“It's been 48 hours and I'm tired,” says Josef Newgarden when I ask how he's been since winning the 108th Indianapolis 500. We’re in a 38th-floor hotel conference room looking out onto the Empire State Building, the sun is shining, and he’s on day one of a whirlwind NYC media tour. “I don't want to say [there’s a] downside to winning the Indy 500. But you win this race and, man, you're busy. It's tiresome. But it's a good problem to have.”
He’s looking forward to having dinner at a reasonable hour with his wife, and then getting back to the IndyCar season—which, coincidentally, may be the toughest part of the Indy 500 comedown. “I haven't slept much and I'm just trying to get myself back into the regular-season thought process,” Newgarden explains. Winning Indy is a triumph, but there’s more than half the season to go.
