Josef Newgarden is the king of the corn. The Team Penske driver dominated Saturday’s Hy-Vee Homefront 250 en route to his 28th career NTT INDYCAR SERIES victory. 5 of his 28 wins have come right here at the Iowa Speedway including 4 of the 5 in the last 6 starts around the .894-mile bullring.
He never left this thing in doubt. The 32-year-old started third, got to second on Lap 94 and passed pole sitter Will Power on Lap 120. He’d never look back in scoring his third win in as many tries on ovals this season.
“It was just unfortunate that we came off the truck so good — Luke Mason did such a great job with this car,” Newgarden said. “I was so happy yesterday, pretty immediately, and then to qualify as disappointingly as we did, I think for us, for our expectation, if you will — it wasn’t a disaster, but it wasn’t where we thought we should be. I know it’s not where the car should be.
“I was really — I’ve done that a lot here. I’ve not qualified where I think we should. That exact problem was sort of the same in the beginning of the race. We were trying to counteract it and didn’t quite get there. It took about a stint, stint and a half, to really get the car where it needed to be.
“Then it was great. It was back to sort of the beginning of yesterday. It was just a nice car. Team did a great job as always. They always give me a fantastic car here. You can’t win a race around this place without having the best car in the field, and I feel like we’ve always got that when we show up.”
He bested his Penske teammate, Scott McLaughlin, by 3.3755-seconds in a dominating performance in Saturday’s 250 lapper.
“I’m going to get him at some point,” McLaughlin said. “I’m very determined. Helluva race. I think the three of us could have easily swept the top three there. Pato did an awesome job. Their cars are just really good through traffic.
“What I learned with Josef during the week, during the last couple of weeks, has been huge. It’s a nice little rabbit to chase when he’s out in front. When you can keep up with him, that’s a nice feeling. Gives me a lot of confidence.
“Learned a lot for tomorrow. I think we’ve got a really good race car we can sort of evolve with and just get better.”
For McLaughlin, this was his 10th career podium in his 45 Indy Car start. He was second in practice, qualified second for both races this weekend and now finishes second in his No. 3 Dallara-Chevrolet.
Pato O’Ward finished third in his No. 5 Dallara-Chevrolet with his 4th top 4 finish in 5 Iowa starts while Marcus Ericsson and Power rounded out the top five in a Chevy dominated day. They led 248 of 250 laps including a third straight podium sweep here.
“Solid podium for us today,” O’Ward said. “Just didn’t have anything for the Penskes. We need to take a solid step forward if we want to make them sweat tomorrow.
“I just think they were specifically strong getting through traffic. I would just — I’d get stuck. I wasn’t able to place the car where I needed to in order to get by some slow cars.
“Obviously happy with it, but considering how much pace we had last year, it’s like where is it?”
Last year, Chevy took 4 of the 5 spots on the lead lap in the Saturday race and now went 1-2-4-5 today. They went 1-2-3 in last year’s second leg of the doubleheader.
Saturday was their 8th win in the last 9 Iowa starts.
Penske in general has won 6 of the last 8 races here and shares the front row on Sunday with Power and McLaughlin.
At World Wide Technology Raceway, a similar track, they’ve won 5 of the 7 races since the return including 3 straight.
Will Power Lets Another One Get Away
Will Power made mention this past week that if Josef Newgarden wasn’t among the NTT INDYCAR SERIES field, then he’d likely have at least a win or two by now at the Iowa Speedway. Power instead, is now 0-for-16 at the .894-mile short track tucked into the side of the I-80 cornfields.
“Heading back to Iowa. Yeah, yeah, yeah, one of my favorite tracks. Been trying to win there for years. There’s one guy that seems to prevent it. Yeah, it’s going to be fun,” said Power this past Wednesday.
On Saturday morning, Power scored the pole for both races this weekend. He led the first 61 laps before hitting pit road for the first time of the day. He inherited the lead again three laps later and would hold onto the top spot until Lap 120.
That’s when Newgarden got him for the top spot. Despite leading 118 of the first 120 laps, h’ed never lead again.
Power rode in second until scrapping the Turn 4 wall on Lap 145. He’d fall from second to fourth and would end up in fifth.
Power’s last four Iowa finishes are second, third, second and fifth respectively. The Aussie also has 7 top sixes in his last 9 Iowa starts in general. It’s just that he’s now 0-for-7 when starting from the pole here.
