Newgarden on ice racing: “It’s almost like I’ve never raced before!”

The Tennessee native will be racing a Team Penske-liveried Supercar Lites car run by the legendary rallycross car-builders Olsbergs MSE, and says there’s a lot to adapt to.

“You have to drive this car sideways all the time,” he said. “You can’t not be doing anything – you have to either be on the brakes or on the throttle or on the handbrake. It’s been tricky to get my brain around what I need to do and the biggest thing for me right now is finding consistency, but it’s an awesome car to drive, especially on the ice.

“I like the fact that you have to drive it hard – you can’t relax at any stage.

“I’ve just been trying to figure out how to use the brakes, how to pitch the car in and how to get back on the throttle – it’s all very different in terms of the technique. But hopefully now I’ve got a little bit of an idea of what I need to do to be competitive.”

Newgarden, who has seven IndyCar wins to his name, including four from his title-winning year with Penske-Chevrolet, says the contrast between driving a rallycross car on ice and an open-wheel car on a paved surface is stark.

“It’s almost like I’ve never raced before!” he declared. “The technique is so new to me that you have to forget everything you’ve learned from an open-wheel perspective or in karts.

“I think that’s fun, though. It forces you to try something different and to adjust and that, to me, makes you better at the end of the day. I’m enjoying the challenge and hopefully if I get on top of it a little bit more, I can be competitive for the races.”

Newgarden had a collision with a snowbank – “I was trying to finish the day with a pretty hot lap… but it just caught me out" – but said he enjoyed the challenges of the Ål course.

“It’s very technical, with a lot of hairpins and chicanes and it looks like a really interesting course,” he commented. “It’s weird being on a lake, driving around in a rallycross car, but it’s been fun. The grip changes constantly throughout the day, which is different to the way a track rubbers up in an open-wheel car. They’re all things to take in and try to figure out.”

Regarding his ambitions for the weekend, he stated: “Obviously these are some of the top guys around in rallycross, so it’s going to be difficult to be successful but for sure, we would like to have a good run. The key will be to not make too many mistakes.

“I’d love to win a race – that would be great. I don’t know how high up we can get; if we make it into the final, I’ll be really satisfied – that would be a big achievement and I think it’s a good goal for us.”

Newgarden's former IndyCar teammate and Penske-Acura sportscar driver Helio Castroneves will compete in the final round of the RallyX on Ice championship.