Josef Newgarden drove to his third win at World Wide Technology Raceway, avoiding the chaos to take the checkered flag late on Saturday night.
The two-time champion kept his cool around the 1.25-mile oval, and was rewarded with a promotion into third in the points standings with just three races remaining.
He did have a couple close calls, including one touching of wheels with his team-mate Simon Pagenaud. The Frenchman was the only one who received some front wing damage, however, allowing Newgarden to continue his fight at the front of the field.
Colton Herta looked like he would be the one to drive to victory lane, but he had a dose of bad luck when one of the car’s half-shafts broke with less than 80 laps to go while he was comfortably leading the field.
The race got off to a slow start, much in the same way the race from Nashville did a few weeks ago. Only four laps of the first 25 were run under the green flag when a slew of accidents put a halt to action as the sun set.
Multiple incidents, and a couple penalties handed down by IndyCar, led to a chaotic, if slow, first segment of the race.
Ed Jones and Graham Rahal were the first two retirements on lap three, when Jones drifted high while being passed for position and caused a collision between the two.
The next big incident was on a restart on lap 65, when Rinus VeeKay misjudged how much room he had in turn one, and ended up taking out both Alex Palou and Scott Dixon.
The incident wasn’t only costly monetarily for Chip Ganassi Racing, but was also costly for both contenders for the points lead. The early retirements, combined with Pato O’Ward’s good run into second means that the young Mexican is now the points leader with three races remaining.
Will Power was able to convert his pole into a podium, finishing just ahead of his rookie team-mate Scott McLaughlin and continuing his resurgence of form.
By the midpoint in the race, the field settled down enough to allow green flag pit stops to take place and some strategy to play out.
Romain Grosjean had trouble on cold tires after his mid-race stop, but was able to gather up the car just in time. He then was stuck a lap down for the remainder of the race, but not before he was able to make many impressive passes for position on track.
By the end of the race, only 15 cars of the original 24 were still running, making for a large list of disappointed drivers leaving the track on Saturday night.
The points are as tight as ever heading into the final west coast swing, with O’Ward leading Alex Palou by only 10 points. Newgarden sits 22 points adrift of the lead, and is firmly in the fight again.
The series heads to Portland Raceway next after a couple weeks off, followed by Laguna Seca and the 2021 finale from the streets of Long Beach.
| # | Driver | Time / Gap | Laps led |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Josef Newgarden | 02:24:10.9404 | 138 |
| 2 | Pato O’Ward | 0.5397 | 1 |
| 3 | Will Power | 5.8660 | 1 |
| 4 | Scott McLaughlin | 6.6620 | – |
| 5 | Sebastien Bourdais | 7.7960 | 18 |
| 6 | Takuma Sato | 8.2618 | – |
| 7 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 14.0259 | – |
| 8 | Simon Pagenaud | 15.5421 | 1 |
| 9 | Marcus Ericsson | 18.7676 | – |
| 10 | Jack Harvey | 20.1207 | – |
| 11 | Conor Daly | 22.1036 | – |
| 12 | Dalton Kellett | 24.5581 | – |
| 13 | Tony Kanaan | 26.8367 | – |
| 14 | Romain Grosjean | -1 laps | – |
| 15 | James Hinchcliffe | -17 laps | – |
| 16 | Felix Rosenqvist | -49 laps | – |
| 17 | Alexander Rossi | -60 laps | – |
| 18 | Colton Herta | -75 laps | 101 |
| 19 | Scott Dixon | -160 laps | – |
| 20 | Alex Palou | -196 laps | – |
| 21 | Rinus VeeKay | -196 laps | – |
| 22 | Ed Carpenter | -206 laps | – |
| 23 | Graham Rahal | -256 laps | – |
| 24 | Ed Jones | -258 laps | – |
