- Josef Newgarden won for the fifth time at Iowa in 13 career IndyCar starts there.
- The race was the first of a weekend doubleheader, and Newgarden is looking to sweep the weekend with a win in Sunday’s race, as well.
- As for points leader Alex Palou, his 117-point lead coming into Saturday’s race dropped to 98 points over runner-up Newgarden after his eighth-place finish.
It’s starting to look like there are now three things guaranteed in life: death, taxes and Josef Newgarden winning at Iowa Speedway.
This year’s Indianapolis 500 winner continues to be relatively unbeatable at the 7/8-mile bullring, capturing Saturday’s Hy-Vee Homefront 250, the first race of a two-race weekend.
It’s the fifth time Newgarden has won at Iowa in 13 career IndyCar starts there, including triumphs in four of his last six starts at the so-called “world’s fastest short track.”
“It’s a great day,” Newgarden said. “My team is just there, they’re unbelievable. They always give me a great car. I show up every weekend and feel like the best of the best.
“We did not start where we wanted to be. We unloaded off the car almost perfectly, but then in qualifying, how we did. I’ve messed up qualifying so many times here and it never gets easier.
“I’m always so mad at myself because we didn’t get it right, but after the first stint and a half it took us to get the car where we wanted to be. Once it got comfy, I think we were the ones to beat.”
Newgarden is looking to sweep the weekend with a win in Sunday’s race, as well.
“I love Iowa. It’s a great day,” Newgarden said. “I’m going to study (Saturday’s race) tape and be better tomorrow.”
Newgarden remains unbeaten in oval track races this season. He won early in the year at Texas, followed it up with his first triumph in the Indy 500, won Saturday at Iowa and hopes to double-up again on Sunday’s back-half of the weekend twinbill.
After that, there is one more oval on the schedule: WorldWide Technology Raceway outside St. Louis on August 27.
Team Penske dominated in Saturday’s race. Will Power earned the seventh and eighth poles of his career at Iowa and ultimately finished fifth after a late brush with the wall.
“I just got a little high and the car came out, took the air and just boom,” Power said. “It was a pretty square hit. I was worried about how much force goes through the suspension that goes through this track, so we’ll probably have to change it (Saturday night).”
As for Sunday, Power—who led 119 laps of Saturday’s 250-lap race—will start from the pole with the same gameplan he had Saturday, but will have to do a better job of keeping his teammates behind him.
Meanwhile, fellow Penske pilot Scott McLaughlin came close to tracking Newgarden down late in the race, but couldn’t quite seal the deal and finished second.
“I badly want to beat that guy,” McLaughlin chuckled, talking about Newgarden, before promising an even better effort on Sunday: “I’m going to be trying everything to beat him.”
It was McLaughlin’s second podium of the season, to go along with his win at Birmingham earlier in the season.
Here’s Saturday’s top 10 finishers: Newgarden, McLaughlin, Pato O’Ward, Marcus Ericsson, Power, Scott Dixon, Kyle Kirkwood, points leader Alex Palou, Takuma Sato and Alexander Rossi.
As for Palou, his 117-point lead coming into Saturday’s race dropped to 98 points after his eighth-place finish.
There also was a slight change in the order of the standings: Dixon dropped to third place (114 points behind Palou), while Newgarden moved up to second, and he’s 98 points behind the 2021 IndyCar Series champ.
Graham Rahal finished last in the 27-car field on Saturday.
Another Tough Day for RLL, Graham Rahal
While it was a good day for Team Penske, Chip Ganassi Racing and McLaren, it was not a good day for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
Christian Lundgaard, who won this past Sunday at Toronto, finished a disappointing 20th. Teammate Jack Harvey was the team’s highest-finishing driver in 18th, and Graham Rahal finished last in the 27-car field after bouncing off the outside wall and wound up in the infield grass, bringing out the first caution of the day on Lap 152.
Ironically, Harvey was issued a delayed nine-position penalty for avoidable contact that caused a seven-car wreck on the opening lineup of last weekend’s Honda Indy Toronto race. Harvey started 26th in the 27-car field Saturday.
Ed Sheeran to Take Center Stage Sunday
The second half of the weekend doubleheader is Sunday at 2 pm ET on NBC, IndyCar.TV and SiriusXM Radio, followed by a concert by Ed Sheeran, who will also serve as the race’s grand marshal and give the command to start engines.
NOTES: Saturday was Scott Dixon’s 43rd birthday and last week’s winner at Toronto, Christian Lundgaard, turns 22 on Sunday. … Meyer Shank Racing driver Simon Pagenaud, who suffered a concussion in a wicked crash three weeks ago at Mid-Ohio, remains sidelined and has not been cleared by IndyCar doctors. As a result, Conor Daly replaced Pagenaud in Saturday’s race (finished 21st) and will also drive in Sunday’s second half of the weekend doubleheader. … Colton Herta’s struggles in 2023 continued. Herta came into the pits early for tires on Lap 41 and wound up being stuck for 43 seconds due to several attempts to tighten the left front wheel on his car failed, and then the engine stalled. He fell four laps down and ultimately finished 19th, still four laps down.
Read the full article here