happening until the very last moment.

"Last year, same deal. You're just sort of going off instinct. It was a really big battle last year with multiple cars. I don't know what this year's going to look like. I think you have to stay very open-ended, at least as far as your plan or perspective. They're all different."

Newgarden summarizes the approach best: "there is no one formula" to win the Indy 500," but rather "a cadence" to stay attentive of. And "I don't think it changes starting from 32nd," Newgarden says.

"We know what we need to do throughout the race to give ourselves an opportunity to go for the win," Newgarden said. "I think that's really not the secret, but it's just the formula, if you will. You have to give yourself a chance at the right time. Seems simple, but this race, it's an endurance in a lot of ways, it's 500 miles.

"A lot you have to calculate through: the way you manage yellows, where you put yourself in the strategies, when you're making moves, when you're not. There's a cadence to it. We've done it before, and we'll try and do the exact same thing this weekend."