NEWGARDEN EXTENDS LEAD WITH IOWA 300 WIN

Josef Newgarden wins rain delayed Iowa 300 – Photo: LAT

Josef Newgarden has continued his domination of the NTT IndyCar Series winning the Iowa 300.

For the fourth time in five years, the Team Penske driver has led the most laps during the race at the smallest track championship. This year leading 245 laps in the rain-delayed race that finished at 2:14 am local time.

The start of the race was delayed four and a half hours due to severe weather, including lightning and heavy rain. The green flag finally waved at 11:45 pm.

Newgarden admitted being sour after qualifying third Friday behind his teammates, polesitter Simon Pagenaud and Power. But he regrouped and refocused, channelling that energy to getting the car ready to race.

“I’m much happier tonight, I can tell you that,” Newgarden said. “I was really a little bit frustrated yesterday just because I knew we had a pole-winning car. We didn’t put it together. It’s competitive.”

The victory allowed Newgarden to extend his series points lead to 29 over Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi, who finished sixth.

Scott Dixon fought back from a lap down to finish second – Photo: LAT

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon finished second for the fifth time this season in the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda after falling a lap off the pace early in the race before smart pit strategy put in back in contention.

“Huge credit to the team,” Dixon said. “They (left) me out pretty long before the last caution. It enabled us to stay on the lead lap, get that lucky yellow, get new tires. (We) had a good restart, were able to (pass) some cars. … We were actually probably going to be happy with a top 14 or 15 (finish), so that was pretty stellar.”

Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports’ James Hinchcliffe, who won last year’s race, finished third in the No. 5 Arrow Honda.

An issue with Will Power’s pit stop saw him penalised – Photo: LAT

Australian Will Power led the race early but tumbled down the order to finish 15th after a mistake coming on to pit road which firstly slowed his pitstop, but also resulted in stop and go penalty for the Team Penske driver.

“I went just a bit wide getting onto pit road and then you get into the marbles. Once you get your tires dirty, it is almost impossible to drive and I really had no chance.” said Power.

“It was an unfortunate end to a pretty strong day for the No. 12 Verizon Chevy team. We jumped out to the lead early before Josef (Newgarden) got around us. He was very strong tonight, but we definitely had a podium tonight before the pit road penalty.”

The NTT IndyCar Series now heads to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington for the Honda Indy 200, July 26-28.

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