Newgarden wins first for Iowa; Palou, 8th

The American Joseph Newgarden (Team Penske) earned its third win of the season Saturday in the first of two IndyCar races scheduled in Iowa this weekend. The Mexican Duck O’Ward (Arrow McLaren) was third and the Spaniard Alex Palou (Chip Ganassi), the championship leader, finished in eighth position.

All of Newgarden’s victories this year coincide with each of the oval circuits on the calendar, proving him to be the best at this type of track.

“It’s a good day, for the whole team. They gave me a great car, it feels great, I’m proud to be part of this group. I love Iowa, it’s a good day, it’s been difficult and it has to be better tomorrow,” Newgarden told the USA broadcast as soon as he got out of his car.

Behind him came his teammate, New Zealander Scott McLaughlin (Team Penske), who was about to catch him in the final laps.

The podium was completed by O’Ward, who started fifth and achieved a good result against two cars higher.

“I knew I couldn’t beat them today, they have very fast cars. It was a difficult race. I hope we have another chance tomorrow, we took an important step forward,” said the Mexican.

Palou, eighth and winner of four of the last six IndyCar races, opted for a more conservative approach, leaving others to take risks in cutting points. Ovals haven’t gotten the Catalan into first place all season and this one from Iowa, which is also short, didn’t do him any favors.

Palou leads the IndyCar championship with 442 points. Newgarden, in his victory, was 98 units behind the Spaniard. They are followed by Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi) at 114, O’Ward at 133 and Swede Marcus Ericsson (Chip Ganassi) at 135.

When asked if this was a good result, Palou responded with doubt.

“Yes and no. Before the yes came, because I thought that two ‘top 10’ would be good for us. Our test here was not very good. But we could have more rhythm today, the pit stops did not help us. Let’s see tomorrow”, he reasoned.

Argentine Agustín Canapino (Juncos Hollinger) finished sixteenth behind his teammate, British Callum Ilott.

This Saturday race is the first of two consecutive tests at the Iowa oval, the only weekend with double competition.

The test began with a Will Power protecting his first position from the first laps, setting a devilish pace that only his Team Penske teammates McLaughlin and Newgarden could follow.

The Australian’s first pit stop was on lap 63. McLaughlin and Newgarden did the same with him, giving Palou first place, which meant another point for his pocket.

The wide distances between the race leader and the rest were only closed at specific moments where Power found more traffic between laps, and there was opportunity for other Penskes to stalk him. So, Newgarden on lap 93 moved into second and began to threaten to take first place.

The overtaking finally took place on lap 121. Newgarden was the new race leader, and the gap between the top three was reduced significantly to one second.

On lap 147, Power had problems holding onto the wall and losing speed, as well as multiple positions, dropping to fourth place and favoring an O’Ward who knew how to be in the right place to take third.

American Graham Rahal’s accident on lap 150 caused the first caution of the test.

This allowed the other drivers to reduce the gap to the leaders, almost a new race started in less than a hundred laps and the first classified took advantage of the opportunity to enter the pits.

The restart on lap 167 was even more damaging for Power, who dropped as low as sixth. With 39 laps remaining, one of the pictures of the day was the hand-to-hand fight for fourth place between Power and Ericsson, with the Swede taking the final victory.

The last few laps were exciting as McLaughlin did his best to chase down his teammate Newgarden but was unsuccessful and finished second to a struggling Newgarden on the ovals.

McLaughlin holds the honor of setting the top speed of the day at 170.627 miles per hour (274 kilometers per hour).