MADISON, Ill. — A rain delay saved the victory for Josef Newgarden, who earned his IndyCar-best fifth win of the season Saturday night at World Wide Technology Raceway and again tightened the championship standings.
Newgarden had been bumped from the lead by Team Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin shortly before the race was stopped for rain and lightning with 43 laps remaining. After a delay of just over 2 hours, the race resumed with 36 laps to go, and Newgarden needed only one to get past his “Bus Bro” buddy and hold on for the victory.
“I think this 2 car crew has been very patient with me, I’ve lost my cool a couple of times in closed-doors, out of frustration for us,” Newgarden said. “Sometimes you are wrong time, wrong place, and I feel like that’s been happening a lot this year and it kind of happened again tonight. I felt like we put ourselves in position, it’s time to close, and there was just a barrier that got in front of us.
“Fortunately we were able to get back out there, and I was so happy we were able to finish this race. Scott McLaughlin, you know, he wanted to win, too. I love that about us, we have a great relationship, and he drove me super fair there.”
Although he has more than double the wins of any of his rivals, Newgarden has only been in the middle of the title hunt. He started the race on the short oval outside St. Louis ranked fourth in the standings, 22 points behind leader Will Power, his Penske teammate.
Newgarden is now second in the standings and just three points behind Power with two races remaining. Newgarden won for the third consecutive year at WWTR and fourth time in his career.
“Great effort, great team,” Newgarden radioed his team. “Great, great effort. Perfect car.”
David Malukas, the rookie for Dale Coyne Racing, put on a stunning display of picking his way through traffic after the final restart. He passed McLaughlin on the final lap to disrupt the potential Penske 1-2 finish, and had the race gone one more lap, Malukas might have had a shot at catching Newgarden for the win.
Newgarden in a Chevrolet beat Malukas in a Honda by 0.4708 seconds.
“They said, ‘Do you see them up front?’ and I just see two Penskes and think ‘Oh my God, they’re Penskes,'” the 20-year-old said. “They were tough. They were tough to even get any kind of suck to get close to them.”
With two laps to go, Malukas at last ventured into the top line of the track and found it racy enough to catch McLaughlin. He instantly lamented not trying the…
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