IndyCar

IndyCar Gateway: Newgarden wins second race under caution

Reigning IndyCar champion Josef Newgarden recorded his second victory of season for Team Penske under caution in the second race of the double-header at Gateway.

Newgarden gained the lead from team-mate Will Power through the third and final pitstop cycle on lap 152 after the Australian was briefly held up by backmarker Ed Carpenter on his in-lap.

Swift work from the Penske crew got Newgarden out first, although he did go side-by-side with Arrow McLaren SP’s Pato O’Ward exiting the pitlane.

Double series champion Newgarden then held a four-tenths of a second buffer to the chasing O’Ward, which the Mexican rookie was unable to close before polesitter Takuma Sato hit the Turn 2 wall on lap 197 of 200 to bring out the yellow flags.

It meant for the second time in a week an IndyCar race finished under caution after last Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 – when Sato profited to claim victory.

The win in the second Gateway race is Newgarden’s first since the second Iowa race in July, the 16th triumph of his career, Penske’s sixth win in 12 races at Gateway and makes him the first driver to win two races at the 1.25-mile oval circuit.

2018 Indy Lights champion O’Ward followed up third place in Saturday’s first race with the runner-up spot, equalling his best career result and consolidates third place in the championship.

Power, who had assumed control of the race through the middle stint came home in third place to make it a Penske 1-3 ahead of rookie Rinus Veekay for Dale Coyne Racing.

Veekay, who had started 18th on the 23-car grid was the early mover, quickly passing six cars to run on the fringes of the top 10, before his DCR squad opted to place the #21 on an aggressive strategy.

At each of the three fuel stops, Veekay was brought in a handful of laps before the chasing pack to drop the him into clean air and allow the Dutchman to make up time on those ahead.

It worked well as he claimed a season’s best result of fourth, eclipsing the fifth place he took on the Indianapolis road course.

Championship leader and race one winner Scott Dixon had a quiet afternoon, starting sixth and coming fifth losing 20 points to Newgarden in the standings.

The Chip Ganassi driver does maintain a 97-point lead over his Penske rival going into the final three scheduled races of the campaign.

Colton Herta followed fourth yesterday with a solid sixth for his Harding Steinbrenner Andretti Autosport machine, although he nearly lost control of the car after contact and ran wide into cement dust put down after a pre-race oil spill.

Felix Rosenqvist (Ganassi), Conor Daly (Carlin), who maintained his record of always finishing inside the top 10 at Gateway, Sato and Santino Ferrucci (Dale Coyne) rounded out the top 10 finishers.

Alexander Rossi, who was taken out before Saturday’s race had started, had an anonymous afternoon on his way to 14th for Andretti Autosport, as did 2016 series champion Simon Pagenaud in 16th for Penske.

In what could be his final IndyCar race, A.J Foyt Racing’s 2004 series champion Tony Kanaan came home in a lapped 19th place.

IndyCar Gateway Race 2 Results: 200 laps

Pos Driver Team Gap
1 Josef Newgarden Team Penske 1h32m15.2431s
2 Patricio O’Ward Arrow McLaren SP 1.4356s
3 Will Power Team Penske 3.3580s
4 Rinus Van Kalmthout Ed Carpenter Racing 4.4369s
5 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing 6.2173s
6 Colton Herta Andretti Harding 7.0022s
7 Felix Rosenqvist Chip Ganassi Racing 9.6894s
8 Conor Daly Carlin 9.9199s
9 Takuma Sato Rahal Letterman Lanigan 10.8130s
10 Santino Ferrucci Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan 15.6741s
11 Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport 16.6569s
12 Alex Palou Dale Coyne Racing 18.8580s
13 Jack Harvey Meyer Shank Racing 20.0777s
14 Alexander Rossi Andretti Autosport 20.9892s
15 Marco Andretti Andretti Autosport 1 Lap
16 Simon Pagenaud Team Penske 1 Lap
17 Oliver Askew Arrow McLaren SP 1 Lap
18 Charlie Kimball A.J. Foyt Enterprises 1 Lap
19 Tony Kanaan A.J. Foyt Enterprises 1 Lap
20 Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan 2 Laps
21 Ed Carpenter Ed Carpenter Racing 3 Laps
22 Zach Veach Andretti Autosport 4 Laps
23 Marcus Ericsson Chip Ganassi Racing 10 Laps

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