Phoenix Grand Prix, AZ (April 10, 2018) – Rising Star Racing (RSR) competed under the lights in the second race of the 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series season in the Desert Diamond West Valley Casino Phoenix Grand Prix on Saturday night.
Josef Newgarden (Team Penske) qualified in the seventh position and won the race.
“We had everything, we had the whole package with ‘Team Chevy’ power,” Newgarden said. “It’s a Team Penske win [Saturday], I’ll tell you that. It wasn’t me. This was a team effort [Saturday] that got it done.”
RSR’s founder and CEO, Art Wilmes, is pleased with Team Penske’s and Newgarden’s performance.
“What an amazing finish for Josef,” Wilmes said. “I liked his chances in fourth place and with the new tires on the final restart, I was ready to see the battle.”
This wasn’t Newgarden’s first head-to-head shootout, if you recall Newgarden’s finish at Gateway in 2017.
Wilmes continued, “It was a long race and Josef maintained his composure. In my opinion, this is a perfect example of proving Newgarden is yet again a serious contender for the championship.”
Spencer Pigot (Ed Carpenter Racing) qualified in 15th position and finished 14th.
“That was definitely a difficult race. At the beginning, it was so tricky and I was really on edge. We made the car better throughout the race,” Pigot said. “The good thing is we finished the race and brought the car home. Now we have to look forward to Long Beach and get back to running up at the front.”
Wilmes understood Pigot’s frustrations.
“Spencer struggled with the balance of the car all weekend and the race was no exception,” Wilmes said. “I know that he’s not happy with his finish, but he did yeoman’s work to finish where he did.”
With the race’s finish, Newgarden improves to first in the point standings and has 77 points to the season.
Pigot is ranked 16th in points and has 31 total points on the season.
RSR’s Newgarden and Pigot will compete this coming weekend in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. More information regarding the competition will be shared at a later date.
For more information about RSR and its drivers, visit, www.risingstarracing.com.