Josef Newgarden won the second IndyCar race at Gateway and the second race in a week to finish under a caution period.
The Penske driver withstood fierce pressure from McLaren SP’s Patricio O’Ward. The threat from behind was building when Takuma Sato touched the wall, prompting a caution period.With just four laps of the two-kilometre oval remaining, there wasn’t time to restart the race. As at the Indianapolis 500 last week, the chequered flag fell under caution.
O’Ward was therefore denied victory again as McLaren SP continued to threaten to score their breakthrough victory in the series. They have now led laps in each of the last six races.
Newgarden ran second behind pole sitter Sato in the opening stages, and was passed by team mate Will Power on lap 36 of 200. O’Ward moved ahead of him through the pit stops but Newgarden regained that place when he came in for the final time, pipping his rival to the line at the pit lane exit.
Power led prior to the final round of stops but was unhappy after losing time in traffic, following Ed Carpenter into the pit lane. That dropped him to third place, where he finished.
Felix Rosenqvist came in seventh followed by Conor Daly. Sato, who did not pit after hitting the wall, brought his damaged car home ninth. A long first stint dropped him into traffic and out of contention for victory. Santino Ferrucci completed the top 10, losing time in the pits at his final stop.
The start of the race was delayed after a service vehicle dropped a substantial amount of oil on the surface, which had to be cleaned up.
This article will be updated.
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Retired (@jeff1s)
31st August 2020, 9:55
Sadly the race finished under caution, as it was all going to develop wild battles to the flag with backmarkers right in the middle of the front pack.
The field this year is just impressive, these youngsters O’Ward (what a season), Veekay, Herta they’re driving just as good as the almighty Dixon and Sato. Newgarden’s right in the mix aswell.
Bill
31st August 2020, 18:53
Crazy how good some of the new “kids” are in IndyCar. Six guys 19 – 23. Impressive. Even more amazing though is how unbelievably good Dixon has been forever, and how strong and BRAVE Sato is. It does appear that the Aeroscreen is making it harder to follow and pass on ovals. Looking forward to the Mid Ohio road course mid September.
Don
31st August 2020, 20:48
It was great to see fans back at the track. I thought Sundays crowd was surprisingly large considering limited ticket sales.
We need the contenders to get going or Dixon is going to run away with the championship.
skydiverian (@skydiverian)
1st September 2020, 0:06
@keithcollantine the headline implies that you don’t like races finishing under yellow. Personally I prefer that they run to the scheduled distance and no further – unlike ball sports where “overtime” is a possibility without inherent unfairness, that’s not the case in racing where you need to fuel the car to the end of a race. We’d probably have had a different winner of the Indy 500 if it had run to any kind of overtime and it’s the reason that I have no problem with races ending under yelloe if necessary.