He finished 5th in 2010, 17th in 2013, 4th in 2017, 6th in 2018, 3rd and 2nd last year and now 5th.
He’ll have another shot on Sunday as he’ll lead the field to green. He does have 3 top 5 finishes in his last 5 starts on the season and if not for running out of fuel due to a miscalculation coming to the white flag six days ago in Toronto, that number would be 4-for-5 instead. He had just one top five in the first six races to the season.
Oval Masters Finish On Podium
Josef Newgarden-Scott McLaughlin-Pato O-Ward being 1-2-3 on Saturday is none too shocking. They’re the tops in the series on ovals right now.
Newgarden is THE short oval king. He’s won 5 races here, 4-for-7 at World Wide Technology Raceway and also has a 2018 win at Phoenix as well. That’s 10 of his 28 wins (35.7%) on short ovals.
In fact, each of his last 5 race wins have come on ovals as has 7 of his last 9 wins (77.7%) in general. 14 of his 28 wins (50%) were on ovals.
Newgarden’s led 111 or more laps in 8 of his last 10 Iowa starts including five wins, a pair of runner-ups, a fourth, fifth and sixth place result in the last 10 tries.
“I don’t really feel differently about it than any other track, to be honest,” said Newgarden. “My goal is to be strong everywhere. It doesn’t matter the discipline or the track type. I want to be good everywhere we show up. If there’s a place we’re not good, it’s number one on my list to figure out. Why aren’t we good here? Why can’t we win this race?
“Anything is possible for us and our team, and we need to approach it that way. So just in short, it doesn’t feel different to me, whether it’s Iowa or it’s Toronto or it’s Detroit or Road America. They all matter. You take great pride in being able to work with the team and put a victory together. They’re all difficult.
“It’s not easy to win a race in this series, so they all feel the same.”
McLaughlin has 13 top 5 finishes so far and among his 13 top 5 finishes in the sport, 6 of which came on ovals. He was second in Texas 1 in 2021 and fourth in Gateway that season. Last year, he was second at Texas, third in Iowa 2 and third again in Gateway. This year, he was sixth at Texas and now runner-up at Iowa.
O’Ward has been great in Gateway (3rd, 2nd, 2nd, 4th) and even better here: 4th, 12th, 2nd, 1st and 3rd. In his last 15 oval starts in general, he’s finished 6th, 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, 1st, 4th, 2nd, 15th, 2nd, 2nd, 1st, 4th, 2nd, 24th (crashed while battling for 2nd) and 3rd respectively.
Newgarden, Palou Do Exactly What Was Needed
Alex Palou knew that this could be a detriment to him this weekend. 4 of the top 5 drivers in Friday’s practice were in the top 6 in points entering this weekend. However, 1 of those 4 wasn’t the points leader in Palou.
With Josef Newgarden being quickest on Friday and starting third on Saturday, Palou just needed to get out of here with a top 10 finish.
He’d do just that.
Palou started seventh and finished eighth. While it’s not spectacular, it’s great for him to come away with his second top 10 finish in five tries here. He was 11th, 14th, 6th and 13th previously. Even at a similar track in Gateway, he’s finished 15th, 12th, 20th and 9th.
So, for him to be 8th on Saturday is a win for him despite his points lead dropping from 117 to 98.
Same for Newgarden. He had to capitalize on a track that he’s been so good at. To do so with the win and going for him from 126 points out to 98 is a win too.
“I’m very aware of it. I’ve seen it climb from the beginning of the season,” said Newgarden. “Alex has had a great run. He’s really had no bad races. I explained this in the past that, when you’re a great driver like Alex and he’s got a great team around him and you don’t have any bad races, that is what happens points-wise. You build up a cushion the way they have.
“It’s a tough deficit that we’re in. I’m aware of it. I’m not putting any pressure on this weekend or to the end of the year. It kind of is what it is, right? I can’t control what happens with Alex. I think the odds are higher that he has some bad luck at some point, but that doesn’t mean it’s ever going to come. It just may be a great year for those guys where they don’t ever truly see it, and that’s okay.
“I’ve just had to learn over the years that you can’t control these things. You really can’t. I focus on trying to be the best that we can be every weekend. This weekend’s no different. It’s just you’re dealing with that scenario that you brought up that everyone expects us to be really good here and win a couple of races. I know that.
“Regardless of that, I just try to make sure we do the best job. We did the best job we could today, and we need to do that tomorrow.”
