LEBANON, Tenn. — Josef Newgarden, t wo-time IndyCar champion and two-time Indianapolis 500 winner , wrote a children's book about his first Indy victory titled “Josef's Big Dream.”

Midway through this miserable year he proposed a sequel: “Josef's Bad Season.”

Gallows humor, sure, but he's not really laughing. If Newgarden doesn't win Sunday's season finale at Nashville Superspeedway, his home race, it will mark his first winless season since 2014.

“I'm like ready for someone to step around a corner with a bat and smack me in the face every two seconds,” Newgarden said after qualifying sixth Saturday at Nashville. “I'm just moving a little jerky these days.”

It wasn't supposed to be this way, and there were no indications when he opened the year with a third-place finish at St. Pete. Fa

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