DETROIT – Despite doubts of his status after a hard crash into the Turn 4 wall at the Indianapolis 500 last week, Josef Newgarden started and finished the Detroit Grand Prix on Sunday. Newgarden, who finished 10th in the race after starting 21st, is still wearing a walking boot on his left foot and using a crutch on his right side when he’s not driving.
Newgarden drove all 100 laps of the 1.645-mile downtown Detroit street circuit, although he remained in pain after exiting his No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet.
“I knew it wasn’t gonna be good, and it wasn’t,” Newgarden said. “I don’t want to speak on it too much — it is what it is.”
Newgarden thanked Team Penske for allowing him to drive and building a car he felt was worthy of being on the podium had he raced at full health. Earlier this weekend, the team kept Felipe Nasr, who drives for Porsche Penske Motorsport in IMSA, on standby in the event that Newgarden couldn’t handle the pain of driving. Nasr stayed in Detroit after IMSA’s street race on Saturday, although he spent time on multiple of the team’s timing stands rather than remaining on Newgarden’s.
“This is their team, it’s not my team,” Newgarden said. “And if they didn’t want me to drive, I would’ve accepted that. I think if they wanted to win the race, you’d put Felipe in this car.”
In 2016, Newgarden raced with a broken clavicle and wrist for Ed Carpenter Racing just 12 days after suffering those injuries. While Newgarden and Team Penske never publicly diagnosed what happened to his left foot — which is used frequently for braking on street courses — Newgarden claimed this injury affected him more.
“This was worse,” he said. “This is definitely a less advantageous situation, I’d say, than last time.”
Newgarden won’t get a break, as the IndyCar schedule continues with the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 in Madison, Illinois, next Sunday. Newgarden is a five-time winner of the race, but he claimed he’s “in two minds right now” when asked if he’s excited to return to World Wide Technology Raceway. The two-time IndyCar champion is eighth in the IndyCar standings.
Zion Brown is IndyStar’s motorsports reporter. Follow him at @z10nbr0wn. Get IndyStar’s motor sports coverage sent directly to your inbox with our Motor Sports newsletter. Subscribe to the YouTube channel IndyStar TV: IndyCar for a behind-the-scenes look at IndyCar and expert analysis.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Josef Newgarden races in Detroit with injury: ‘I knew it wasn’t gonna be good’
Reporting by Zion Brown, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
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