NTT INDYCAR SERIES: XPEL GRAND PRIX AT ROAD AMERICA

June 20, 2025

Josef Newgarden

Felix Rosenqvist

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Wrapping up today's practice session, currently joined by Josef Newgarden, two-time winner here at Road America, runner-up finish last year. What did you learn in that practice session?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It's going to be hot, for sure. I don't know how you can really prepare much more for that other than it's just going to be what it's going to be.

Yeah, I mean, hybrid obviously compared to last year, trying to understand the weight difference. A little bit more of a lap time loss at this track relative to others because of the distance. You're going to see a little more lap time loss, a second and a half to last year's would be my guess. Just trying to understand the traits of the car, what we need to do with the tires.

It's going to be hot. I said that again, but trying to understand not just from a personal standpoint but how the car reacts. The temperature is going to be a big deal. It's normally never this sort of temperature around this place. That will be the tricky part to get right.

THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions.

Q. In the past different hot venues, INDYCAR had the aeroscreen. Anything that can be done or has been done to make it more effective to make it more comfortable for y'all in the car?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I mean, it's fine. It's fine the way it is. We got cool suits, all sorts of stuff. I don't think they need to do much more.

Q. Anything you felt you were missing, corner or two corners, something you were missing a little bit at all?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Not really. There's always something to improve. I felt like our (indiscernible) lap wasn't the best. If I could have done a better lap... Other than that, the car was in a pretty good window. Happy to start out.

Q. You feel as good as you did a week ago?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I feel better.

Q. All your workouts and...

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Feel even better, Bob (smiling).

Q. Having a good practice after last week, is that...

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I don't think it matters, no.

Q. We saw some of the hybrids were overheating like at Thermal and stuff. Will the heat impact that at all? Is it impacting performance?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I think that's a good question for all of us to understand this weekend. Obviously, like you said, Thermal, there was some mitigation that had to happen there. We don't want to see that. It's a big performance loss, especially around this track because of the long straights.

I think there's unknowns with how high the temperature is going to get. We feel comfortable that we have enough room, but you never know until you actually go through it. It is a question mark in front of us right now that we're trying to make sure we have covered.

Q. About last week, there was some question about whether the yellow should have come out earlier. Did you talk to anybody at INDYCAR about that?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I didn't. It's just bad timing. Wrong place, wrong time. So, you know, that happens. In the wrong spot at the wrong moment.

Q. That's not your first big crash. What is it like to try to move on, put that behind you? Scary experience.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Not really. I mean, it sucked. I was like, Oh, this... But the only thing you're thinking about is that race is done. Other than that, I'm happy to be back at the track.

I don't know. It's kind of awesome to smoke a car into the wall and then come back and race at Road America. I love it. I'm happy to be here.

Q. Do you have any vantage at all of Louis' car until you pop around Palou? Seemed like you might have been so focused on Palou, there was no way to see his car there at all.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I didn't see him. I didn't see him come across the track. I saw Louis up against the wall as I was exiting four. This is happening in like a couple seconds, right? Wasn't really focused on him.

I went through three. As we're getting out of four, I was trying to make a move on Palou. I was actually going to try to go underneath him. When I was making that move off of four, I could see that Louis was sort of there, but it was still green.

I didn't see Louis until Palou went right. As soon as he went right, then I saw him coming across the track. I thought just... There wasn't much else to do. If I go right, I was going to go into Palou. I had a big jump of speed on him. He had the advantage of seeing him before I did.

Yeah, just bad timing. Really bad timing.

Q. What is it about this place that you feel like you enjoy so much or really is great for your driving style?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: This is such a marquee INDYCAR track. If you want to go to a place to see what an INDYCAR can do, it's like IMS and Road America. This is the road course version of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to me.

It's got everything you want: huge straightaway, big high-speed corners, good brake zones, really good race-ability. It's, like, awesome when you show up here. This is where you want to race in INDYCAR.

I love that about the place. I think it suits my style. I always like high-speed stuff. We always have great cars here, have for the last 10 years. Makes a big difference.

Q. I think all but two of the races here have been won from the top five spots on the grid. Something like 15 cars within a second here in first practice. How much is the race going to be won or lost tomorrow?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It doesn't make a difference. I mean, you can't ignore the statistics, right, that you're speaking of, but I don't think it's won or lost just on Saturday. How many times have we seen in INDYCAR that you can make something happen from all the way in the back.

