The Team Penske driver won four of the five oval races in 2023, including a maiden Indianapolis 500 triumph, at his 12th attempt.
However, his total victory tally for the year also stood at four and he finished fifth in the series standings, 177 points behind champion Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing.
While there will be six ovals this year, road courses and street circuits still account for a majority of the season at a total of 11 races, and hence have been an off-season focus for Mason and Newgarden.
“For us, it’s sort of building upon what we started this year,” Mason told the KTM Summer Grill.
“This was our first year together and we walked away winning four races.
“For me, I’d like to get a win on a road course more than anything, because all we’ve proven is that we can turn left really fast.
“We don’t have that win on a road course yet and, unfortunately, there’s more road courses than there are ovals.
“So, a lot of our work has been on ‘How can we improve our street and road course package and take it to the Ganassi, the Andretti every week?’ and try and fight for that championship overall.”
While Newgarden, already a two-time IndyCar champion, had to wait until his 12th attempt to kiss the bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Mason achieved a 500 victory in his very first attempt, six races into his career as a race engineer in the category.
Being a former Supercars engineer, he has had to learn the craft of oval racing, initially in NASCAR.
However, unlike his fellow Antipodeans who drive the race cars, his task was made even more complicated by having to adjust to the imperial system.
“It was funny because I did two years of NASCAR before I went IndyCar racing and sort of got thrown in the deep end of like, ‘Alright, we’re turning left; cool, it can’t be that difficult, there’s only so much you can do,’” he recalled.
“But, the added bit I had as well is, I had to learn the imperial measuring system, which is also a bit of a pain in the arse when you’ve spent your whole life in the metric world and then you go to ‘freedom units’.
“So, it was a bit of a double-edged sword to understand what on earth was going on.
“To be fair, it probably took me a good six months of NASCAR racing at RCR to actually understand what the hell was actually happening to get that car to turn left and how it actually operates and how to get the most out of it.
“Once you sort of grasp the initial aspects of how to get a car to go around an oval, it’s actually, in theory, very simple.
“But it’s like anything else; there’s so much detailed work that goes into absolutely maximising it, and that’s where all the time is, and that’s why you see the good guys do really well and [other] people struggle.”
The 2024 IndyCar Series starts on the Streets of St Petersburg on the weekend of Sunday, March 10.
For more from Luke Mason, check out the full episode of the KTM Summer Grill.
Discussion about this post