Josef Newgarden completes the sweep at Iowa Speedway

The NTT IndyCar Series concluded the doubleheader weekend on Sunday afternoon at Iowa Speedway in the Hy-Vee One Step 250.

In race one, Will Power dominated the first half leading 119 laps before losing it to Josef Newgarden. Newgarden dominated the second half leading 129 laps to win the race. Team Penske driver Will Power started the race on the pole with Scott McLaughlin joining him on the front row.

There was a mad scramble on the opening lap of the race. Marcus Ericsson, who started tenth passed seven cars in three laps for third place. Pato O’Ward, who started in eleventh place was up to seventh place. Early in the race, Scott McLaughlin was chasing Will Power for the lead. By lap 29, he challenged Power for the lead but traffic got in the way and he could not make the pass.

While McLaughlin fought Power for the lead, Josef Newgarden closed in on both drivers and powered his way to the lead on lap 31 exiting off Turn 2. Not long after, McLaughlin got by Will Power for second place, followed by David Malukas getting by Power for third place on lap 36.

Josef Newgarden’s car was fast. He was lapping cars every lap. By lap 77, there were only ten cars on the lead lap. Newgarden was chasing Alex Palou to lap him but Agustin Canapino got into the marbles at Turn 3 before brushing the wall that brought out the first caution on lap 87.

On the restart, Will Power, who was in sixth place, passed three cars to take the third position on lap 106. Upfront, Scott McLaughlin challenged Josef Newgarden for the lead but was unsuccessful. Behind them, Marcus Ericsson passed Scott Dixon for fourth place.

Later in the race, teams were in the process of making their third pit stops. Sting Ray Robb’s crew had a big miscommunication when Robb took off with the wheel nut not attached to his left rear tire. On lap 157, his left rear tire came off completely, and many scramble to avoid hitting it. Conor Daly had a close call but luckily avoided hitting the tire.

Just before the caution came out, Will Power passed Scott McLaughlin for second place. The caution came a short time later. The IndyCar officials should have thrown the caution out sooner as it could have ended badly for several drivers. Robb was disqualified from the race.

Josef Newgarden led the field back to green on lap 168. On lap 198, Felix Rosenqvist, who restarted in fourth place, moved up to second place passing Will Power, and was now chasing Josef Newgarden. Rosenqvist got to the back of Newgarden but traffic was a factor and he could not pass Newgarden for the lead. With 13 laps to go, there were only five cars on the lead lap.

Newgarden was cruising to another win but Ryan Hunter-Reay got into the marbles at Turn 4 before brushing the wall which led to the fourth caution. The final restart happened with three laps to go. Will Power passed Felix Rosenqvist for second place on the restart. Newgarden drove away leading 212 laps to sweep the Iowa doubleheader over Will Power by .7050 seconds.

It was Newgarden’s sixth win at Iowa Speedway and the fourth win of the season. He now has 29 career IndyCar wins in his career. By sweeping the Iowa races, Newgarden cut Alex Palou’s championship lead to 80 points.

The rest of the top ten finishers were Alex Palou third, Felix Rosenqvist fourth, Scott McLaughlin fifth, Scott Dixon sixth, Colton Herta seventh, David Malukas eighth, Marcus Ericsson ninth, and Pato O’Ward tenth.

“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. I’m happy now,” said Newgarden. “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.”

“It was a very good restart. We struggled massively in the beginning and my engineer made a really good change taking the wing out (adjustment) help me so much,” said Will Power. “I had a really fast car. We just needed to pit a couple of laps early so we could be P2 to Josef (Newgarden) and I think we might have had a shot at it. It’s the best car I’ve had here and I was really happy with it during the race. It’s pretty tough to beat Josef here but we’ll do it one day.”

“I didn’t expect to be on the podium, honestly,” said Palou. “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.”

The NTT IndyCar Series races the streets of Nashville, Tennessee, for the Big Machine Music Grand Prix on Sunday, August 6^th, at 12 pm on NBC.

Finishing Order: