Josef Newgarden climbs out of his car in victory lane after winning Sunday’s NTT IndyCar Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway. Photo: Joe Skibinski
By using a late-race pit strategy call and winning a daring pit-exit duel, defending NTT IndyCar Series champion Josef Newgarden claimed his second victory of 2020 in the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 Race 2 on Sunday at World Wide Technology Raceway.
Newgarden, driving the No. 1 Team Penske Chevrolet, pitted for the final time on lap 153 from the third position to try to undercut the leaders and gain time on them. Exiting pit lane, Newgarden was locked in a stirring side-by-side race with Pato O’Ward.
As the two approached the backstretch, Newgarden won the game of chicken and pulled ahead of O’Ward and cycled through to the lead on lap 157 of the 200-lap race. He held off a hard-charging O’Ward in the final laps until Takuma Sato made contact with the wall in turn 2 with four laps to go, resulting in a caution and an end to the race. Sato finished ninth.
“This was all a pit stop victory right here for me,” Newgarden said. “We got pretty dicey with Will (Power) and Pato (O’Ward) there on track. My guys have been amazing in the pits. They have put me into position every time. It was really fun racing Pato out of the pit. That was for the win right there, that race when we went side by side out of the pit exit.
“Really proud of my team. They won the race. I didn’t win it, they won it.”
Following Newgarden and O’Ward in the top five were Will Power in third, Rinus VeeKay in fourth and Saturday’s Race 1 winner Scott Dixon in fifth.
O’Ward’s second-place finish matched his career-best finish from earlier this year at Road America on July 12. It was his third podium finish of the year. O’Ward is third in the series point standings.
“Man, we had a great weekend,” said O’Ward, who finished third in Saturday’s race at WWTR. “Our objective was to come in and try and score two podiums, and we did that. It would have been great to score a win. We’re so close.
“This Arrow McLaren SP No. 5 Chevrolet was very strong right out of the gates. We were super, super competitive. We’re knocking on the door, man. We’re very close, and we’re going to keep pushing. I know our time will come. We have to stay there.”
Power led 40 laps and was ahead as the final round of green flag pit stops began, but he was caught in traffic attempting to enter pit lane, and entered the warm-up lane behind the slower car of Ed Carpenter, forcing Power to lose time.
“I felt like we had the car to win,” Power said. “Obviously, it’s a traffic game. I’ve got to thank all of the guys. The Verizon 12 car Chevy was really strong today. We had great stops, great car. The strategy certainly didn’t work out obviously at the end, but still very happy to get a podium.”
VeeKay, a 19-year-old series rookie, scored his best career finish and third top-10 result of the season, besting his fifth-place finish in the GMR Grand Prix on July 4 on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. VeeKay was the biggest gainer of the day as he climbed from the 18th starting position.
The race on the 1.25-mile oval just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis featured a number of interesting, different strategies from the start as drivers in the lead pack deployed several different pit tactics to try to one-up each other.
NTT P1 Award winner Sato led the first 59 laps of the race, but the pit strategy call to stay out longer than the rest of the field hurt him as he lost the lead and fell to eighth after green flag pit stops cycled. Sato led seven more laps throughout the race for a race-high 66.
From there, O’Ward and Power traded the lead on the following green flag pit stop cycles and hounded each other for the lead on green flag runs while Newgarden patiently waited to capitalize for his second win at WWTR. Newgarden won at the track in 2017 en route to his first series championship.
With the lead, Newgarden gained on points leader Dixon. He entered the race 117 points behind five-time series champion Dixon but closed the gap to 96. O’Ward is 119 behind Dixon.
Finishing the day in 19th was Tony Kanaan in the No. 14 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet. This was the final race of Kanaan’s “TK Last Lap” tour where he competed on all the oval races this season. Kanaan holds the record for the most consecutive starts in the series at 318, which ended after the season-opening race June 6 at Texas Motor Speedway.
“I wish I could have given the boys and A.J. (Foyt) and Big Machine a better result, but the rest of the day was fun,” Kanaan said. “It was a good way to end it. I want to thank my fans, my team and everyone who has been involved in this journey, my family. It’s been good.
“I’m done for this year but hopefully not done totally, but we’ll see. My fingers are crossed that maybe I could come back for a proper last lap with my fans, but for now, drop the mic.”
The next race on the NTT IndyCar Series schedule is the IndyCar Harvest Grand Prix Doubleheader, October 2-3 on the 2.439-mile IMS road course.
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World Wide Technology Raceway – Madison, IL
Bommarito Automotive Group 500 Race 2 – August 30, 2020
1. (2) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 200, Running
2. (4) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 200, Running
3. (3) Will Power, Chevrolet, 200, Running
4. (18) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 200, Running
5. (6) Scott Dixon, Honda, 200, Running
6. (10) Colton Herta, Honda, 200, Running
7. (9) Felix Rosenqvist, Honda, 200, Running
8. (15) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 200, Running
9. (1) Takuma Sato, Honda, 200, Running
10. (16) Santino Ferrucci, Honda, 200, Running
11. (12) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Honda, 200, Running
12. (14) Alex Palou, Honda, 200, Running
13. (5) Jack Harvey, Honda, 200, Running
14. (11) Alexander Rossi, Honda, 200, Running
15. (20) Marco Andretti, Honda, 199, Running
16. (8) Simon Pagenaud, Chevrolet, 199, Running
17. (13) Oliver Askew, Chevrolet, 199, Running
18. (21) Charlie Kimball, Chevrolet, 199, Running
19. (19) Tony Kanaan, Chevrolet, 199, Running
20. (23) Graham Rahal, Honda, 198, Running
21. (22) Ed Carpenter, Chevrolet, 197, Running
22. (17) Zach Veach, Honda, 196, Running
23. (7) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 190, Running
Winner’s average speed: 162.594 mph
Time of Race: 1:32:15.2431 Margin of victory: Under caution
Cautions: 2 for 5 laps
Lead changes: 8 among 5 drivers
Lap Leaders: Sato, Takuma 1 – 59; O’Ward, Pato 60 – 95; Power, Will 96 – 97; Newgarden, Josef 98 – 101; Sato, Takuma 102 – 108; Herta, Colton 109 – 113; Power, Will 114 – 151; Herta, Colton 152 – 156; Newgarden, Josef 157 – 200.
Point Standings: Dixon 416, Newgarden 320, O’Ward 297, Sato 274, Herta 250, Pagenaud 237, Rahal 236, Power 226, Ferrucci 216, Rosenqvist 208.
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