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IndyCar Gateway: Newgarden wins as Malukas stars after rain delay

Josef Newgarden has won the final oval race of the IndyCar season in stunning fashion at Gateway following a lengthy rain delay, as rookie David Malukas grabbed second from Scott McLaughlin for his maiden podium.

Race winner Josef Newgarden, Team Penske Chevrolet

Race winner Josef Newgarden, Team Penske Chevrolet

Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images

After a 2 hour and 15 minutes rain delay, IndyCar delivered a thrilling climax at Gateway with Newgarden making a bold pass for the lead on McLaughlin to charge to victory, as David Malukas also demoted the Kiwi to take second late on.

After making his way up the order early on, Newgarden was firmly in the victory fight with McLaughlin before rain caused a mid-race red flag, with the pitstop cycle putting the Kiwi into the lead at the time of the stoppage.

When the race recommenced with McLaughlin and Newgarden out front, despite a scare for the latter when his was among a few cars that stalled at the exit of pitlane, the pair had a three-lapped-car buffer back to the chasing pack of Pato O’Ward, Will Power, Malukas and Takuma Sato.

McLaughlin retained the lead at the start with 36 laps to go, but Newgarden dived inside at Turn 3 to snatch back the lead, while further back Malukas used his fresh tyres to demote Power to fifth. Sato did the same to Power next time by, but then cut in front of Power on the straight and made contact with the Penske car.

That dropped Power into the clutches of Ericsson, a prime title rival, and Power was having to save fuel, just like O’Ward who fell victim to Malukas’s charge on lap 245.

Malukas rapidly dispensed of Herta’s lapped machine and on lap 253 he was under half a second behind McLaughlin, who was getting held up by Newgarden who was trying not to catch up to the back of Kirkwood.

David Malukas, Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Honda

David Malukas, Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Honda

Photo by: Phillip Abbott / Motorsport Images

At the start of the last lap, McLaughlin moved to the inside to protect his position, but Malukas flicked his car to the outside, leant on his rubber hard on the higher line and took more momentum to clinch a brilliant second place, just 0.47s behind Newgarden.

Newgarden thus scored his fifth win of the year, to move to just three points behind Power in the championship, with just two rounds at Portland and Laguna Seca to go.

Behind the podium trio, O’Ward staved off Sato to take fourth at the chequered flag, and Power also held off Ericsson to take a damage-limiting sixth place.

Fellow IndyCar title contenders Scott Dixon and Alex Palou both lost ground in the points with eighth and ninth respectively, as Graham Rahal took 10th place ahead of Herta.

IndyCar Gateway - Race Results

Cla Driver Team Laps Time Gap Interval
1 United States Josef Newgarden United States Team Penske 260 2:10'40.1827    
2 United States David Malukas United States Dale Coyne Racing 260 2:10'40.6535 0.4708 0.4708
3 New Zealand Scott McLaughlin United States Team Penske 260 2:10'41.7081 1.5254 1.0546
4 Mexico Patricio O'Ward United States Arrow McLaren SP 260 2:10'45.3906 5.2079 3.6825
5 Japan Takuma Sato United States Dale Coyne Racing 260 2:10'45.7192 5.5365 0.3286
6 Australia Will Power United States Team Penske 260 2:10'52.0489 11.8662 6.3297
7 Sweden Marcus Ericsson United States Chip Ganassi Racing 260 2:10'52.8016 12.6189 0.7527
8 New Zealand Scott Dixon United States Chip Ganassi Racing 260 2:10'56.0679 15.8852 3.2663
9 Spain Alex Palou United States Chip Ganassi Racing 260 2:11'02.0066 21.8239 5.9387
10 United States Graham Rahal United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 260 2:11'06.2832 26.1005 4.2766
11 United States Colton Herta United States Andretti Autosport 259 2:10'51.6375 1 Lap 1 Lap
12 Canada Devlin DeFrancesco United States Andretti Autosport 259 2:10'54.6226 1 Lap 2.9851
13 France Romain Grosjean United States Andretti Autosport 259 2:10'55.2237 1 Lap 0.6011
14 United States Jimmie Johnson United States Chip Ganassi Racing 259 2:11'03.3691 1 Lap 8.1454
15 Brazil Helio Castroneves United States Meyer Shank Racing 259 2:11'05.4638 1 Lap 2.0947
16 Sweden Felix Rosenqvist United States Arrow McLaren SP 259 2:11'07.2344 1 Lap 1.7706
17 United States Kyle Kirkwood United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 258 2:10'44.1225 2 Laps 1 Lap
18 Canada Dalton Kellett United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 258 2:11'01.3088 2 Laps 17.1863
19 Denmark Christian Lundgaard United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 258 2:11'06.7998 2 Laps 5.4910
20 France Simon Pagenaud United States Meyer Shank Racing 257 2:10'53.5973 3 Laps 1 Lap
21 United Kingdom Callum Ilott United States Juncos Hollinger Racing 257 2:11'02.4121 3 Laps 8.8148
22 United States Ed Carpenter United States Ed Carpenter Racing 256 2:10'50.7242 4 Laps 1 Lap
23 United States Conor Daly United States Ed Carpenter Racing 244 2:07'19.4609 16 Laps 12 Laps
24 United Kingdom Jack Harvey United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 239 2:08'19.9810 21 Laps 5 Laps
25 United States Alexander Rossi United States Andretti Autosport 226 2:04'35.4801 34 Laps 13 Laps
26 Netherlands Rinus van Kalmthout United States Ed Carpenter Racing 53 25'00.0461 207 Laps 173 Laps
 

 

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