Gateway IndyCar: Newgarden wins attritional race, O'Ward assumes points lead

Pouncing on misfortune for long-time leader Colton Herta, who suffered a mechanical issue while leading with relative comfort, Newgarden assumed the lead of the race.

The Tennessee native had previously taken the lead during the pit phase amid the third caution period, produced by Ed Carpenter’s shunt, after leapfrogging Penske team-mate Will Power and Herta out of the pitlane.

But Herta put in a rapid mid-race charge to shuffle up to the lead, clearing Josef Newgarden and Alex Rossi following the middle pitstop phase.

The Andretti driver then began to cement his advantage over the rest of the field, expecting to be able to go longer than Newgarden thanks to his superior fuel mileage.

But a driveshaft failure forced Herta in early, and the issue was evident when his right wheel was unable to deliver traction out of his pitbox, ending his race.

Newgarden was then able to pick up the pieces, and a looming challenge from Rossi for the lead was abruptly ended when the 2016 Indianapolis 500 winner hit the wall with 60 laps to go, having caught the marbles off-line.

After that final caution period, Newgarden had to spend the remaining 50 laps of green flag running holding off O’Ward, which he duly did so after peeling the Arrow McLaren SP driver away from the rest of the pack.

O’Ward’s second-place finish guarantees him the lead of the drivers’ standings with three rounds remaining, as Palou was taken out along with Chip Ganassi Racing team-mate Scott Dixon by Rinus VeeKay.

Patricio O'Ward, Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet

Photo by: Phillip Abbott / Motorsport Images

Immediately after the restart following the fourth caution period, VeeKay clipped the rear of Palou and sent the Spanish racer into Dixon’s car, rendering Palou’s machine too damaged to continue.

Polesitter Power collected a strong third-place finish a week after his first win of the year, as Scott McLaughlin continued to showcase his growing potential on oval courses with fourth place – making it three Penske runners in the top four.

Sebastien Bourdais ran off-strategy for the majority of the race and was rewarded for his and the AJ Foyt team’s bravery with the opportunity to pit under the final caution, after which he claimed fifth at the line.

Takuma Sato was sixth having run to a similar strategy as Bourdais, while Ryan Hunter-Reay was 5.8s off the Japanese driver in seventh.

Simon Pagenaud overcame early contact with team-mate Newgarden to finish eighth; Pagenaud had been clipped by the eventual race winner on the Lap 16 restart, losing a chunk of his front wing and leaving him having to recover from the back of the field.

He finished ahead of Marcus Ericsson, as Jack Harvey completed the top 10 – in a race where only 13 cars crossed the finish line on the lead lap.

Romain Grosjean proved to be a livewire in his first oval race, struggling with pace in the initial stages before a surge at the start of the race’s middle portion brought him into the top 10.

But Grosjean's green-flag pitstop shortly after left him struggling for grip, and a few excursions onto the increasingly dirty high lines on the banking stymied his progress. An unfortunately timed pitstop ahead of the final caution left Grosjean a lap down.

Graham Rahal and Ed Jones’ crash brought out the first caution period on Lap 3, in which Rahal attempted to pass around the outside as Jones was slightly off-line at the apex.

Gateway IndyCar - Race Results

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	260	2:24'10.940
2	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren SP	260	2:24'11.480	0.539
3	Will Power	Team Penske	260	2:24'16.806	5.866
4	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	260	2:24'17.602	6.662
5	Sébastien Bourdais	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	260	2:24'18.736	7.796
6	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	260	2:24'19.202	8.261
7	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	260	2:24'24.966	14.025
8	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	260	2:24'26.482	15.542
9	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	260	2:24'29.708	18.767
10	Jack Harvey	Meyer Shank Racing	260	2:24'31.061	20.120
11	Conor Daly	Carlin	260	2:24'33.044	22.103
12	Dalton Kellett	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	260	2:24'35.498	24.558
13	Tony Kanaan	Chip Ganassi Racing	260	2:24'37.777	26.836
14	Romain Grosjean	Dale Coyne Racing	259	2:24'18.030	1 Lap
15	James Hinchcliffe	Andretti Autosport	243	2:20'36.545	17 Laps
16	Felix Rosenqvist	Arrow McLaren SP	211	2:06'47.954	49 Laps
17	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	200	1:53'02.951	60 Laps
18	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport	185	1:46'15.783	75 Laps
19	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	100	1:53'13.843	160 Laps
20	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	64	43'29.110	196 Laps
21	Rinus van Kalmthout	Ed Carpenter Racing	64	43'29.180	196 Laps
22	Ed Carpenter	Ed Carpenter Racing	54	34'47.886	206 Laps
23	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	4	8'45.490	256 Laps
24	Ed Jones	Dale Coyne Racing	2	57.769	258 Laps
View full results