Both Josef Newgarden and Pato O'Ward have been part of FOX Sports' IndyCar promos and were featured in a new campaign for the 50th Long Beach GP. The promo urged fans to pick a side, either getting on board the two-time Indy 500 winner's hype train or the new surging O'Ward.
FOX Sports' marketing for IndyCar has been top-notch since the start of the year. Three humorous campaigns were posted even before the season began, including Newgarden, O'Ward, and Alex Palou.
These campaigns led to an impressive 45 percent increase in average viewers over last year's St. Petersburg Grand Prix viewership. Wanting to double down on the popularity surrounding the sport currently and celebrate a milestone, a promo featuring Josef Newgarden and Pato O'Ward was released by IndyCar on FOX, calling fans to choose a driver to support for the 50th Long Beach Grand Prix:
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"Josef Newgarden or Pato O'Ward? Pick a lane. Long Beach is next!"
Pato O'Ward finished runners-up at the Thermal Club Grand Prix, meanwhile, Newgarden finished a lonely P13.
Josef Newgarden once opened up on his change of mentality in recent years
Josef Newgarden's move to Team Penske in 2017 worked out to be great as he won his maiden championship on his debut season with the Mooresville-based squad. He then added another title to his cabinet two years later but has been unable to claim another championship since then.
Moreover, the 34-year-old finished runners-up in the championship for three years in a row (2020-2022) and has dropped off the tabletop in the following years. With his ambition to win another championship often having the best of him, the Team Penske driver learned the importance of celebrating small victories and relaxing down a bit, as he revealed in 2024 (via The Race):
"I’ve had to let go of that mentality, there's no sustainability in my perfection. I’m definitely a perfectionist. I'm an introvert, but I get hyper-fixated on trying to maximize everything. I think my mentality was win or nothing throughout my career. Even today it was creeping in. I'm like, we're winning this race today or we're not winning it. I was going to go for it or nothing. It is my mentality."
"But from a bigger picture standpoint, I just don't think that's sustainable. I'm not going away from my passion and my desire, but I'm trying to re-center my enjoyment in what I do," he added.
Josef Newgarden stands seventh in the championship standings, with a 49-point deficit to the championship leader, Alex Palou. The Spaniard won the race at Thermal Club for the second year running after starting in P3, and making impressive overtakes in the last phase of the race.
