Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden in the No.2 Hitachi Chevrolet says that the car unloaded well at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca for Sunday’s penultimate race of the 2021 NTT IndyCar Series season after the two-time series champion led the opening practice session in California.
Newgarden, who goes into the race on Sunday, 34 points behind championship leader Alex Palou set the fastest practice time of 01:11.7125s and speaking following the action he said:
Overall, we unloaded pretty good. “Small differences here or there, but for the most part globally it felt like the car was in the window. Just got to look after it.
“Obviously, things can change quickly. In Portland, we were pretty sorted out in practice one, we choked in qualifying and were pretty far off the pace. That’s the number one thing for us in the 2 car, have a consistent run all the way through. If we can do that, we’ll be in the fight.”
Newgarden was the only Chevrolet-powered driver in the top ten while his teammate Scott McLaughlin driving the No.3 PPG Chevrolet was 12th just behind six-time NTT IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon.