Breakthrough night for Newgarden in Iowa

Newton, Iowa — With a field full of talented drivers and some exceptionally well-prepared teams backing them up, picking a winner in Verizon IndyCar Series action is something that has lately only been easy to do once the race is finished. 

That was once again the case at Iowa Speedway for the Iowa Corn 300 as a late-race caution set up a dramatic Saturday night shootout in the closing laps with a frantic race to the flag. 

Emerging from the manic last laps with his best-ever IndyCar result was Rising Star Racing’s Josef Newgarden, who brought home a second place finish for Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing in the No. 67 Wichita State/SFHR Dallara/Honda/Firestone machine.

“It’s a great job for everyone at Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing,” said Newgarden, who posted the fastest lap of the race. “Our team did an amazing job tonight, we were just solid. We had such good pit stops, really good strategy and kept our head in the game the entire way.”

While the Pocono race last week saw Newgarden move up to come home eighth as one of the field's biggest movers, the oval podium result was far from predictable, with Newgarden having started the race from 21st on the grid and raced up to top-10 contention through much of the 300-lap race. But Newgarden and his Sarah Fisher Hartman squad kept focus on the finish and made the most of an opportunity to pit for fresh tires during a late-race caution which saw the No. 67 Honda advance 10 positions in the final 10 laps. That run to the checkered also saw Newgarden set the fastest lap of the race. 

“We didn’t have the best balance all race long, but there were parts when we were really fast,” said Newgarden. “We just kept with it and at the end there, we made it when it counted.”

With some sore knuckles from having knocked on the door of a big result all season long, the result was all the more welcome given the weekend support that the SFHR squad carried for the event with branding from Wichita State University (WSU), Go Wichita, Jimmy’s Egg, Chester’s Chop House & Wine Bar, Mort’s, Envision, House of Schwann and Hartman Oil.

SFHR