IndyCar

Newgarden carves into Dixon’s lead with crucial Indy win

by Jack Benyon
5 min read

Josef Newgarden took victory at Indianapolis and decimated Scott Dixon’s IndyCar points lead, as the championship leader finished ninth after a late mistake.

After dicing with Colton Herta in the early laps, polesitter Rinus VeeKay pulled away at the front of the field having started on the faster, softer Firestone tyres for Ed Carpenter Racing.

Andretti driver Herta started on the harder tyre to get the mandatory running on that compound done early, but that meant he had the softer tyre in the second stint.

He caught and passed VeeKay after the first stop with an incredible move where he went from one side of the straight to the other to dive down the inside of Turn 7.

Newgarden went long on the first stint and stayed out almost 10 laps longer than his rivals, reeling off impressive laps to cut the gap and emerge ahead of Herta.

Herta drained all of his push to pass system to catch Newgarden and dived to the inside of Turn 1 on lap 24 of 85, claiming the lead.

The top three all took red tyres at the second stop – with Herta and Newgarden dropping VeeKay by eight seconds. Newgarden came out behind Herta but zeroed in as Herta struggled with his rear tyres.

Herta appeared to misunderstand the length of the race, asking to pit before the ideal window opened and he locked up his rear tyres on lap 60 of 85, gifting the lead to Newgarden just before the stops.

Both drivers went for black tyres for the final stint and Newgarden drove off into the distance – exactly what he needed in pursuit of his third title. It was his first win on either Indianapolis configuration.

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Newgarden has the gap down to 40 points with 108 remaining available over the next two races, including the second of this weekend’s double-header on Saturday.

Herta came under pressure from Felix Rosenqvist in the closing stages as the cork in the bottle, the latter had dropped as low as 10th and even gave Dixon a position in the first stint but fought back through to contend for a podium place.

However, Rosenqvist failed to pass Herta and it cost him as Alexander Rossi bombed down the inside of Turn 1 to take fourth with seven to go, before passing Herta for second a lap later.

VeeKay made the most of a struggling Rosenqvist to rob him of fourth on the same lap, and then passed Herta with four to go at Turn 12 to take his first IndyCar podium behind Newgarden and Rossi.

Rossi was furious for an earlier penalty for track limits where he insisted he only put two wheels off the track.

This epic podium battle – with VeeKay heading Herta and Rosenqvist to the end – brought a battle for sixth that contained Dixon closer together.

Will Power had been higher up in the order but suffered a stuck front-right wheel on his first pitstop and then almost cannoned into the outside wall at the final turn in the last stint, in one of the best saves of the season.

He held on to sixth however when Dixon made an error on worn red tyres and lost spots to Graham Rahal and Jack Harvey, their dice allowing Power to escape for sixth.

Behind Rahal, Harvey and Dixon, Marcus Ericsson made sure all three Ganassi cars made the top 10.

Race Results

Pos Name Team Car Laps Laps Led Total Time Fastest Lap Pitstops Pts
1 Josef Newgarden Team Penske Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 85 34 1h44m28.556s 1m11.086s 3 54
2 Alexander Rossi Andretti Autosport Dallara DW12-Honda 85 0 +14.294s 1m11.041s 3 40
3 Rinus VeeKay Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 85 15 +15.037s 1m10.558s 3 37
4 Colton Herta Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport Dallara DW12-Honda 85 29 +17.395s 1m10.877s 3 33
5 Felix Rosenqvist Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 85 1 +18.458s 1m11.401s 3 31
6 Will Power Team Penske Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 85 0 +26.138s 1m11.329s 3 28
7 Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 85 5 +27.376s 1m11.512s 3 27
8 Jack Harvey Meyer Shank Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 85 0 +28.531s 1m10.923s 3 24
9 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 85 0 +30.796s 1m10.839s 3 22
10 Marcus Ericsson Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 85 0 +36.972s 1m10.987s 3 20
11 Max Chilton Carlin Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 85 0 +47.551s 1m11.724s 3 19
12 Conor Daly Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 85 0 +56.954s 1m11.366s 3 18
13 Charlie Kimball A.J. Foyt Enterprises Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 85 0 +1m10.897s 1m11.739s 3 17
14 James Hinchcliffe Andretti Autosport Dallara DW12-Honda 85 0 +1m11.99s 1m11.999s 3 16
15 Santino Ferrucci Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan Dallara DW12-Honda 84 1 +1 lap 1m11.732s 3 16
16 Simon Pagenaud Team Penske Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 84 0 +1 lap 1m11.088s 3 14
17 Alex Palou Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh Dallara DW12-Honda 84 0 +1 lap 1m10.977s 4 13
18 Takuma Sato Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 84 0 +1 lap 1m11.839s 3 12
19 Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport Dallara DW12-Honda 84 0 +1 lap 1m11.869s 3 11
20 Hélio Castroneves Arrow McLaren SP Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 84 0 +1 lap 1m12.142s 3 10
21 Sébastien Bourdais A.J. Foyt Enterprises Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 84 0 +1 lap 1m12.539s 3 9
22 Patricio O'Ward Arrow McLaren SP Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 84 0 +1 lap 1m12.539s 5 8
23 Sage Karam Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 84 0 +1 lap 1m12.368s 3 7
24 Dalton Kellett A.J. Foyt Enterprises Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 83 0 +2 laps 1m12.877s 3 6
Marco Andretti Andretti Herta with Marco & Curb-Agajanian Dallara DW12-Honda 79 0 DNF 1m11.618s 4 5
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