Newgarden wins to continue dominance at WWTR

MADISON, Ill. — Josef Newgarden won for the fifth time at World Wide Technology Raceway on Saturday night, taking the lead during a late pit stop and holding off teammate Scott McLaughlin on two restarts.

Newgarden survived a partial spin-out on Lap 196 in the 260-lap race, keeping his No. 2 Chevrolet out of the wall as he turned sideways coming out of Turn 2.

Newgarden has been dominant on the track just outside St. Louis, winning for the fourth time in the past five years. His winning streak ended last year, when he crashed with 49 laps to go.

It was a sweep for Team Penske’s No. 2 cars at the track, after Austin Cindric won the NASCAR Cup race this year. The crowd was much smaller for the IndyCar race, with empty swaths of seats in the main grandstand.

Cindric’s father, Tim, is the Penske president and was in the team box for Newgarden’s victory.

Defending series champion Álex Palou extended his points lead after his closest pursuer, Will Power, was knocked out in a late crash after leading more laps than anyone else.

Power was in fourth place coming to a restart with nine laps to go when Alexander Rossi rear-ended him. Power faulted teammate Newgarden for getting in and out of the gas while rounding Turn 4 to prepare for the restart.

“I don’t know why — I do not know why — he would just keep backing up and going, not going,” said Power, who ended up 18th and fell to fourth in the points race. “I do not understand it.”

After a red flag to clean up the track, Newgarden pulled away on the restart and was not challenged the rest of the way, with the race ending under caution after a last-lap wreck.

Newgarden hadn’t led until a crash with 18 laps to go by David Malukas, who had finished on the podium the past two years at the track formerly known as Gateway Motorsports Park.

It was effectively a duel between the pit crews for Newgarden and McLaughlin, the pole-sitter, who were the only drivers on the lead lap at the time.

After last year’s race was decided largely on fuel strategy by Scott Dixon, who ended up nearly a full lap ahead of everyone else, this one came down to pit crews and .

OH NO, O’WARD

Pato O’Ward, who entered the race in fifth place in the points standings, went to the garage after 42 laps with apparent engine trouble. O’Ward had been the runner-up in four of last five races at the track, with five straight top-five finishes.

“It’s been a year of ups and downs, and I think at this point we just want to be winning races. There’s four to go, so there’s plenty of points on the table,” said O’Ward, who finished in 26th and only ahead of Katherine Legge, who crashed on Lap 8.

ERICSSON’S EXIT

Marcus Ericsson, who led 13 laps while executing a similar fuel strategy to Dixon, suddenly slowed from the lead and then remained in the pits for a few extra seconds in what was intended to be his next-to-last pit stop on Lap 149. But one lap later, Ericsson returned to pit road and his race was over.

“We had the car and the speed to win that thing,” said Ericsson, who indicated it was an issue with the hybrid system. “It just doesn’t want to go our way.”

Dixon wasn’t able to win on fuel strategy this time, though. He got caught out of sequence with the leaders when Newgarden’s spin caused the late caution just after Dixon had pitted and was two laps down.

TEAMATES IN TROUBLE

Both of the Juncos Hollinger Racing cars were involved in a crash on Lap 17. Conor Daly, in his first race since replacing Augustin Canapino in the No. 78 car, got spun around on the backstretch but suffered less damage than teammate Romain Grosjean and Kyle Kirkwood.

UP NEXT

The final road course race of the season is Sunday, Aug. 25, in Portland, Oregon. Palou won last year to wrap up his second series championship in the past three years.