On Saturday evening, IndyCar ran the first of two races scheduled on the short oval of Iowa Speedway.
The first of the double-header event was another trial run of the series’ new hybrid system, which was being used in race conditions on an oval for the first time.
Unfortunately, the added electrical boost that drivers have at their disposal each lap did not help the overall race product. Drivers were largely relegated to the bottom groove and had a hard time following closely to those in front.
READ MORE: IndyCar Iowa – Full Race 1 Results
After a perfect pit stop by the Team Penske crew that allowed the #3 to leapfrog into the lead, Scott McLaughlin was able to maintain the lead throughout the rest of the event.
The final margin of McLaughlin’s win was just under one half of a second, roughly the same distance of a lead he held throughout the final half of the race.
McLaughlin now has his first oval win, and the Kiwi claims that he can now finally call himself an IndyCar driver after winning on the type of circuit that is rooted in the series’ history.
Pato O’Ward crossed the line in second after hanging around near the front of the field all day. The podium comes hot on the heels of his win at Mid-Ohio, and brings him ever closer to the points lead.
Crossing the line third was Josef Newgarden, who amazingly worked his way up from 22nd to earn his third podium of the season.
He made up nearly all the positions he gained through excellent pit stops by his Team Penske crew, including four positions during a single pit stop sequence under caution, and the rest came on account of a brilliantly handling car.
Scott Dixon and Rinus VeeKay rounded out the top five, with each having a strong race as the night fell over the speedway.
There were multiple cautions during the race, with the first coming out on the very first lap. David Malukas was the initial cause, and he spun while accelerating through Turn 2 for the first time.
The young driver simply lost control of his car, and collected both Juncos Hollinger Racing drivers on his way to the outside barriers.
Romain Grosjean was able to come back out and turn a few laps, but not before his car spent nearly half the race distance in the garage area receiving work from the JHR crew.
Alex Palou was the reason for of one of the other cautions, as he spun his Chip Ganassi Racing Honda down the front stretch towards the end of a stint.
His car touched the wall enough to force him to retire, and the points leader reported after returning to pit lane that he simply lost control and called his error ‘unacceptable.’
Herta had been leading the race from pole for the first third of the race, but lost the race off pit road by just a couple feet and attempted to track down McLaughlin for a good portion of the race.
He lost a lot of positions when he came to pit lane just as the caution flag flew. He worked his way back up to 11th, but was not able to regain even half of the positions he lost on account the unfortunately timed yellow.
Jack Harvey only completed 29 laps before retiring, with a non-racing-related neck injury flaring up ahead of the event weekend.
Conor Daly nearly started the race in Harvey’s place in the #18 Dale Coyne Racing entry, but the series deemed that Daly would have to complete a refresher run first, and there was no time to make such a run. It is possible he will be allowed to be behind the wheel for Sunday’s event.
Drivers and teams only have a few hours to recover, as Sunday’s double-header event gets underway just before noon central time.
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