Josef Newgarden powered his way past pole winner Will Power to claim victory in the first of two IndyCar races at Iowa Speedway this weekend.
By the end of the 250-lap race Newgarden was on the point of putting Power a lap down. He clinched his third win of the 2023 season after a near-perfect day for the entire Penske operation. The Indianapolis 500 winner moves within 98 points of championship leader Alex Palou who finished – by his standards – a lowly eighth.The first 150 laps were dominated by the Penske trio of Power, Newgarden, and Scott McLaughlin. From pole, Power negotiated lapped traffic perfectly as he led 119 of the first 121 laps. McLaughlin ran second behind him until he was overtaken by Newgarden, and after gaining second place, Newgarden closed in on Power and took the lead on lap 121.
Even after Power brushed the wall out of turn four and dropped from second to fourth, Newgarden continued the Penske stranglehold at the front of the field. Only six cars remained on the lead lap by the time the first caution flag of the race was shown on lap 151, after Graham Rahal crashed out of turn four and broke his right-front suspension.
It was the only caution period in an otherwise frantic race dominated by the sheer pace of the three Penske Dallara-Chevrolets. Newgarden and Power led 248 of the race’s 250 laps between them, as Newgarden retained the lead after his final pit stop and drove on to the victory by 3.3 seconds.
The win was Newgarden’s fifth at Iowa, extending his personal record at the seven-eighths mile oval. He’ll aim to complete the weekend sweep that eluded him last year when he starts seventh for the second Iowa 250 tomorrow.
McLaughlin closed to within a second of Newgarden late but couldn’t make his way through the traffic quickly enough to stay with his team mate, and finished second – his best finish since he won at Barber Motorsports Park. Pato O’Ward finished third, making it a clean sweep for Chevrolet engines on the podium.
Marcus Ericsson was fourth, followed by Power, the last driver on the lead lap. Scott Dixon fell off the lead lap in the middle stages of the race, but aided by the wave-around given to lapped cars during the caution period, he recovered to finish sixth.
Kyle Kirkwood drove from 17th on the grid to finish seventh ahead of Palou. Takuma Sato, in the third start of his ovals-only season for Ganassi, took ninth. Alexander Rossi completed the top ten after climbing from 20th on the grid.
Palou’s lead in the championship was trimmed to just 98 points heading into tomorrow’s race, while Newgarden moves back into second in the standings. Though Newgarden will start that race seventh while his team mates share the front row again, if he can repeat today’s performance he stands an excellent chance of scoring back-to-back wins.
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Iowa 250 race results
| Position | Car | Driver | Team | Engine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | Josef Newgarden | Penske | Chevrolet |
| 2 | 3 | Scott McLaughlin | Penske | Chevrolet |
| 3 | 5 | Pato O’Ward | McLaren | Chevrolet |
| 4 | 8 | Marcus Ericsson | Ganassi | Honda |
| 5 | 12 | Will Power | Penske | Chevrolet |
| 6 | 9 | Scott Dixon | Ganassi | Honda |
| 7 | 27 | Kyle Kirkwood | Andretti | Honda |
| 8 | 10 | Alex Palou | Ganassi | Honda |
| 9 | 11 | Takuma Sato | Ganassi | Honda |
| 10 | 7 | Alexander Rossi | McLaren | Chevrolet |
| 11 | 28 | Romain Grosjean | Andretti | Honda |
| 12 | 18 | David Malukas | Coyne/HMD | Honda |
| 13 | 6 | Felix Rosenqvist | McLaren | Chevrolet |
| 14 | 06 | Helio Castroneves | Meyer Shank | Honda |
| 15 | 77 | Callum Ilott | Juncos Hollinger | Chevrolet |
| 16 | 78 | Agustin Canapino | Juncos Hollinger | Chevrolet |
| 17 | 21 | Rinus VeeKay | Carpenter | Chevrolet |
| 18 | 30 | Jack Harvey | RLL | Honda |
| 19 | 26 | Colton Herta | Andretti | Honda |
| 20 | 45 | Christian Lundgaard | RLL | Honda |
| 21 | 60 | Conor Daly | Meyer Shank | Honda |
| 22 | 29 | Devlin DeFrancesco | Andretti | Honda |
| 23 | 20 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Carpenter | Chevrolet |
| 24 | 33 | Ed Carpenter | Carpenter | Chevrolet |
| 25 | 51 | Sting Ray Robb | Coyne/RWR | Honda |
| 26 | 14 | Santino Ferrucci | Foyt | Chevrolet |
| 27 | 55 | Benjamin Pedersen | Foyt | Chevrolet |
| 28 | 15 | Graham Rahal | RLL | Honda |
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Terrion (@terrion)
23rd July 2023, 5:32
Every Iowan race headline be like:
asd
23rd July 2023, 10:45
It was a nice battle between Power, McLaughlin and Newgarden.
MichaelN
23rd July 2023, 13:28
Good result for Kirkwood after a bunch of frustrating races for him.
Indycar seems too fast for a track like this, and while it does have some unique challenges, it doesn’t make for the most exciting racing.
Prashanth Ramadas
24th July 2023, 1:33
It’s nothing wrong to prove your intentions wrong in some instances.