Josef Newgarden's IndyCar Season of Peaks and Valleys Has Been a Dizzying Watch

• Josef Newgarden's IndyCar season has been filled with a lot of swimming upstream after his victory at St. Petersburg was nullifed.

• His win at the Indy 500 was a highlight to be sure, but Newgarden still needs a lot of things to fall his way the next three races.

• The NTT IndyCar season has two races this weekend at the Milwaukee Mile before wrapping up Sept. 15 at Nashville.

Reviewing Josef Newgarden’s IndyCar Series season is like watching a tennis ball sailing from one side of the net to the other. You can get dizzy.

He had the best and worst of times within the framework of the first race of the season, winning on the streets of St. Petersburg who having that victory nullified in the wake of push-to-pass violations that were discovered later.

Then Newgarden had a fourth at Long Beach, followed by a valley, with a 16th at Barber and a 27th on the Indianapolis road course.

That disaster was forgotten a week later when a spectacular last-lap charge earned Newgarden a win in the Indianapolis 500, the sort of triumph that can make a season.

Then it was back to ups and downs—26th at Detroit, second at Elkhart Lake, 19th at Laguna Seca, 25th at Mid-Ohio, third at Iowa. Newgarden crossed the line first again at World Wide Technology Raceway in a controversial win before finishing third at Portland.

The mix of good and bad leaves Newgarden, a two-time champion, in seventh place with three races remaining. Two of those will be this weekend at the Milwaukee Mile, which will host 250-mile races Saturday and Sunday. The season is scheduled to end Sept. 15 at Nashville Superspeedway.

Newgarden, who won the title for Team Penske in 2017 and 2019, is not out of this year’s championship hunt, but a lot would have to go right for him and a lot wrong for drivers above him to put the Tennessean in title country again. He trails standings leader Alex Palou by 131 points entering the first Milwaukee race.

Palou has considerable breathing space on the eve of the Milwaukee weekend. He leads second-place Will Power by 54 points. If Palou leaves Milwaukee Sunday night with a lead of 55 points or more, he will lock up the title with a race remaining.

Newgarden is one of seven drivers who retain a theoretical shot at replacing Palou atop the standings.

An interesting part of the weekend scenario is the fact that Palou has never won an IndyCar event on an oval track. Milwaukee is a tight one-mile oval. Power has won 10 times on ovals, and Team Penske drivers have won all four oval races this year, but even a pair of victories over the weekend wouldn’t give Power a significant boost in the standings if Palou continues his consistently strong finishes.

Saturday’s race is scheduled for 6 p.m. ET. Sunday’s race is set for 2:30 p.m. ET.