Josef Newgarden sent a message to the NTT IndyCar Series field last weekend at the Iowa Speedway. See, Newgarden has been solid all year, but despite two straight top four finishes in Road America and Toronto, his points lead of 25 evaporated to four heading into last weekend’s Iowa 300.

Despite that, the field was already nervous on what Newgarden would do. The Team Penske driver is at his best on the .894-mile bullring. Heading into last Saturday’s race, Newgarden had led 623 laps over his past four Iowa starts.

That track just suits him.

In the end, their thoughts were warranted. Newgarden, started third but quickly found the lead. He’d go on to lead 245 laps en route to a dominating victory. His points lead went from four up to 29 heading into Sunday’s Honda Indy 200 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

Now, Newgarden, a 2017 race winner at Mid-Ohio, is hoping to cash in on some of this momentum in hopes of making the points lead grow even further.

“There is a lot of momentum on the side the No. 2 PPG Chevrolet team right now, but we need to focus on this weekend,” said Newgarden. “I’m definitely a fan of road courses like Mid-Ohio, especially because of all of the fans that show up there. There’s always a really great crowd that gets us all really pumped up for the race. Mid-Ohio is a place we’ve had some success at including a win a couple of years ago, which was the last time we raced the PPG livery there. We’re hoping it brings us luck again.”

The last three winners of this race all sit 1-2-3 in the points standings right now. Simon Pagenaud is third and won this race in 2016. Alexander Rossi is second and won this race last year. Newgarden, won in 2017. Even fourth place Scott Dixon won in 2014 too.