Barber IndyCar: Newgarden withstands late Rahal charge to win
Josef Newgarden survived a late charge from Graham Rahal to take his first career IndyCar win in a thrilling race at Barber
Newgarden had announced himself as an early contender by jumping from his starting position of fifth to third in the first corner.
He moved into the lead for the first time by beating Helio Castroneves off pit road after the first round of stops, and later reclaimed the position by doing the same thing to Scott Dixon at the beginning of the final stint.
At that point the CFH driver had amassed a comfortable lead, but he and Dixon were also having to carefully watch their fuel and tyres over their final stint.
That created an opportunity for Rahal, who had gone off strategy earlier in the race when he elected not to pit during the second full-course caution.
Rahal's gamble paid off when he made his final stop eight laps later than the leaders, and rejoined in sixth, with more fuel and fresher tyres than everyone ahead of him.
He quickly picked off Will Power, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Castroneves to get himself on the podium, but was still more than 10 seconds behind Dixon and almost 18s off Newgarden with just eight laps to run.
Those gaps were rapidly slashed: two laps before the end he'd caught Dixon; one lap later he passed him for second. He crossed the line just 2.2s down on Newgarden.
"I was so nervous [over the final laps]," said Newgarden. "And I'm not usually nervous in races.
"It has been such a long time coming. I knew one of these days it was going to happen with this team, they're so solid ... I want to thank everyone who helped make me an IndyCar driver."
Dixon was left to settle for third.
"Fuel was not a problem today," said the Ganassi driver, who won at Long Beach last week. "We just couldn't hold on to the tyres."
Power was fourth, which was pretty remarkable after the reigning champion was issued a drive-through for clouting into the unsighted Takuma Sato as he exited the pits after his first stop.
Equally impressive was Hunter-Reay, who went off-strategy early on in an attempt to compensate for a poor qualifying position, was later run off the track by Sage Karam, and still managed to climb back to fifth.
If there was a loser from the race, it was Castroneves.
The Brazilian was sitting in fourth and stood to move into the championship lead when what he described as a "miscommunication" resulted in his running out of fuel on the final lap.
As a result, team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya, who had an awful afternoon due to a combination of a bad grid spot and two broken front wings, still manages to go to the next race at the IMS road course with a slender points advantage.
RESULTS - 90 LAPS:
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Josef Newgarden | CFH Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1h55m53.0630s |
2 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan | Dallara/Honda | 2.2061s |
3 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 4.8371s |
4 | Will Power | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 19.4903s |
5 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 22.0663s |
6 | Carlos Munoz | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 24.0595s |
7 | James Hinchcliffe | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | Dallara/Honda | 24.6529s |
8 | Sebastien Bourdais | KVSH Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 25.4534s |
9 | Simon Pagenaud | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 30.6139s |
10 | Marco Andretti | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 33.4777s |
11 | Luca Filippi | CFH Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 34.1607s |
12 | Charlie Kimball | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 34.6792s |
13 | Tony Kanaan | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 35.3334s |
14 | Juan Pablo Montoya | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 36.6361s |
15 | Helio Castroneves | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 39.4194s |
16 | Gabby Chaves | Bryan Herta Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 45.8965s |
17 | Takuma Sato | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Dallara/Honda | 50.8442s |
18 | Sage Karam | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 55.1372s |
19 | Stefano Coletti | KV Racing Technology | Dallara/Chevrolet | 55.4160s |
20 | Rodolfo Gonzalez | Dale Coyne Racing | Dallara/Honda | 1m07.9855s |
21 | Jack Hawksworth | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Dallara/Honda | 1m13.1828s |
22 | James Jakes | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | Dallara/Honda | 1 Lap |
23 | Francesco Dracone | Dale Coyne Racing | Dallara/Honda | 1 Lap |
DRIVERS' CHAMPIONSHIP:
Pos | Driver | Points |
---|---|---|
1 | Juan Pablo Montoya | 136 |
2 | Helio Castroneves | 133 |
3 | Scott Dixon | 123 |
4 | Josef Newgarden | 119 |
5 | Will Power | 112 |
6 | James Hinchcliffe | 110 |
7 | Tony Kanaan | 110 |
8 | Graham Rahal | 103 |
9 | Simon Pagenaud | 96 |
10 | Sebastien Bourdais | 91 |
11 | Carlos Munoz | 84 |
12 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 81 |
13 | Marco Andretti | 81 |
14 | Luca Filippi | 69 |
15 | James Jakes | 62 |
16 | Charlie Kimball | 58 |
17 | Jack Hawksworth | 57 |
18 | Gabby Chaves | 56 |
19 | Takuma Sato | 50 |
20 | Simona de Silvestro | 44 |
21 | Stefano Coletti | 41 |
22 | Sage Karam | 35 |
23 | Francesco Dracone | 30 |
24 | Sebastian Saavedra | 20 |
25 | Carlos Huertas | 20 |
26 | Conor Daly | 13 |
27 | Rodolfo Gonzalez | 10 |
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