Josef Newgarden takes Phoenix after contact derails Alex Palou

Acclaimed 32-time winner Josef Newgarden added No. 33 to his ledger on Saturday, winning the Good Ranchers 250 at Phoenix Raceway by nearly two seconds.

Newgarden, a two-time series champion, started second and passed leader Kyle Kirkwood with seven laps to go before eventually clocking the 1.7937-second win.

"I'm very surprised," Newgarden said. "In the middle of the race, I don't know that I was fully believing that we had the capability to win. We just kept working through it, and I'm like, ‘Look, if we get another opportunity, we're going to be aggressive, we're going to be on the offense.'"

In the city's first IndyCar race since 2018, Kirkwood ended up in second. He was followed by David Malukas, Pato O'Ward and Marcus Armstrong to round out the top five in a race that featured 565 on-track passes.

As a result of Newgarden's win and a bit of contact taking him out of the running early, Alex Palou does not lead the IndyCar standings for the first time in nearly two years. Newgarden, piloting the No. 2 XPEL Team Penske Chevrolet, now has the inside track for his first series championship since 2019.

The veteran noted that the season has barely begun, yet it's still a far cry from his 2025 season, in which he notched just a single win and had to wait 17 races to get it.

"Do we really have the lead?" Newgarden asked afterward. "Two races in, so I wouldn't read too much into it. But momentum is a big deal. It's very difficult to understand how things work. Sometimes things go against us, sometimes they go for us. It was just great execution by the team."

Palou completed just 21 laps after his car and Rinus VeeKay's made side-by-side contact

His 24th-place finish was Palou's worst since he landed in 25th in Detroit last June, also due to contact.

--Field Level Media