Josef Newgarden has expressed his apologies for causing a large crash on the first lap of IndyCar’s season-opening Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama.
The veteran Team Penske driver got loose coming over the crest at turn 4 and was not able to get his car under control before he began spinning down the middle of the road.
With the field of cars still packed together, there was nowhere for the rest of the drivers to go. The chain reaction ended up collecting at least five cars and couple drivers had their days ended prematurely.
Newgarden apologized after the incident, and vowed to do better in the future.
“I got loose coming over the hill,” recounted the 2019 series champion. “It was a good start. We were lining in pretty nicely, but I just got loose in the wake.
“I thought I had the car and then touched the grass and I think once I touched the grass it pitched me sideways.
“I feel really bad for anyone that got involved in that. Obviously, my mess created a bigger mess.
“Any of the cars that got involved, I’m real sorry because it was obviously us that tipped it off.
“It’s a shame. I feel like we had a really good car. We just needed to file-in there at the start. We partially did that but yeah.
“But we’ll come back. We’ve just got to bounce back at the next one.”
Among the list of drivers that was caught up in the accident were Ryan Hunter-Reay, Felix Rosenqvist, Colton Herta, and Max Chilton.
Several other drivers had minor collisions in the chaos, but were able to continue with minimal damage to their cars.
The 23rd-place finish for Newgarden is his lowest result since 2013, when he finished 30th in the Indianapolis 500 while driving for Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing .
Newgarden won’t have long to dwell on his mistake. The second round of the 2021 IndyCar season is next weekend from St. Petersburg, Florida, a race that he won last season.
