MADISON, Ill. — Josef Newgarden won his fifth race Saturday night at Worldwide Technology Raceway, as he took the lead after a late pit stop and held off teammate Scott McLaughlin on two restarts.
Newgarden suffered a partial spinout on lap 196 of the 260-lap race, but escaped by keeping his No. 2 Chevrolet away from the wall after it turned sideways exiting turn two.
“I think in the moment I was trying a little too hard and made a mistake, but I knew I could have come back and won the race after that so I'm really grateful I didn't crash,” Newgarden said.
Newgarden's accident has drawn comparisons to Danny Sullivan's “spin and win” at the 1985 Indianapolis 500.
“Definitely not as pretty as Danny,” Newgarden said, “because he was doing pirouettes.”
Newgarden dominated at the suburban St. Louis track to win for the fourth time in the last five years, after a streak that was ended last year when he crashed with 49 laps remaining.
Austin Cindric's victory in this year's NASCAR Cup race gave Team Penske's No. 2 car a sweep of victories at the track. The IndyCar race drew a much smaller crowd, with many empty seats in the main grandstand.
Cindric's father, Tim, is the president of Penske and was in the team box during Newgarden's win.
“You can't ignore that final pit stop meant a lot to us,” Newgarden said. “I don't know if we would have been successful had we not done it, but it was certainly a key factor in winning the race.”
Newgarden has 31 career wins and also won the Indianapolis 500 this year.
Defending series champion Alex Palou extended his points lead after Will Power, who had led more laps than anyone else, was eliminated by a late crash.
Power was in fourth place at the restart with nine laps to go when Alexander Rossi hit him from behind, and Power blamed teammate Newgarden for going on and off the gas as they rounded Turn 4 in preparation for the restart.
“I don't know why. I don't know why. He was going backwards, going forward, not going,” said Power, who finished 18th and dropped to fourth in the points race. “I don't understand it.”
Newgarden acknowledged he was “trying to go as slow as possible” but insisted it was within the rules and consistent with previous restarts in his career.
“The last thing I want is for us to have an accident,” Newgarden said, suggesting that race control may have given the green light moments before he actually accelerated. “Believe me, the last thing I want is for Will to get hit.”
Palou entered the race with a 49-point lead over Power and a 59-point lead over Colton Herta with four races remaining. Herta finished fourth but received a penalty for blocking, dropping him to fifth.
A red flag was brought out to clear the track and Newgarden pulled away at the restart and was unchallenged for the remainder of the race.
“Personally, I think we restarted too late, that was probably more of an issue,” McLaughlin said, noting that it could have prevented the team from sweeping the podium. “It's not my job to judge that. In my view, it didn't need to happen.”
Newgarden led until David Markus crashed with 18 laps to go. Markus had finished on the podium the previous two years at the track formerly known as Gateway Motorsports Park.
It was effectively a duel between the pit crews of Newgarden, the only driver on the lead lap at the time, and polesitter McLaughlin.
Last year's race was decided in large part by Scott Dixon's fuel strategy, with Dixon finishing nearly a lap ahead of everyone else.
Pato O'Ward, who entered the race fifth in the points standings, went into the garage after 42 laps with an apparent engine problem. O'Ward had finished runner-up in four of the previous five races at the track and had five consecutive top-five finishes.
“It's been a year of ups and downs, but at this point I just want to win races and there are plenty of points to be gained with four races to go,” said O'Ward, who finished 26th, behind Katherine Legge, who crashed on lap eight.
Marcus Ericsson, who had led for 13 laps while running a similar fuel strategy to Dixon, suddenly slowed from the lead and stayed in the pits for a few seconds for what was scheduled to be his penultimate pit stop on lap 149. However, one lap later Ericsson returned to pit road and his race was over.
“We had the car and the speed to win that race,” Ericsson said, suggesting there was a problem with the hybrid system. “It just didn't work.”
However, Dixon's fuel strategy didn't allow him to win this time, as a late caution for Newgarden's spin came out just after Dixon had pitted and fallen two laps behind, meaning Dixon lost position behind the leaders.
Both Juncos Hollinger Racing cars were involved in a crash on lap 17. Conor Daly, racing his first race since replacing Augustin Canapino in the No. 78 car, spun on the backstretch but sustained less damage than teammates Romain Grosjean and Kyle Kirkwood.
The final road course race of the season is next Sunday in Portland, Ore. Palou won last year and is now the series champion for the second time in the last three years.
