MADISON, Ill., 18 Aug (AP) \u2014 Josef Newgarden won for the fifth time at World Wide Technology Raceway on Saturday night, taking the lead during a late pit stop and holding off teammate Scott McLaughlin on two restarts.<\/p>\n
Newgarden survived a partial spin-out on Lap 196 in the 260-lap race, keeping his No. 2 Chevrolet out of the wall as he turned sideways coming out of Turn 2.<\/p>\n
\u201cI pushed a little hard in that moment, made a mistake and then I was so thankful that we didn\u2019t wreck because I knew we could gather this up and still win this race,\u201d Newgarden said.<\/p>\n
Newgarden\u2019s incident brought comparisons to Danny Sullivan\u2019s \u201cspin and win\u201d in the 1985 Indianapolis 500.<\/p>\n
\u201cCertainly not as beautiful as Danny\u2019s,\u201d Newgarden said. \u201cI mean, he pirouetted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Newgarden has been dominant on the track just outside St. Louis, winning for the fourth time in the past five years. His winning streak ended last year, when he crashed with 49 laps to go.<\/p>\n
It was a sweep for Team Penske\u2019s No. 2 cars at the track, after Austin Cindric won the NASCAR Cup race this year. The crowd was much smaller for the IndyCar race, with empty swaths of seats in the main grandstand.<\/p>\n
Cindric\u2019s father, Tim, is the Penske president and was in the team box for Newgarden\u2019s victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t ignore that final pit stop was a big deal for us,\u201d Newgarden said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to say if it works out if we don\u2019t get that done, but it certainly was a key ingredient to us winning the race.\u201d<\/p>\n
Newgarden has 31 career victories, also winning Indianapolis 500 this year.<\/p>\n
Defending series champion Alex Palou extended his points lead after his closest pursuer, Will Power, was knocked out in a late crash after leading more laps than anyone else.<\/p>\n
Power was in fourth place coming to a restart with nine laps to go when Alexander Rossi rear-ended him. Power faulted teammate Newgarden for getting in and out of the gas while rounding Turn 4 to prepare for the restart.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know why \u2014 I do not know why \u2014 he would just keep backing up and going, not going,\u201d said Power, who ended up 18th and fell to fourth in the points race. \u201cI do not understand it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Newgarden admitted he \u201cwas trying to go as late as I could\u201d but insisted it was within the rules and consistent with other restarts across his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last thing I\u2019m trying to do is cause a wreck,\u201d Newgarden said, suggesting race control may have hit the green light a moment before he actually accelerated. \u201cBelieve me, the last thing I want is for Will to get hit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Palou entered with a 49-point lead over Power and now has a 59-point edge over Colton Herta with four races left. Herta crossed the finish line fourth, but was penalized for blocking and dropped to fifth.<\/p>\n
After a red flag to clean up the track, Newgarden pulled away on the restart and was not challenged the rest of the way.<\/p>\n
\u201cPersonally, I think he restarted very late. That was probably more the problem,\u201d said McLaughlin, noting it potentially cost the team a podium sweep. \u201cIt\u2019s not up to me to judge that. From my perspective, it just didn\u2019t need to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Newgarden hadn\u2019t led until a crash with 18 laps to go by David Malukas, who had finished on the podium the past two years at the track formerly known as Gateway Motorsports Park.<\/p>\n
It was effectively a duel between the pit crews for Newgarden and McLaughlin, the pole-sitter, who were the only drivers on the lead lap at the time.<\/p>\n
Last year\u2019s race was decided largely on fuel strategy by Scott Dixon, who ended up nearly a full lap ahead of everyone else.<\/p>\n
OH NO, O\u2019WARD
\nPato O\u2019Ward, who entered the race in fifth place in the points standings, went to the garage after 42 laps with apparent engine trouble. O\u2019Ward had been the runner-up in four of last five races at the track, with five straight top-five finishes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a year of ups and downs, and I think at this point we just want to be winning races. There\u2019s four to go, so there\u2019s plenty of points on the table,\u201d said O\u2019Ward, who finished in 26th and only ahead of Katherine Legge, who crashed on Lap 8.<\/p>\n
ERICSSON\u2019S EXIT
\nMarcus Ericsson, who led 13 laps while executing a similar fuel strategy to Dixon, suddenly slowed from the lead and then remained in the pits for a few extra seconds in what was intended to be his next-to-last pit stop on Lap 149. But one lap later, Ericsson returned to pit road and his race was over.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had the car and the speed to win that thing,\u201d said Ericsson, who indicated it was an issue with the hybrid system. \u201cIt just doesn\u2019t want to go our way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dixon wasn\u2019t able to win on fuel strategy this time, though. He got caught out of sequence with the leaders when Newgarden\u2019s spin caused the late caution just after Dixon had pitted and was two laps down.<\/p>\n
TEAMATES IN TROUBLE
\nBoth of the Juncos Hollinger Racing cars were involved in a crash on Lap 17. Conor Daly, in his first race since replacing Augustin Canapino in the No. 78 car, got spun around on the backstretch but suffered less damage than teammate Romain Grosjean and Kyle Kirkwood.<\/p>\n
UP NEXT
\nThe final road course race of the season is Sunday, Aug. 25, in Portland, Oregon. Palou won last year to wrap up his second series championship in the past three years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MADISON, Ill., 18 Aug (AP) \u2014 Josef Newgarden won for the fifth time at World Wide Technology Raceway on Saturday night, taking the lead during a late pit stop and holding off teammate Scott McLaughlin on two restarts. Newgarden survived a partial spin-out on Lap 196 in the 260-lap race, keeping his No. 2 Chevrolet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-246625","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246625\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}