Chicago (AFP) – Mexico’s Pato O’Ward held off American Josef Newgarden after a late restart to win Saturday’s IndyCar Iowa 275, taking his eighth career triumph in his 100th IndyCar start. O’Ward took his first victory of the season by edging six-time Iowa winner Newgarden after 275 laps over the 0.894-mile (1.43km) Iowa Speedway oval in the first of two weekend races at Newton, Iowa.
“This is great. We’ve been waiting for this one all year,” O’Ward said. “It’s crazy. My 50th race was also a win here in Iowa (in 2022) and that’s the only other win I have here, so it’s a cool story.” O’Ward overtook pole-sitter Newgarden on the last pit stop exchange and held him off after a restart with 10 laps remaining.
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“Josef is the master at these races. He rules around here so I knew we had to be spot on,” O’Ward said. Newgarden led 232 laps but settled for second, followed by Penske Racing teammates Will Power of Australia and New Zealand’s Scott McLaughlin, who started 27th and last after a qualifying crash but nearly made the podium.
“We lost track position there and it was game over,” Newgarden said. On lap 153, Newgarden surpassed 2,000 laps led at Iowa, the first time any driver has led that many laps at any IndyCar track. O’Ward had not won since last year at the Milwaukee oval.
“This is awesome and we have another chance tomorrow,” O’Ward said. “It would be really cool to double up.” Spain’s Alex Palou, who won the pole for Sunday’s race, is the campaign points leader with six wins including the Indianapolis 500 but saw his lead shrink from 114 to 105 points, 461-356 over O’Ward.
Pole-sitter Newgarden grabbed the lead at the start and O’Ward charged into second after the first set of pit stops. They stayed that way until Newgarden’s last pit stop with 43 laps remaining. He returned to the track just behind O’Ward, and the Mexican refueled and stayed ahead of Newgarden until US racer Nolan Siegel crashed, halting the race for outer wall repairs.
That set up a restart with 15 laps remaining, but Britain’s Callum brushed the outer wall to force another restart with 10 laps remaining, O’Ward speeding away and staying ahead to the finish.
© 2024 AFP
