O'Ward Benefits From Newgarden Crash For Iowa Race 2 Win
Calum Gill 10:47 24/07/2022
Arrow McLaren SP’s Pato O’Ward put himself back into IndyCar championship contention by winning the second Iowa oval race, after race one dominator Josef Newgarden crashed out from another crushing lead.
Despite the chance for an overnight regroup and data studying, Newgarden came out fighting on Sunday just as good as he had been on Saturday if not better, constantly lapping drivers all the way up to the top five at one point. He was comfortably in the lead when he lost the rear of his car at Turn 4 on lap 235/300, with a big hit into the Turn 4 wall. “Man, I want to cry,” said Newgarden, adding he felt something go wrong with the car. With Newgarden out of the way, O’Ward obtained the lead for Arrow McLaren SP. He had leapt ahead of polesitter Will Power with a stunning pit stop phase just before 200 laps when O’Ward was faster on in and out laps and his team delivered a better stop to net just under four seconds of advantage. After the caution, O’Ward streaked to a huge lead and kept Power at bay.
It was a huge weekend for O’Ward who had two DNFs outside of his control in the last three races, but a second and a win this weekend added to his sterling oval record. Will Power finished third and second at Iowa from double pole positions, and closed the championship lead again to Marcus Ericsson. Scott McLaughlin rebounded from a crushing race one where a wheel came loose after a nut wasn’t tightened on his right rear to claim the final spot on the podium following a sensible race two. Scott Dixon rounded out the top four to continue his strong form that moves him into the top three in the championship, and from 18th on the grid too as his excellent tyre management paid off once more. A thrilling late race fight between Jimmie Johnson and Ericsson went in favour of the former as the seven-time NASCAR champion bagged his best IndyCar result on his third oval appearance in the series.
Ericsson settled for sixth but he keeps the championship lead after it looked like it would go to Newgarden had the Team Penske driver taken the double. He now leads Power by eight points with Newgarden and Dixon tied 34 points adrift. Felix Rosenqvist passed Romain Grosjean and David Malukas in the final stint to rebound from his crash in race one to seal seventh, ahead of Malukas who also passed Grosjean late on. Grosjean was - for the second race in a row – the top Andretti car at his first visit to Iowa in an impressive weekend for the ex-F1 driver. Dale Coyne Racing’s Malukas was the top rookie - closing on the rookie lead in the process - surviving a fight with Takuma Sato who took 10th at the end. Callum Ilott scored 11th from 22nd on the grid in the one-car Juncos team, passing Colton Herta who was dumped up high by Sato in the closing stages and pulled off an amazing save to stay out of the wall. Reigning champion Álex Palou struggled to step forward from Saturday’s race like his Ganassi team-mates and was 13th.
