Josef Newgarden produced a peerless display in Sunday's Iowa Corn 300 to pick up his first victory of the 2016 IndyCar Series season.
Newgarden arrived in Iowa still nursing a broken clavicle and fingers sustained in his terrifying crash at Texas last month, having also missed the pre-race test in order to aid his recovery.
The Ed Carpenter Racing driver qualified second on Saturday behind series leader Simon Pagenaud, but swept into the lead of the race by taking the high line in a bold move.
Newgarden soon forged a sizeable lead over Pagenaud, lapping every other car in the field before a full course yellow called after Ryan Hunter-Reay's engine failure brought the Penske driver back into contention.
Newgarden kept his cool, gradually opening up a lead before a second yellow flag period neutralised the race as Juan Pablo Montoya hit trouble.
This allowed Pagenaud to close along with Will Power, Helio Castroneves and Scott Dixon, the trio chasing Newgarden heading into the final third of the race.
Castroneves fell out of contention after taking his final stop early and getting caught out by a third caution, while Dixon won the race off pit road to be Newgarden's closest competitor heading into the final stint of the race.
Newgarden remained cool, forcing Dixon to take a high line on the restart that slowly caused the Chip Ganassi Racing driver to drop back, even when the leader hit traffic.
With 300 laps in the book, Newgarden crossed the line to record his first oval victory in IndyCar and open his account for the 2016 season, completing a remarkable comeback from his crash in Texas.
Will Power passed both Pagenaud and Dixon late on to secure second place and continue his streak of podium finishes. Dixon crossed the line third ahead of Pagenaud, taking a small chunk out of the Frenchman's points lead in the process.
Mikhail Aleshin enjoyed a solid run to fifth ahead of Alexander Rossi, who was the lead Andretti Autosport driver in P6 as the team's six-year winning streak at Iowa came to an end.
Tony Kanaan fought back to seventh after being caught out by the final caution, while a slow final stop left Sebastien Bourdais to finish eighth. James Hinchcliffe and Charlie Kimball rounded out the top 10 at Iowa.
