Newgarden to Penske made a lot of sense

Newgarden has landed the best seat in IndyCar

Don’t blame Josef Newgarden for leaving Ed Carpenter’s Verizon IndyCar Series team, and don’t blame powerful Team Penske for signing Newgarden. It’s the right thing to do for the employee and his new employer.

Wednesday’s announcement of Newgarden’s signing — as the likely replacement for Juan Pablo Montoya next season — strikes of Roger Penske netting Sam Hornish Jr. for the 2004 IndyCar season. In Newgarden, Penske sees a chance to get one of the series’ best drivers — on and off the track — and have the team get younger in the process.

Like Hornish, Newgarden is a rising American star. And while he has only three career wins, he arrives at Penske with Hornish’s potential and experience. Newgarden actually has more IndyCar starts than Hornish had at that point (83 to 52), although Hornish had won two titles with Panther Racing.

Like Hornish, Newgarden figures to quickly get to the front of IndyCar’s pack, and he could win an Indianapolis 500 quicker. Newgarden was third in this year’s race; Hornish didn’t earn his spot on the Borg-Warner Trophy until his third year with Team Penske.

Hornish went on to win eight races for Team Penske plus the series title in 2006. Penske thinks Newgarden can do much of the same, and those are reasonable expectations.

“When you look at the top talent in the series, both from a driving and commercial perspective, Josef is near the top of the list," Roger Penske said in a release the team issued. “We are always looking to build toward the future, and when we had the opportunity to talk with Josef we knew that he would be a great fit with our program.

“He is a fantastic driver on the track and will be great with our partners off the track. He is hungry to win more races and win championships, and we hope to give him that opportunity as part of our team."

Newgarden’s off-track abilities can’t be understated. He brings the charm of James Hinchcliffe, who is delighting ABC’s audience on Dancing with the Stars; he is outgoing, funny and trendy while maintaining the professionalism Penske requires.

It’s also important to consider what Penske had to work with before signing Newgarden.

Yes, Helio Castroneves is as good with sponsors as any driver in the paddock, but he has been crisscrossing Penske’s corporate landscape with a heavy workload. Simon Pagenaud is good with sponsors, too, but until winning the series title last month he didn’t have the same street cred.

Will Power? He is a terrific driver and willing to help Penske in the business world, but he’s shy at his core and certainly not as comfortable in the spotlight as Castroneves or Pagenaud. Montoya? Promotion is not his thing. In that sense, Newgarden is a home run.

Newgarden also helps Team Penske get younger. When next season begins, Castroneves will be 41, Power 36, Pagenaud 32 and Newgarden 26, and they have combined to win 70 races. That’s a balance of age and experience any team would covet.

As for Carpenter, his team had the right of first refusal on Newgarden for next season, but Carpenter is a lifelong racer who simply couldn’t stand in the way of a peer joining the winningest team in IndyCar history. Team Penske had the top three finishers in this year’s standings and has won a record 16 Indianapolis 500s.

Ed Carpenter Racing still has Chevrolet as a partner, and the winning No. 21 car Newgarden has vacated will be a prize catch for the driver in it in 2017. Count Montoya, a former CART champion and the 2000 and 2015 Indy 500 winner, as a good bet; J.R. Hildebrand, a 28-year-old who nearly won the 2011 Indy 500, is too. Carpenter might even pull a surprise.

Yes, Team Penske figures to be even stronger next year. But Montoya, who had one win and 10 top-10 finishes in 16 races in 2016, will drive somewhere in the series, and it’s an understatement to say he’ll be motivated to prove Penske wrong. Carpenter’s team won’t necessarily be starting over with someone else, and there are more driver changes to come.

It should be an interesting watch. Curt Cavin/USA Today