IndyCar

Newgarden wins at Iowa yet again as Penske dominates

by Jack Benyon
4 min read

Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden ate into Alex Palou’s IndyCar championship lead by winning the first Iowa Speedway race of the weekend on a short oval he could claim to own given his dominance on it during his career.

There were questions about whether Penske would continue its dominance at the track after skipping the test last month, but a pair of poles for Will Power with Scott McLaughlin and Newgarden starting just behind for race one answered most of the doubts.

The Penske cars were the class of the field for the first two stints as they lapped up to the top six, with Power leading until lap 121 of 250 when Newgarden – boosted by a front wing change at the previous pitstop – took the lead.

The race went longer than any other in IndyCar at Iowa without a caution until Graham Rahal crashed what he called the worst car he’d ever driven on an oval – (a big statement after failing to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 earlier this year) which boosted the number of lead-lappers from six to 11.

Just inside 50 laps to go a host of drivers pitted with Newgarden diving in with a six-second lead, and he emerged with a three-second lead to manage to the end.

But inside the last 10 laps, traffic gave Newgarden a worry as McLaughlin erased the gap to just over a second and some edgy moments put him under pressure, but he kept his cool.

Predictably Newgarden jumps to second in the championship and cuts Palou’s championship lead from 117 to 99 with another chance at a win tomorrow.

Pato O’Ward completed the podium behind McLaughlin’s best Iowa finish as the Arrow McLaren driver jumped Power on lap 144 when Power got high in Turn 4 and brushed the wall in dirty air.

Marcus Ericsson’s undercut in the second stint put him back in top-three contention and he pulled off a succession of late overtakes including on Power on the restart from the Rahal caution to take fourth as the top Ganassi car.

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Power will be disappointed having led 119 laps but was a car length from being lapped at the end of the race as he battled to keep Scott Dixon behind him, which he successfully managed.

Dixon took sixth but lost second in the championship today.

Kyle Kirkwood was the top Andretti Autosport car in seventh, ahead of Palou, who had a tricky day where he had struggled to stay in touch with the leaders in the first half or to eat back into the advantage once he got back onto the lead lap after the Rahal caution.

Palou will start 12th tomorrow for race two with Newgarden in seventh and hell bent on reducing Palou’s points lead further.

Palou’s Ganassi team-mate Takuma Sato made it all four Ganassi cars in the top nine, with Alexander Rossi having a rollercoaster day to round out the top 10 for Arrow McLaren.

Agustin Canapino was the top rookie in 16th for Juncos Hollinger Racing, with ovals turning out to be the touring car convert’s forte.

Race Results

Pos Name Team Car Laps Laps Led Total Time Fastest Lap Pitstops Pts
1 Josef Newgarden Team Penske Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 250 129 1h33m40.475s 19.184s 4 53
2 Scott McLaughlin Team Penske Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 250 0 +3.376s 18.862s 4 40
3 Patricio O'Ward Arrow McLaren SP Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 250 0 +9.608s 19.284s 4 35
4 Marcus Ericsson Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 250 0 +14.639s 19.269s 4 32
5 Will Power Team Penske Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 250 119 +22.403s 19.26s 4 32
6 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 249 0 +1 lap 19.628s 4 28
7 Kyle Kirkwood Andretti Autosport Dallara DW12-Honda 249 0 +1 lap 19.698s 4 26
8 Alex Palou Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 249 1 +1 lap 19.608s 4 25
9 Takuma Sato Chip Ganassin Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 249 1 +1 lap 19.101s 4 23
10 Alexander Rossi Arrow McLaren SP Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 249 0 +1 lap 19.676s 4 20
11 Romain Grosjean Andretti Autosport Dallara DW12-Honda 249 0 +1 lap 19.605s 4 19
12 David Malukas Dale Coyne Racing/HMD Motorsports Dallara DW12-Honda 248 0 +2 laps 19.713s 4 18
13 Felix Rosenqvist Arrow McLaren SP Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 248 0 +2 laps 19.236s 4 17
14 Hélio Castroneves Meyer Shank Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 248 0 +2 laps 19.862s 4 16
15 Callum Ilott Juncos Hollinger Racing Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 247 0 +3 laps 19.743s 4 15
16 Agustín Canapino Juncos Hollinger Racing Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 247 0 +3 laps 19.459s 4 14
17 Rinus VeeKay Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 247 0 +3 laps 19.903s 4 13
18 Jack Harvey Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 247 0 +3 laps 19.796s 4 12
19 Colton Herta Andretti Autosport Dallara DW12-Honda 246 0 +4 laps 19.773s 4 11
20 Christian Lundgaard Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 246 0 +4 laps 19.666s 4 10
21 Conor Daly Meyer Shank Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 245 0 +5 laps 19.584s 4 9
22 Devlin DeFrancesco Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport Dallara DW12-Honda 245 0 +5 laps 19.969s 4 8
23 Ryan Hunter-Reay Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 244 0 +6 laps 19.725s 4 7
24 Ed Carpenter Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 243 0 +7 laps 20.042s 4 6
25 Sting Ray Robb Dale Coyne Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 242 0 +8 laps 19.962s 6 5
26 Santino Ferrucci AJ Foyt Racing Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 241 0 +9 laps 20.008s 5 5
27 Benjamin Pedersen AJ Foyt Racing Dallara DW12-Chevrolet 235 0 +15 laps 20.353s 5 5
Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara DW12-Honda 149 0 DNF 19.622s 2 5
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