Newgarden needed to stay within 108 points of series dominator Alex Palou to stay in mathematical contention and looked good early on when he led 98 laps of the race from his inherited pole position.
But Palou’s Chip Ganassi Racing team-mate Scott Dixon used an alternate pit strategy to turn the race on its head, the Kiwi pitting three times to the five of the majority of his rivals.
In his attempts to close the gap, Newgarden hit the wall at Turn 2 after getting on the marbles while trying to regain his track position with 50 laps to go.
Although he drove back to the pits, his suspension was too badly damaged to continue and he was classified 25th for the second race in succession, following his opening lap crash at Indianapolis two weeks ago.
“I was just trying to catch up,” Newgarden told NBC. “I knew we were going to lose to someone on fuel save, most likely Dixon or somebody – even if they yellow came out I think we were behind.
“I was just trying to get through cars as quickly as I could after I pitted and it didn’t work out. I got into the marbles and just a touch too high. I was trying… I was trying to catch up and it ended up not being a good move.
“The team did a great job, I can’t thank the team enough for all their efforts this weekend, it just didn’t work out.
“We put together a good car and a good race and it just didn’t work out, so we’ll go to the next one.”
Source: Autosport