By: Spencer Neff
July 23,2023
For the first time in 42 years, a driver has completed a weekend sweep of an oval doubleheader. Josef Newgarden worked his way up from seventh and won for the sixth time at Iowa Speedway, finishing .705 of a second ahead of pole winner and teammate Will Power to win the Hy-vee One Step 250, the second 1-2 finish in as many days for Team Penske.
Newgarden led 212 of 250 laps, all of which were in the final 220-lap span.
This is Newgarden’ 29th career victory, tying him with Rick Mears. Mears was the last driver to complete a doubleheader sweep on an oval (Atlanta Motor Speedway-1981). Before today, the last driver to sweep a doubleheader weekend was Graham Rahal at Detroit’s Belle Isle in 2017.
After starting 12th, points leader Alex Palou earned his seventh podium finish in 12 races. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver is again the best-finishing Honda and prevented a weekend podium sweep for the Chevrolet-powered cars. Palou’s lead over Newgarden in the standings is now at 80.
Following a late charge toward the front, Arrow McLaren’s Felix Rosenqvist would earn his best finish on an oval in his NTT INDYCAR SERIES career. After earning a third runner-up on an oval, Scott McLaughlin bookends the Top Five for Penske, as Power did yesterday.
The lead changed hands eight times among six drivers with three cautions for 37 laps slowing the average speed to 133.527 mph.
Race Recap
From the start, Ericsson and O’Ward were the big movers in the field. Yesterday’s fourth-place finisher jumped from his tenth starting spot to third while the 2022 Race 2 winner maneuvered his way from 11th to sixth.
On Lap 33, Newgarden sped past his teammates for the race lead. From there, he continued Saturday’s blistering pace. The first caution flag of the afternoon flew on Lap 87 when Agustin Canapino tagged the wall.
After the brief contact in Turn 2, the Juncos Hollinger Racing rookie was unable to continue on, dropping out of the race with a broken toe link. Newgarden continued to lead as the second round of pit stops were completed. On Lap 157, the left-rear tire of Sting Ray Robb fell off between Turns 3 and 4.
Robb’s No. 51 would be disqualified after the incident.
Following the Lap 169 restart, Rossenqvist began to eat into Newgarden’s lead but lapped traffic would negate any margin he made up on the leader.
On Lap 239, Ed Carpenter Racing’s Ryan Hunter-Reay brushed the Turn Four wall, prompting a quick caution. On the restart, Power forced his way around Rosenqvist, with Palou following as the checkered flag flew.
With Robb and A.J. Foyt Racing’s Benjamin Pedersen (105% rule-failure to maintain pace) out, Canapino would be the highest-finishing rookie in 26th. He is 24 points back of Chip Ganassi Racing’s Marcus Armstrong, who’s No. 11 Chip Ganassi Racing entry is occupied by Takuma Sato for the ovals during this season.
After a busy weekend, the series has a weekend off before five races in six weeks to conclude the season.
Up Next
The 12th round of the 2023 NTT INDYCAR SERIES schedule is set for August 6, the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix on the Streets of Nashville.
Practice 1 is set for 4:00-5:15 p.m. on August 4. Practice 2(11:40 a.m.-12:40 p.m.) , qualifying (2:45-4:15 p.m.) and the final warmup (6:25-6:55 p.m.) will be run on Saturday August 5.
The 80-lap race on the 2.1-mile, 11-turn temporary street course is scheduled for a 12:00 p.m. ET broadcast on NBC.
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