If he can do that, then the points lead would decrease again which is right where the window that Newgarden wants it to be in.
“That’s a great chunk,” he said of cutting into the points lead on Saturday. “You win another time, what does that put you at, I don’t know, 72? That would be great. That would be great. We’re going to for sure need that.
“You can’t spin this any way. I’m not telling myself a story to make myself feel better tomorrow. There’s no doubt we have to win a lot of races, and Alex has to inevitably at some point hit bad luck. It’s just the way this whole thing goes. If that doesn’t happen, then we’re still going to focus on winning races, and hopefully we have a lot of wins on the year and we get close. Or maybe just winning a bunch of races and he doesn’t need the bad luck, and that’s enough to get us the championship.
“I have no idea how this is all going to play out, but yeah, tomorrow — they all matter at this point. What is there, six to go? They’re all going to be critical. We can’t afford a bad weekend anymore. He can, but we’ve got to be pretty much perfect, which when it’s like that, it just almost doesn’t matter. Like what’s going to be is going to be. I think a lot of people are in this mindset. They’re just trying to win races.
“It’s kind of a good way to go about it because you can’t just take little bites out of him. It’s just not going to work. You’ve got to be hitting it with a hammer and hoping that fate kind of swings back your way. So I hope we get that, but there’s just no telling if that’s going to happen.”
Newgarden said that when he comes to Iowa, he expects this type of result which in turn, does create some pressure too.
“There’s a pressure that’s on us, I know when we show up here,” said Newgarden. “It’s that assumption. It’s the assumption that we’re going to be great just because we should be. We’re the 2 car. We should be really good here.
“That’s okay because I think there’s always a pressure that exists. You show up to Indianapolis with Team Penske, and there’s only — there’s only one place that people accept as okay for Team Penske, and that’s winning the race. We deal with those pressures. It’s not like it’s something new.
“But I think, more than anything, it’s just been — it’s honestly been a really tough year, like we’ve had some good moments, there’s no doubt. Obviously the 500 was just — it was the best moment for everybody this year. Other than that, it’s been a really tough season, really, really tough. It just feels like one of those grinders again. We grinded last year.
“I want to figure out how to get us in a place where we’re not grinding and try to figure it out week to week. I’ve got all the confidence in the world. The tough thing for me is I know the potential of the team, I really do. It’s there. It’s always been there, and I just want us to realize it more.
“We’re continually working on that. For me, I’m just a perfectionist, and I think working towards that potential and maximizing it is what you’re seeing from me.”
Lap 152 Caution Helps Ericsson, Kirkwood
Marcus Ericsson and Kyle Kirkwood had fast race cars, but were on a different strategy than the leaders in front. They had to do something different or they’d be lucky to get much inside of the top 10.
Ericsson was teetering between 5th to 8th on his stints while Kirkwood was outside the top 10.
While running 5th (Ericsson) and 6th (Kirkwood) at the time of the lone caution of the day on Lap 152 for Graham Rahal finding the Turn 4 wall, it helped them dramatically.
They were two of the 6 cars on the lead lap. So, they got to pit on Lap 157 with the other four drivers. Now, with being on the same pit strategy, they were going to reap the benefits of that.
It’ paid off. Ericsson brought his No. 8 Dallara-Honda home in fourth for his fourth top five finish of the season and 16th of his career. It was his first top five since his runner-up in May’s Indy 500.
Kirkwood would finish 7th for his 4th top 10 finish of the year and 5th of his young career. The Floridian is starting to find his groove with 3 of his 4 top 10’s coming in the last 5 races.
It could be more if he didn’t punt Helio Castroneves out of the way sparking the final caution last Sunday in Toronto. He was leading the strategy at that time. For Mid-Ohio, he qualified third and spun while running there early on.
For Kirkwood, he pit for the first time on Lap 60. The leaders pit two laps later. For his second stop, he short pit on Lap 103. Everyone else up front pit on Lap 125.
Ericsson pit on Laps 60 and 109. So, they were going to have to pit well before Josef Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin, Will Power and Pato O’Ward.
That caution allowed them to pit for the third time of the race with them.
RLL Momentum Lost
RLL came into Iowa with a host of momentum. They’ve now maybe lost it. After qualifying 13-17-20, they’d finish just 18-20-28.
Graham Rahal got out of the groove twice on Saturday with the last one taking him out of the race. The other two just didn’t have the pace to compete.
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