Josef Newgarden celebrates after winning Sunday’s NTT IndyCar Series race at Iowa Speedway, giving him a sweep of the two series race at the Newton, Iowa raceway on the weekend. Photo: Penske Entertainment: Joe Skibinski
Josef Newgarden completed a sweep of the NTT IndyCar Series race weekend doubleheader at Iowa Speedway by winning on Sunday, bookending his victory in Saturday’s race.
champion Newgarden drove his No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet to his sixth career victory at Iowa by .7050 of a second over teammate and reigning series champion Will Power. The close finish came after a three-lap dash to the checkered flag due to a late caution.
Newgarden has won all four oval races this season – including the Indianapolis 500 on May 28 – and can complete a season sweep of circle-track events at on Sunday, August 27 at World Wide Technology Raceway. He has won six of the last seven oval races in the series over the last 12 months.
“We knew we had a great car, and the pressure was there because I think we wanted to execute on it and make sure it was a great weekend,” Newgarden said. “I’m happy now. When you finish the first race, it’s great to have a doubleheader, but you just feel incomplete until you get through today. To be able to come back and do it again, I’m so proud of the team.
“It’s very gratifying because I know how good our car is here. When you show up with a car like this, you’ve got the pressure to just execute and get the job done. When you don’t get the job done, you feel like you did something wrong.”
There’s even more history. Newgarden joined legendary four-time Indy 500 winners A.J. Foyt and Al Unser as the only drivers to win five consecutive oval races in the series, as Newgarden’s streak started last August at WWTR. Foyt won seven in a row in 1964, and Unser won five straight in 1968 and 1970.
This was Newgarden’s 29th career victory, tying him with four-time Indy 500 winner and fellow Team Penske legend Rick Mears for 13th on the all-time win list. Newgarden also became the first driver to sweep a series doubleheader since Graham Rahal in 2017 in Detroit.
Newgarden’s victory also polished off a sweep of the weekend for Team Penske, as the team led every on-track session. Newgarden won both races and led practice Friday, while Power won the pole for both races and led the warm up Sunday morning.
Championship leader Alex Palou finished third. His lead over second place Newgarden slimmed to 80 points with five races remaining in the season. The Spaniard, who finished eighth Saturday, led by 117 points entering this doubleheader weekend. Still, he extended his streak of finishing in the top eight to all 12 races this season.
“I didn’t expect to be on the podium, honestly,” Palou said. “This is a place where we struggle, we don’t really have the package that we would like and that I struggle also personally. We got a lot of confidence today, but there’s still a lot to improve.”
Felix Rosenqvist finished fourth, with Scott McLaughlin fifth.
Newgarden cantered to a 3.375-second victory over McLaughlin on Saturday. But a second trip to the winner’s circle this weekend wasn’t as easy Sunday even though Newgarden led far more laps – 212 of 250 – after starting seventh than the 129 trips he paced Saturday from the third spot on the starting grid.
It appeared Newgarden would cruise to another dominant victory late in the race, as he was well ahead of Rosenqvist and had lapped the field all the way to sixth place. But Ryan Hunter-Reay side-swiped the SAFER Barrier in turn 4 on lap 240, triggering the third and final caution of the race.
The five cars on the lead lap were moved to the front of field under caution, creating a three-lap dash to the checkered on the restart at the end of lap 247. Newgarden got a smooth jump into turn 1 and never trailed. Pole sitter Power passed Rosenqvist for second, and 2021 season champion Palou completed his Sunday salvage job by passing Rosenqvist and McLaughlin to earn his seventh podium finish of the season.
Newgarden took less time to pass teammate and Power for the early lead Sunday than Saturday. He first got to the front and took control of the race on Lap 31, never trailing thereafter except for during pit cycles.
The next NTT IndyCar Series race is on Sunday, August 6 on the streets of Nashville, Tennessee.
NTT IndyCar Series
Iowa Speedway – Newton, IA
Hy-Vee One Step 250 – July 23, 2023
1. (7) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 250, Running
2. (1) Will Power, Chevrolet, 250, Running
3. (12) Alex Palou, Honda, 250, Running
4. (16) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 250, Running
5. (2) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 250, Running
6. (9) Scott Dixon, Honda, 249, Running
7. (5) Colton Herta, Honda, 249, Running
8. (3) David Malukas, Honda, 249, Running
9. (10) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 249, Running
10. (11) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 249, Running
11. (17) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 249, Running
12. (20) Romain Grosjean, Honda, 249, Running
13. (21) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 249, Running
14. (24) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 248, Running
15. (18) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 248, Running
16. (8) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 248, Running
17. (15) Conor Daly, Honda, 248, Running
18. (14) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 248, Running
19. (22) Jack Harvey, Honda, 247, Running
20. (6) Graham Rahal, Honda, 247, Running
21. (19) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 246, Running
22. (27) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 245, Running
23. (4) Ed Carpenter, Chevrolet, 244, Running
24. (25) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Chevrolet, 237, Contact
25. (13) Takuma Sato, Honda, 237, Running
26. (23) Agustin Canapino, Chevrolet, 236, Running
27. (28) Benjamin Pedersen, Chevrolet, 193, DQ
28. (26) Sting Ray Robb, Honda, 152, DQ
Average Speed: 133.527.
Time of Race: 01:40:25.7356. Margin of Victory: 0.7050.
Cautions: 3 for 37 laps.
Lead Changes: 8 among 6 drivers
Lap Leaders: Power, Will 1-30; Newgarden, Josef 31-55; Rosenqvist, Felix 56-57; Newgarden, Josef 58-147; Dixon, Scott 148; Ericsson, Marcus 149-151; Newgarden, Josef 152-195; McLaughlin, Scott 196-197; Newgarden, Josef 198-250.
Point Standings: Palou 477, Newgarden 397, Dixon 357, Ericsson 330, O’Ward 329, McLaughlin 329, Power 316, Herta 276, Lundgaard 275, Rossi 265, Kirkwood 237, Rosenqvist 233, Grosjean 212, Ilott 185, VeeKay 183, Rahal 182, Malukas 176, Armstrong 156, Ferrucci 151, Castroneves 143, Canapino 132, DeFrancesco 128, Harvey 124, Daly 120, Robb 92, Pedersen 90, Pagenaud 88, Sato 65, Hunter-Reay 62, Carpenter 40, Kanaan 18, Andretti 13, Blomqvist 5, Enerson 5, Legge 5.
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