It's two wins in two races for Josef Newgarden, who earned his latest IndyCar victory at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on Sunday.
The 31-year-old thrust himself atop the 2022 driver's championship standings with Sunday's victory, which came after he started the race second on the grid. Newgarden was locked in a battle with Romain Grosjean and Alex Palou for much of the race, with both Grosjean and Palou going directly head-to-head with the eventual winner at different times during the latter stages.
Ultimately, Newgarden held off his opponents and took the checkered flag with a comfortable 1.2869-second lead over runner-up Grosjean — a virtual lifetime compared to the half-car length victory he claimed three weeks ago in Texas.
"Man, this was a fight today," Newgarden told NBC Sports following the race. "This was not an easy race to win. I don't know if it looked simple from the outside, but I was working my butt off with Grosjean there on the used reds. I was hoping he would fade off a little bit towards the end but just trying to hold him off on the restart was super difficult."
Sunday's win allowed Newgarden to leapfrog teammate Scott McLaughlin for the points lead, with third Team Penske member Will Power now sitting in fourth place. His two wins on the season means Newgarden has already matched his 2021 output just three races into the current campaign.
For Newgarden, just winning in Long Beach was enough of a reason to celebrate.
"I've been trying to win a race here for 11 years, so I'm so happy to finally get it done," he said.