The Team Penske-Chevrolet ace, who dominated Race 1 at Iowa on Saturday, appeared set to do the same in Race 2, after wresting first place away from pole-sitting teammate Will Power before one-third distance and then leading 148 laps.
However, on the 235th of 300 laps, the #2 Penske appeared to ‘sit down’ on its rear right, looping the car into a spin that caused it to loop into heavy rear-end impact with the outside wall at Turn 4.
After initially being checked and released, Newgarden was readmitted to IndyCar Medical after fainting, and has now been taken to hospital in Des Moines for further checks.
Dr. Geoff Billows, IndyCar’s Medical Director told Associated Press: “We want to send him downtown for further evaluation because we don’t have the ability to get more advanced imaging and radiographs. But he’s awake and talking to us.”
Billows confirmed that the two-time champion had suffered an abrasion when he fainted. Asked if Newgarden was showing concussion-like symptoms, Billows said: “This is what makes it confusing. He crashed, and he was evaluated here after the crash and he was fine.
“We actually went and talked to him afterwards, and then apparently after we talked with him, he exited his hauler, and he passed out or fell and hit his head.
So as a precaution we want to make sure that he doesn’t have a head injury…
“He seemed OK here, but we were actually going to re-evaluate him on Thursday because of the level of Gs on his accelerometer.”
Newgarden himself, on his initial release from IndyCar Medical, told NBC: “Definitely was a bit of a shock. Man, I wanna cry, I’m so sad for my team. I don’t know what happened. It was a good run.
“It’s just one race, but I feel terrible for us. Something went wrong there.”
Although Newgarden, as with Power yesterday, had complained earlier in the race about a tire vibration, he didn’t think it played a part in a possible component failure.
“Everything felt fine to me up until that point,” said Newgarden who has won four times on the Iowa oval and has led 1506 laps of the 0.894-mile oval. “I did have a vibration at the start of that stint but you can have – tire balance or shifting – it wasn’t diabolical. Everything felt just fine.
“Totally unexpected when it happened, it caught me by surprise. I didn’t know what the heck happened until I was in the wall.
“This is racing. Team Penske is the best. I never have this stuff: maybe we were due. We’ll fight back, we don’t stop fighting.”
Leader @josefnewgarden's day ends after this incident at @iowaspeedway.
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) July 24, 2022
WATCH LIVE: @NBC and @PeacockTV#INDYCAR // @INDYCARatIowa pic.twitter.com/cE5LDk7Da7