It's important. You want to start up front. But it's not the end all, be all. First thing's first. Let's try and qualify well, to your point. It just makes our job easier on race day hopefully.

I think we'll be in a good spot.

THE MODERATOR: Josef, thanks for coming over.

Joined obviously now by Felix Rosenqvist, who ended up 13th quickest after a ton of guys threw some reds there on the end. Felix, 2020 race winner here.

What did you learn in that practice session?

FELIX ROSENQVIST: I don't know. It was quite a lot better than I expected with the hybrid unit. When we came to Barber, it was quite a big difference on how the car behaved. I kind of expected the same thing.

It was pretty good, man. I think the lap times are a little bit slower, but it didn't feel as tricky as Barber to drive. I think we rolled out well. Probably the only time in my career I didn't do a single lap on reds in practice. I guess we're going blind into quallie.

THE MODERATOR: What does that mean for tomorrow?

FELIX ROSENQVIST: I mean, I don't know. That's where the experience comes in, I guess (smiling).

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Felix.

Q. So was that the plan all along, not to go to reds at all during the practice, or did you just run out of time?

FELIX ROSENQVIST: Just ran out of time. We thought we had a lot of time. One guy goes off, it's a 10-minute deal to clean it up. Kind of wish I went sooner.

I think a lot of people were in the same boat. Just got like an out-lap on reds. A lot of first-timers out there tomorrow.

Q. Do you know if the Ganassi guys and Marcus went out on reds? Will you get much feedback? Do you need to go out yourself?

FELIX ROSENQVIST: Marcus didn't go out. Palou got a lap in. He went a bit earlier.

I think it will be hard to read into in general. Just trust what you did on blacks, I think.

Q. With the hybrid, it's going to be different. Did you notice that the heat impacted anything at all today?

FELIX ROSENQVIST: Seems like we ran fine. The Honda unit was clean. No issues. Tomorrow's going to be way hotter, though. It's going to be up to, like, 90 I heard. It might be a challenge. All regards, track time normally means more slippery, running harder, brakes, engine, hybrids and stuff.

I think we'll be in good shape.

Q. We saw at Thermal this year how much things get pushed to the limit when these cars get put in extremely high temperatures. From what you know, what has the team done or what did you take away from Thermal, from that experience, that you can take away for Sunday?

FELIX ROSENQVIST: I think the brakes have been tough this year to dial in. The hybrid is more mass to stop. The brake temps are higher. That's more get it in the right window.

There is a long straights here, so I think that helps. I don't expect it to be as bad as Thermal. I think it was more of a Chevy thing in Thermal. We didn't really have an issue.

Yeah, hasn't really been a topic. We're definitely keeping an eye on things.

Q. When you have a weekend where you're preparing for such temperatures, do you do anything different in your preparation? Do your plans pre-weekend change in anticipation for the heat?

FELIX ROSENQVIST: Yes. I try to just drink more, hydrate more, drink some salty stuff. Not too much because then you wake up three times every night and have to go pee.

Yeah, you try to keep a balance. You don't want to do any, like, big exertion where you're sweating a lot right before. Two days out, you don't want to be doing a two-hour bike ride or something like that. Just keep it in the AC if you can, just build up your reserves.

Q. Last season you had a good start to the season, very similar to what you've done so far this year. Last year around this time you had a difficult time till the end of the season. How do you prevent that from happening again this year?

FELIX ROSENQVIST: It's kind of been ironic in that way. It has been a little bit of copy/paste from last year so far. We had two tough weekends after Indy, Detroit, and St. Louis.

I think in general we've been quicker, though. We had more pace to show. Been pretty good both qualifying and race.

I'm not super worried about it. I think it's a tough time for everyone. The crews are working really hard. Just a lot of back-to-back stuff. Have an Iowa test coming up.

You want to keep that balance, keeping everyone happy and sharp. Not only drivers, but mechanics and engineers and stuff. I think it was a little learning lesson last year.

I think we're in good shape. I think we're sitting P6 in the standings.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks for coming over. See you tomorrow.

FELIX ROSENQVIST: Thank you very much.