Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin won the chaotic opening race of IndyCar’s double-header at Iowa Speedway on Saturday night.
The New Zealander started second and took advantage of quick pitstops to take the lead and hold off the field to win by 0.4814 seconds over Arrows McLaren’s Pato O’Ward at the 0.894-mile oval.
It was McLaughlin’s fifth win of his career, second of the season and first on the oval.
“The EXPEL Chevy was unrealistic,” he said. “What happened with that was the guys in the pits put me ahead there and we just showed our speed.
“This is a big thing, friend. I’ve been working on this for a few years. It takes a lot of hard work.”
Teammate Josef Newgarden’s attempt to score a seventh win at Iowa Speedway failed, rising from 22nd on the grid to third, giving Team Penske two of the three spots on the podium.
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon finished fourth ahead of Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus Veeck.
AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci recovered from an early penalty and finished a lap down in sixth, with Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood seventh.
Alexander Rossi (Arrows McLaren), Marcus Ericsson (Andretti Global) and Marcus Armstrong (Chip Ganassi Racing) completed the rest of the top 10.
Pole-sitter Colton Herta finished 11th after leading 88 of the 250 laps. McLaughlin led the rest.
Colton Herta, Andretti Global w/ Curb-Agajanian Honda, lead Scott McLaughlin, Team Penske Chevrolet at the start.
Photo by: Josh Tones/Motorsport Images
race
Polviner Herta led the field to the green flag, which came to yellow just moments after a multi-car crash in Turn 2, when David Malukas placed his left-side tires on the white line of the apron for a “rookie mistake”. ” Said. , causing their No. 66 Meyer Shank Racing Honda to spin off the track and collect the Juncos Hollinger Racing duo of Agustín Canapino and Romain Grosjean.
Christian Lundgaard also spun into the corner of his own volition, stalled and needed to pull into the pits to return to the track several laps down.
The restart occurred on lap 20 and Herta was forced to hold off a charge from McLaughlin, who attempted a pass on the outside at Turn 1.
Dale Coyne Racing’s Jack Harvey retired after 29 laps due to prolonged and unbearable pain in his neck and back. He required assistance and said he felt “pain in the car” and that he had “turned more laps than I thought I would” in the race.
Connor Daly is on standby and was originally planned to be Harvey’s replacement for tonight’s race, but IndyCar deemed he would need a special session to replace Harvey. This is an option before Sunday’s race.
Ferrucci was given a drive-through penalty due to a delaying call by race control – which ended up being a stop-and-go penalty, leaving him running in fifth place, but was deemed over the line on the restart. As a result he dropped one lap to 22nd place.
A caution was issued on lap 80 for a loose right-front wheel (with “cracked wheelspoke” reported over the radio) on Graham Rahal’s No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda, which forced a pitstop the following lap; McLaughlin managed to hold off Herta, while championship leader Alex Palu, who was running third, stopped on pit road and dropped to 19th.
Ferrucci was able to get his lap back under yellow, now running in 20th place. Meanwhile, Newgarden managed to move up to 10th after starting 22nd.
The race restarted on lap 94, with McLaughlin now having to avoid Herta, who attempted to push to the inside but to no avail.
Meanwhile, Will Power’s No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet was given a drive-through penalty for a pit lane speed violation during an early pit stop under caution, dropping to 20th after starting fifth.
Halfway through the 250-lap race the top five was McLaughlin, followed by Herta, Dixon, O’Ward and Rossi. After some time, Herta’s car started experiencing strong vibrations.
Herta pitted from second on lap 175, but also brought out a caution as Palou, running 11th, spun across the front at the start/finish line before hitting the wall. The Spaniard dismissed the incident as “driver error”.
McLaughlin led the field down pit road on lap 178 and managed to hold off O’Ward and Dixon. An unprecedented pitstop by Newgarden moved him up four places to fourth, ahead of Armstrong in fifth.
The restart on lap 189 gave McLaughlin a clear jump, but it was Armstrong’s position that was challenged by Veeck, who took it and brought Ericsson with him to drop Armstrong two places to seventh.
With 50 laps remaining, McLaughlin had a lead of 0.9 over O’Ward. The caution flag waved once again with 40 laps to go after Linus Lundqvist’s No. 8 CGR Honda pulled up on the apron inside Turn 1. He was pulled back and then pushed into the garage area behind the wall.
McLaughlin led the field to the green flag for the restart with 30 laps to go. Ferrucci moved up from 11th to seventh, moving ahead with an outside pass by Kirkwood and then making an inside move on Armstrong, who was experiencing a mechanical problem as red lights flashed from his rear wing assembly as the He was being careful.
And it was foreshadowed when the caution returned with 28 laps to go after Herta performed a half-spin in Turn 3, saved it and continued to lead.
The next restart was canceled when Ed Carpenter and Pietro Fittipaldi were involved in a crash when Fittipaldi was hit from behind by Power, sending him into a spin and collecting Carpenter. Power was given a stop-and-hold penalty for igniting the incident.
At the final restart with 12 laps to go, Ferrucci made another outside pass on Ericsson on the restart and moved up to sixth. They put pressure on VK but he could not make any move.
Newgarden was able to move up to third after passing Dixon, setting his sights on O’Ward with six laps remaining.
McLaughlin faced no challenge until the end, with O’Ward and Newgarden clearing the remaining podium places.
