MADISON, Ill. - Josef Newgarden won Saturday night’s rain-interrupted NTT IndyCar Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway, mastering the race within the race created by the weather delay and pulling even closer to the series championship lead.
Newgarden, from Nashville, Tennessee, drove to his series-leading fifth victory of the season in the No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet by .4708 of a second over rookie David Malukas, whose spirited charge after the race restarted fell just short but still resulted in a career-best finish.
It marked Newgarden’s third straight victory at this 1.25-mile oval in the shadows of the Gateway Arch.
“I was so happy we could finish this race,” Newgarden said. “Scott McLaughlin, he wanted to win, too. I love that about us. We have a good relationship. He drove me super fair there at the end.”
Newgarden pulled to within three points of teammate and series leader Will Power in the race for the Astor Challenge Cup with just two races remaining in the season. Power led a race-high 128 laps but finished sixth.
Scott McLaughlin finished third despite leading at the restart with 37 laps remaining after a red flag of two hours, nine minutes due to rain and lightning.
Pato O’Ward finished fourth, while Takuma Sato placed fifth for his best result of the season.
The championship race remains taut and tense. Seven drivers are still mathematically eligible to win the title, with just 58 points – only four more than the maximum awarded at one race – separating leader Power from seventh-place O’Ward.
The official distance of Saturday night’s race was 260 laps, but the rain delay almost made it feel like a 213-lap race in daylight followed by a 47-lap trophy dash under the lights.
When the race resumed at 9:05 p.m. local time, track conditions had changed significantly because the rain cleaned the asphalt and there was better grip due to lower temperatures after sundown.
The starting field returned to the track under caution after the red flag was lifted, and McLaughlin pulled away when the green flag flew on lap 224. But Newgarden wasted no time tucking under McLaughlin’s gearbox on the back straightaway and dove under his teammate in turn 3 on lap 225, the first full lap after the restart, to take the lead for good.
“We just had to have a good start,” Newgarden said. “I knew Scott was going to be good at the end there, and he had a great restart. I just tried to work the high lane. The high lane worked earlier for me. We just had enough to get by him. He was no slouch this weekend.”
McLaughlin stayed within approximately six-tenths of a second of his teammate for the next 34 laps but couldn’t find a way past. Meanwhile, Malukas put the exclamation point on the most thrilling drive of his young career to advance from fifth at the restart to second at the finish.
The Chicago-area native reached third place by passing O’Ward on lap 245 and then set his sights on Newgarden and McLaughlin.
“We ended up getting around O’Ward and we ended up getting past a lapped car, and they (pit box) said, ‘You see them in front,’ and I saw two Penskes, and I was like, ‘Oh, my God, they’re Penskes!’ They were tough.”
While he never challenged Newgarden, Malukas passed McLaughlin for second on the final lap with a brave, full-send outside move in turn 1, aided by the additional traction of the cooler temperatures and clean racetrack.
Malukas’ previous-best finish before this stirring result was eighth last month in the second race of the doubleheader at the Iowa Speedway oval.
Teams attempted various pit strategies in the second half of the race to try and be out front when the expected rain arrived, taking an unlikely win if the race didn’t restart. Malukas and Sato were on an alternate strategy that pushed Malukas to the lead from laps 207-211, but he was forced to pit. The rain arrived just two laps later.
It appeared pit strategy and traffic may have foiled Newgarden just before the rain arrived.
McLaughlin pitted from second on lap 207. Newgarden stopped one lap later from the lead but followed rookie Christian Lundgaard into the pits, with Newgarden’s pit in lap clocking in at 1.065 seconds slower than McLaughlin’s. McLaughlin kept the lead when Newgarden blended back to the racetrack after his stop, holding the front until the red flag.
Up next, the series competes at Portland International Raceway on Sunday, September 4. The season ends on Sunday, September 11 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
NTT IndyCar Series
World Wide Technology Raceway – Madison, IL
Bommarito Automotive Group 500 – August 20, 2022
1. (3) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 260, Running
2. (12) David Malukas, Honda, 260, Running
3. (4) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 260, Running
4. (7) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 260, Running
5. (8) Takuma Sato, Honda, 260, Running
6. (1) Will Power, Chevrolet, 260, Running
7. (2) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 260, Running
8. (6) Scott Dixon, Honda, 260, Running
9. (5) Alex Palou, Honda, 260, Running
10. (16) Graham Rahal, Honda, 260, Running
11. (11) Colton Herta, Honda, 259, Running
12. (9) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 259, Running
13. (18) Romain Grosjean, Honda, 259, Running
14. (21) Jimmie Johnson, Honda, 259, Running
15. (17) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 259, Running
16. (26) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 259, Running
17. (20) Kyle Kirkwood, Chevrolet, 258, Running
18. (24) Dalton Kellett, Chevrolet, 258, Running
19. (19) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 258, Running
20. (13) Simon Pagenaud, Honda, 257, Running
21. (22) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 257, Running
22. (25) Ed Carpenter, Chevrolet, 256, Running
23. (15) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 244, Running
24. (14) Jack Harvey, Honda, 239, Running
25. (10) Alexander Rossi, Honda, 226, Running
26. (23) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 53, Mechanical
Winner’s Average Speed: 149.231 mph Time of Race: 02:10:40.1827
Margin of Victory: 0.4708 of a second
Cautions: 2 for 22 laps
Lead Changes: 13 among 10 drivers
Lap Leaders: Power 1-58; Ericsson 59; Rosenqvist 60; Grosjean 61-62; Power 63-123; O’Ward 124-126; Sato 127-148; Power 149-157; O’Ward 158-164; Newgarden 165-206; Malukas 207-210; Rahal 211-212; McLaughlin 213-224;
Newgarden 225-260.
Point Standings: Power 482, Newgarden 479, Dixon 468, Ericsson 465, Palou 439, McLaughlin 428, O’Ward 424, Rosenqvist 340, Rossi 335, Herta 334, VeeKay 305, Rahal 302, Pagenaud 294, Grosjean 291, Lundgaard 283, Malukas 272, Daly 256, Castroneves 239, Sato 239, Johnson 194, Ilott 190, Harvey 184, DeFrancesco 177, Kirkwood 157, Kellett 120, Tony Kanaan 78, Carpenter 75, Santino Ferrucci 71, Tatiana Calderon 58, JR Hildebrand 53, Juan Pablo Montoya 44, Simona De Silvestro 26, Marco Andretti 17, Sage Karam 14, Stefan Wilson 10.
