"I'm ready": Josef Newgarden in high spirits after impressive qualifying at IMS
The two-time IndyCar champion, Josef Newgarden, is in high spirits following his sensational P6 outing in qualifying (March 9). In line with this, he has made it known that he is fully prepared to give his all in the upcoming IMS road course race, the Sonsio Grand Prix.
During qualifying, Newgarden was on it from the get-go and as a result, was able to manage a time of 01:09.9829, which proved good enough for sixth place.
With only a few hours remaining until the start of the race, he shared a short clip via X:
"Welcome to the day, it's the GP, at the start of the road course, it's beautiful today. We get a top 10 start, it's gonna go a long way, and we can, somehow, scrap our way into the top 6, then that would be a really good day. Qualified P6, I didn't think about that, we made it to the fast 6, which is a big deal, the team did a good job, so I'm ready," Newgarden added.
Josef Newgarden has Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's Devlin DeFrancesco, his own teammate (Team Penske), Scott McLaughlin, Louis Foster, Graham Rahal, and Alex Palou starting ahead of him.
Josef Newgarden's teammate Scott McLaughlin's take ahead of IMS road course race
While Josef Newgarden has made it crystal clear that he is ready to give his absolute best in the upcoming road course race, his Penske teammate, Scott McLaughlin, sounded pleased with his P4 outing in qualifying.
Following the end of the session, McLaughlin had the following to add via Team Penske's official website.
"Really proud of Ben (Bretzman) and all the guys on the Sonsio Chevy. I was complaining a fair bit in practice, and they tuned it up for me and got it going. To make the Fast Six, not that I didn't expect it based on practice, but it was nice to do it." McLaughlin said via Team Penske.
After the first four rounds of the ongoing 2025 IndyCar season, both Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin are not where they would ideally want to be in the drivers' standings. The former is way down in P11, whereas the 31-year-old is in P5 with 105 points.
Keeping in view that Scott McLaughlin has come into the Sonsio Grand Prix weekend on the back of a P3 in Barber GP, he has strong momentum on his side. Whereas when it comes to Newgarden, he has a chance to start building some momentum following his P6 qualifying outing.
The Team Penske duo is slated to start the upcoming race from close vicinity of each other, and considering this, it will be fascinating to see how their respective outings will pan out.