Josef Newgarden talked about the feeling after his fainting spell in Iowa and revealed several pieces of advice he received during the week, including from friend and driver James Hinchcliffe
Josef Newgarden had a scare after the Iowa 2 GP and is now a doubt for the weekend in Indianapolis. After suffering an accident that caused him to abandon the race on the oval, in which he was leading, the two-time champion fainted in the Indy paddock and hit his head, being forced to spend the night in the hospital, being released on Monday.
In order to compete in the mixed race at Indianapolis, the Penske American had to undergo two medical evaluations, which eventually cleared him to compete. In an interview with the website of American Racer magazine, Josef described the "fight mode" he went into in order to be able to compete, and is unaware of the causes of the fainting spell.
"I really went into fight mode. I don't know what I have, I don't know how severe a concussion I have, I don't even know if I have one. So I just rested for 48 hours as intensely as I could. Nothing bothered me, I just did things because I heard they were the right things to do. When Tuesday came, I felt solid. I didn't feel anything out of the ordinary after Iowa," commented Josef.
Newgarden also talked about the advice he received from several people after his fainting spell. One of them was James Hinchcliffe, former Indy driver and current NBC broadcast commentator.
"My wife did most of the communicating for me, but she communicated with everyone who had some advice, whether it was good or bad, we filtered it out. Hinch was one of them. People like Hinch have been in accidents like that. They are not all the same, it was not necessarily related to what I went through, but any information about what people do in that kind of moment is helpful. So a lot of people got in touch and we definitely made use of that," he added.
The Indianapolis GP 2 is scheduled to start at 13:00 (GMT-3) this Saturday.GRANDE PRÊMIOwill provide complete coverage. The race will be broadcast by TV Cultura on free-to-air channels, ESPN4 on pay TV, and Star+ on streaming. Newgarden starts in fourth position.