MADISON, Ill. – Josef Newgarden considered teammates Scott McLaughlin one of his best friends, his “Bus Bro” at the racetrack, and the driver he knows will race him clean with victory on the track.
That made it a lot easier for Newgarden to chase McLaughlin in his restart after rain delays to regain the lead at the Global Tech Track, take his fifth IndyCar win, and tighten the championship race.
“For Scott, it was a bit of a bittersweet because we just had a great friendship,” Newgarden said. “He’s a formidable opponent. I rank Scott as one of the best drivers in the world, not just here, but in the world. He’s top class, very hard to beat. We I’m really cool, he’s a great teammate, a hard worker and it’s not the easiest friendship to have because at the end of the day we’re competitive.
“He wants to win the race, and I want to win the race. But in the end we have a great working relationship, and nights like these are great. If we fight together, things are going well and we want to see that quite often.”
In the midst of the championship picture despite having more than double victories over any opponent, Newgarden is currently the focus of the title hunt.
He started the race on the short oval outside St. Louis with 4th place on the rankings, 22 points behind the leader Spirit, his Penske teammate. Newgarden is currently second in the rankings and is only 3 points behind Power with two remaining races. Newgarden won the title for the third year in a row at WWTR and the fourth in his career.
The rain of delay saved the race for Newgarden.
McLaughlin led him on the pit strategy just before the race was halted by rain and lightning with 43 laps remaining. After just over 2 hours, the race resumed with 36 laps and Newgarden only needed one person to overtake his friend to get through the lap to win.
“Great effort, great team,” Newgarden radioed his team. “Awesome, great effort. Perfect car.”
David Malukas, Dale Coyne Racing’s rookie, put on a stunning performance surging through traffic after the final reboot. He overtook McLaughlin on the final lap to save Penske’s potential 1-2 finish, and as the race went one more lap, Malukas could have had a shot to catch Newgarden for the win.
Newgarden in the Chevrolet beat Malukas in the Honda in 0.4708 seconds.
“They said ‘Do you see them up ahead? and I just saw two Penskes and thought, ‘Oh my gosh, they’re Penskes,’ the 20-year-old said. “They’re tough. They’re very tough to get any kind of suction to get close to them.”
With two laps to go, Malukas finally ventured into the top line of the track and found it brave enough to catch up with McLaughlin. He immediately lamented not having tried the lane sooner.
“If I had done it a little earlier, maybe we could have done something for Newgarden,” Malukas said. “It’s a win for me, a win for the whole team. We’ve started this season a bit difficult and since May we’ve been getting better and better. We know that a podium. was in sight.”
McLaughlin finished third for Penske and followed by Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren SP in fourth place. The race started with seven riders 59 points apart on the leaderboard; it ended with seven riders 58 points apart – O’Ward won one point.
Takuma Sato finished fifth for Coyne and followed by Power, who had a near-perfect first half of the race and was routing on the field until a divisive Penske strategy pushed him back into the traffic.
It was a disappointing race for title contenders from Chip Ganassi Racing; all three lost their positions on the chart. Marcus Ericsson finished saturday, Scott Dixon 8th place and defending champion IndyCar Alex Palou is the ninth. Dixon dropped from second in the rankings, six points, to third in points and 14 points.
Even so, there is only a 17-point gap between the top 4 on the leaderboard from Power to Ericsson in one of the most exciting title races in years. At the Gateway, the total of 520 passes was the most since 2017 when IndyCar returned to the track, and that record of 179 passes was for placement.
WOMEN’S BATTLE
Matthew Brabham briefly halted Linus Lundqvist’s run in the Indy Lights by winning the junior series race earlier on Saturday. It was driver Andretti Autosport’s second win of the season, grandson of the three-time formula one world champion. Jack Brabham.
Lundqvist, who has won 5/10 races this season, finished 2nd and Brabham ceded the title to him. Victory over Brabham put him down to second place in the standings, more than 100 points ahead of Lundqvist with three races remaining.
“I’m just focused on winning individual races. Anything can happen, but I really doubt it,” Brabham said.
Lundqvist, meanwhile, has slowed down negotiations over promotion to IndyCar next season. He drives for an affiliated team of Dale Coyne Racing, which is in contract negotiations about bringing Takuma Sato back for another year.
“I’m calling people. Unfortunately, not the other way around,” says Lundqvist, adding that his success rate is “about 50%” when calling a group.
“I only called them 10 times. Sometimes they would pick up the phone,” he said.
Meanwhile, defending NASCAR Mexican champion Salvador de Alba won the Indy Pro 2000 race from pole. It was the second win of de Alba’s career, but he inherited his first win last month at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway when his teammate failed in the post-race test.
NEXT
IndyCar races on September 24 on the track in Portland. Palou won from pole last year to regain the lead in IndyCar and eventually claim his first championship.
