Josef Newgarden scores his third victory of the season at Road America

On Sunday afternoon at Road America, the NTT IndyCar Series took on the 14-turn, 4.048-mile track that was filled with lots of action.

Andretti Autosport driver Alexander Rossi started the race on the pole, with Team Penske driver Josef Newgarden starting second.

On the opening lap, Jimmie Johnson was forced off the track by Tatiana Calderon, who was trying not to hit her teammate, Kyle Kirkwood. Johnson’s engine died, leading to the first caution on the first lap. His car was restarted, and he stayed in the race, finishing in 24^th place, one lap down.

On the restart, Marcus Ericsson was aggressive in getting around his teammate, Alex Palou, at turn five, and the two made contact with Ericsson’s right rear hitting Palou’s left front, breaking the suspension. In a separate incident, Rinus VeeKay went off the track and hit a couple of signs. The second caution came out on the fourth lap for Palou.

Once the track crews got Palou off, the race resumed on the eighth lap. The restart lasted two laps when rookie Devlin DeFrancesco tried to get around Will Power. Will Power slowed down approaching turn five when DeFrancesco flat out hit Will Power with the right front, turning Power and sending him into the wall.

The third caution was out a short time later. Luckily, Power’s car only lost the front wing, and his crew were able to put a new one on. They checked the car for any other damages, and his car was good to go back out on the track. Meanwhile, DeFrancesco was penalized for the contact and had to do a stop-and-go penalty.

The three cautions were great for the rest of the field as they did not have to pit early and were able to get a few more laps in before they made their first scheduled stops starting on lap 15, beginning with the leader, Alexander Rossi. Marcus Ericsson and Takuma Sato led some laps before they went to pit road, and Felix Rosenqvist took the lead with Newgarden second and Rossi third.

Alexander Rossi did not get the lead back until lap 28, when both Rosenqvist and Newgarden made pit stops. Rossi went to pit road a lap later.

Moving ahead to the action, Teams began to make their final stops around lap 40. Both Rossi and Newgarden went on lap 41. During pit stops, Newgarden’s crew quickly got him in and out in front of Rossi. Marcus Ericsson was the leader and made his last stop a lap later.

Six laps later, Pato O’Ward’s engine died at turn 12, and the fourth caution came out. Josef Newgarden had a four-second lead at the time the caution came out. This was Rossi’s best chance to get back the lead. Then, just as the drivers were taking the green flag, the caution came right back out after Helio Castroneves got loose and went around at turn 14.

The caution did not last long, and the race went back to green with four laps to go. Josef Newgarden took off, and Alexander Rossi lost the second position to Marcus Ericsson. Josef Newgarden went on to win his third race of the season over Marcus Ericsson by 3.3710-seconds. The win meant that Newgarden won a million dollars for being the first driver to win on a road, street, and oval tracks this season.

The rest of the top ten finishers were Alexander Rossi third, Romain Grosjean fourth, Colton Herta fifth, Felix Rosenqvist sixth, Scott McLaughlin seventh, Graham Rahal eighth, Scott Dixon ninth, and Christian Lundgaard tenth. There were ten lead changes and five cautions for nine laps. Road America proves time and time again why it is the best road course track in the world. The action was great, and the overall race was fun.

“I was just trying to stay focused on what I had to do. Just an unbelievable job by everyone at Team Penske,” said Josef Newgarden. “Great to have PPG on board with us. We’ve had a lot of success in this car.”

“First of all, I’m really sorry,” said Marcus Ericsson after contact with Alex Palou. “You never want to have contact with a teammate. From my point of view, the door was open, and I was already side by side. If you see a gap, you go for it. It’s important at the beginning of the race to get track position. It was a really good race, and we had a really strong weekend. Super happy with P2.” Ericsson leaves the races as the new points leader.

“I tried to be really aggressive on that last restart, and it cost us,” said Alexander Rossi. “But we were trying to win the race. But ultimately, a good day. Josef certainly had a little better base than us, and it took us until the last stint to dial in the balance of the car. We were coming back on him pretty quickly. I don’t think we could have beat him, but all in all, it was a good day.”

The NTT IndyCar Series heads to Mid-Ohio on Sunday, July 3^rd, at noon on NBC. Tickets for the race can be purchased thanks to our friends at StubHub.

Finishing Order: