Here's how Scott McLaughlin grabbed first IndyCar oval win at Iowa
Nathan Brown
NEWTON, Iowa – By virtue of a pass on pitlane during a race where on-track passes were a premium, Scott McLaughlin jumped back into the fringe of the series championship picture with his first IndyCar oval victory Saturday night at Iowa Speedway.
“I wasn’t going to call myself an ‘IndyCar driver’ until I won on an oval, so I’m going to call myself an ‘IndyCar driver’ now if you don’t mind,” McLaughlin said on the post-race broadcast. “Hopefully the flood gates open now. We bloody need them to, cause we’re a ways behind in the championship.”
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Here’s how he did it:
Precise pitstop gives Scott McLaughlin lead, win
At a newly, but partially, repaved Iowa Speedway — a track owned by NASCAR where the Cup series visited for the first time last month — and with Firestone struggling to deliver a tire compound that degraded like normal, IndyCar’s first race of a doubleheader under the lights Saturday night was nowhere near as race-y as its recent reputation.
Only two drivers — front-row starters McLaughlin and polesitter Colton Herta — led laps during Saturday’s race that featured half-a-dozen cautions that featured points leader and defending champion Alex Palou, as well as Will Power, who sat second in points entering the doubleheader weekend.
During the second caution of the race, which flew as Graham Rahal slowed on-track for a cracked wheel, virtually the entire field still racing pitted, and it was there Team Penske’s No. 3 crew performed the moment of the race, getting him out of the box a fraction of a second faster than Herta. McLaughlin beat the race’s polesitter to pit exit by a foot or two for a lead of the race he wouldn’t surrender.
“The car was unreal, but what got it done was the pitstops. The team got me out in front of Herta, and then we showed our pace,” McLaughlin said.
Alex Palou crash derails Colton Herta's chances
Though Herta had drifted back more than 3 seconds behind the race leader past the halfway point, the Andretti Global driver’s day would get worse, as his team called him in on Lap 174 for his second and final stop of the race. As is always the case on ovals, Herta and the No. 26 squad ran the risk of falling a lap down if a caution fell before the rest of the lead pack pitted.
And just has his crew was affixing new tires to his car, the NBC Sports cameras showed Palou spinning in the background after the Chip Ganassi Racing driver lost it late coming out of Turn 4.
Herta would get his lap back, but only after the field pitted under yellow, and he took the restart 17th. He’d finish 11th.
Josef Newgarden climbs from 22nd to podium
During that final round of stops, Josef Newgarden, the six-time Iowa Speedway race-winner, completed his miraculous run from the back after struggling in qualifying and starting 22nd. The two-time defending Indy 500 winner made up eight spots in two turns on the race start and had worked his way up to eighth by the time of Palou’s caution. Newgarden would leapfrog four more spots to fourth in that pit sequence, and over the final 50 laps, the No. 2 Chevy driver picked off Scott Dixon to work his way onto the podium.
“That was mostly the team — I think 80% just my team putting me up front. We had a great car, but we just can’t start that far back. Where we started just kills you,” Newgarden said. “I think tonight, we ran out of time and racetrack. It was just unfortunate that we didn’t have the real estate we needed (on-track) like we’ve had in the past.
“I took a little calculated risk tonight (on restarts), and (this track) is very temperamental. You just have to guess how much you can get away with it. But not a bad night. Normally I’m pretty disappointed with anything other than first-place, but the team did amazing.”
Like Alex Palou, Will Power suffers tough points day
For his final test, McLaughlin held off eventual runner-up Pato O’Ward during the race’s final restart on Lap 238, after his Team Penske teammate Power ran into the back of Pietro Fittipaldi during a brief restart on Lap 229. Fittipaldi then spun and collected Ed Carpenter as well. On what had already been a tough day for the driver running second in points entering the race, Power was given a stop-and-hold penalty by race control for avoidable contact and finished 18th.
Championship picture shifts with Sunday race looming
Behind McLaughlin, O’Ward and Newgarden on the podium, Dixon (fourth), Rinus VeeKay (fifth), Santino Ferrucci (sixth), Kyle Kirkwood (seventh), Alexander Rossi (eighth), Marcus Ericsson (ninth) and Marcus Armstrong (10th) rounded out the top-10.
With Palou’s crash and Power’s finish outside the top-15, the championship race got a significant shake-up. Entering the weekend down 70 points to Palou in third, O’Ward jumped another spot to second and now sits just 37 points back of Palou. Power fell back to third, 43 points back, while Dixon stayed stationary in fourth, 46 points back. Though he’s still 59 points back, McLaughlin put himself back in contention after losing points from his on-track podium finish at St. Pete after he was disqualified for Team Penske’s push-to-pass scandal.
Herta (sixth, 66 points back), Kirkwood (seventh, 76 points back) and Rossi (eighth, 86 points back) are the rest that remain within 100 points of Palou through 10 races.