The NTT IndyCar Series season resumed Saturday (Aug. 17) at Worldwide Technology Raceway with the start of a five-race dash to the end of the season. By the time the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 came to a close in a race marked by varying pit strategies, it was Josef Newgarden celebrating a win with his two Team Penske teammates, Scott McLaughlin and Will Power disappointed.
It’s Newgarden’s second win of the season and fifth at Gateway. McLaughlin was second ahead of Linus Lundqvist, Colton Herta, and Alex Palou, though Herta was penalized after the flag fell, bumping Palou to fourth.
A 20-lap sprint to the finish was set up when Power and David Malukas engaged in a side-by-side battle. Malukas was by far the biggest loser, spinning to the inside of the track’s second turn after contact between the two, putting McLaughlin and Newgarden in front before Newgarden prevailed on pit road to lead.
The late-race drama was hardly done. On the restart with less than 10 laps to go, multiple cars stacked up, involving drivers including Power and Alexander Rossi, bringing out the red flag. Power failing to finish marked a tough night for series points leaders with him being the second of the top-five drivers entering Saturday failing to finish, joining Pato O’Ward.
McLaughlin paced a frantic opening eight laps under green before the caution came out with Katherine Legge and Ed Carpenter sustaining damage after the two cars made contact heading into turn one. It’d hardly be the only incident of the late afternoon as just a handful of laps later, a multi-car incident damaged the machines of Romain Grosjean, Kyle Kirkwood, and Conor Daly moments after Malukas got around on the outside to lead.
The lead was short-lived, with Power taking advantage of the restart to take the race lead.
O’Ward was among the point leaders taking a hit in the title chase on Saturday. He entered Saturday 71 points out of first place, but that gap widened after mechanical issues forced his car to the garage just before the race’s 50-lap mark.
Kyffin Simpson caused the race’s third caution, sustaining heavy rear-end damage as his car got into the fourth-turn wall, resulting in major damage.
Dixon and Marcus Ericsson, taking advantage of differing pit strategy through the first two cycles, led as the race went past its halfway mark, Ericsson’s fortunes would eventually fade as a result of apparent overheating issues….
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