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Gateway IndyCar: Newgarden wins after move of the season

Josef Newgarden took his fourth victory of the season to extend his championship lead after diving past his teammate Simon Pagenaud in a supremely aggressive move, while polesitter Will Power crashed out on the opening lap.

Race winner Josef Newgarden, Team Penske Chevrolet

Race winner Josef Newgarden, Team Penske Chevrolet

Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images

Josef Newgarden, Team Penske Chevrolet takes the checkered flag
Josef Newgarden, Team Penske Chevrolet takes the checkered flag
Josef Newgarden, Team Penske Chevrolet
Josef Newgarden, Team Penske Chevrolet, Simon Pagenaud, Team Penske Chevrolet
Race winner Josef Newgarden, Team Penske Chevrolet
Race winner Josef Newgarden, Team Penske Chevrolet, Tim Cindric
Race winner Josef Newgarden, Team Penske Chevrolet
Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti Autosport Honda, Will Power, Team Penske Chevrolet, Ed Carpenter, Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet, crash
Helio Castroneves, Team Penske Chevrolet
Will Power, Team Penske Chevrolet, Josef Newgarden, Team Penske Chevrolet lead at the start
Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

After a three-wide parade lap in honor of the fans after IndyCar’s 14-year absence from Gateway, and in tribute to the Indianapolis 500, the race got off to a dramatic start… before the start. Tony Kanaan, attempting to warm his tires, down in 17th on the grid, spun backward into the Turn 2 wall.

Despite the laps being counted as race laps, IndyCar insisted the restart would be double-file. TK made it back to the pits and the Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda team sent him out again, albeit three laps down.

When the race restarted Newgarden went around the outside of polesitter Power who went loose in Newgarden’s dirty air on the inside line, spun around and into the outside wall. Carpenter had nowhere to go and the ECR-Chevrolet climbed Power’s car and hit the wall, while Takuma Sato spun trying to avoid the shunt and got collected. The Indy 500 winner made it back to the pits but remained there.

“It was just super slippery,” Power said. “I wish I would’ve done a few more burnouts, might have got some temp in the rear. The front was very slippery too, and Josef took my air on the exit and I spun. Man, it just went, unfortunately.”

On the championship, Power commented: “Very, very frustrating. Unbelievably frustrating.”

“The tires were slick,” Carpenter said. “Probably just a combination of the rubber from the series before us. We really hadn’t run much after Indy Lights. We ran after them a little bit, but they ran a lot. Even warming up tires, it was hard. It’s not excuse. I’m just bummed out, man.

“We got a pretty good start. I was rolling under Sato, saw Will get loose up in front of me. Then I was under Sato and he was sliding around. Then I finally got loose just like those guys were, corrected, got into Sato. If I would have had a little more space I would have saved it. Just super disappointed. Had such a chance to get a result tonight.”

Newgarden now led Castroneves, Pagenaud with Carlos Munoz tiptoeing through to fourth in the AJ Foyt Racing-Chevrolet ahead of Scott Dixon, James Hinchcliffe, Ryan Hunter-Reay (up from 14th), Alexander Rossi, Graham Rahal and Conor Daly. Under yellow, Max Chilton, Sebastien Bourdais, Marco Andretti and Kanaan all pitted for fuel top-ups.

Back to green flag racing on Lap 19, Newgarden continued to lead as Dixon picked off Munoz for fourth and Hunter-Reay moved up to sixth ahead of Rossi, Hinchcliffe, Rahal and Daly. Another man moving forward was the second ECR-Chevy of JR Hildebrand, up from 15th to 11th although he’d lose that spot to Ed Jones’ Dale Coyne Racing-Honda.

Hunter-Reay passed Munoz for fifth on Lap 26, already almost six seconds behind the three Penskes.

By Lap 45 of the 248-lap race, Dixon had pared his deficit to third-placed Pagenaud down to 0.6sec and was almost 4sec ahead of Hunter-Reay who was still under pressure from Munoz and Rossi. In fact it was Rossi who passed Munoz first, taking sixth place on Lap 47. Munoz ducked into the pits on Lap 53. Teammate Daly, tired of being bottled up behind Rahal, pitted soon after.

Jones, Hinchcliffe and Hunter-Reay stopped at the end of Lap 58, with Castroneves, Rossi and Dixon stopping on Lap 60, Newgarden pitting on Lap 61.

Once everyone had stopped, the Penskes remained in the Newgarden-Castroneves-Pagenaud order, chased by Dixon, but now with Rossi one second ahead of Hunter-Reay, chased by Hinchcliffe, Rahal, Daly, Hildebrand and Munoz down in 11th.

Following the stops, Dixon was no longer looking like a threat to the Penske trio almost five seconds behind Pagenaud by Lap 80. In fact, Dixon was coming under pressure from Rossi, and Hunter-Reay and Hinch were within 1.5secs of the Ganassi machine.

Hinchcliffe moved ahead of Hunter-Reay on Lap 98, having fallen 4.7sec behind the Dixon/Rossi battle for fourth. Munoz, nowhere near as happy with his Foyt car as he had been in qualifying, stopped for a second time on Lap 99.

Carpenter’s day of misery continued on Lap 100, when something appeared to break on Hildebrand’s car, and the American struck the Turn 4 wall.

“We were catching up to that group of cars and I feel like something must’ve broke or we had some sort of issue,” Hildebrand said. “All of a sudden I had no steering and we were going straight. We’ll have to dig into it to figure out exactly what went down.”

As soon as the pits opened, everyone stopped, and Castroneves’ crew moves jumped him ahead of Newgarden who was slightly delayed by Tim Cindric being extra-wary of a collision. Behind, Pagenaud, and Dixon. Rossi, however, lost fifth to Hinchcliffe. Behind, Hunter-Reay, Rahal, Daly and Jones completed the top 10. Under yellow, Munoz was among those who stopped for another top up.

At the restart on Lap 114, Castroneves made an excellent getaway, and Newgarden suddenly looked less comfortable now he was in dirty air, quickly dropping a second behind the Brazilian, while Hinchcliffe and Rossi crawled all over Dixon’s wing, and on Lap 118 Daly sliced past Hunter-Reay for eighth to put himself once more on the gearbox of Rahal.

At half-distance Castroneves still held a one second lead, but from second-placed Newgarden down to Rossi in sixth there was a blanket of just 1.5sec. Meanwhile Charlie Kimball’s Ganassi machine had passed Jones for 10th.

Just past the 140-lap mark, Castroneves radioed in to say his right front was vibrating, and was ordered to soften up the front bar, and it appeared to revitalize him. By Lap 148, Helio was over two seconds ahead of Newgarden who in turn was 1.3sec ahead of Pagenaud. The reigning champion was being hurt by understeer, and coming under pressure from Dixon and his followers – Hinchcliffe, Rossi, Rahal and Daly.

Hunter-Reay started the third round of stops on Lap 155. Castroneves, by now with a lead of over three seconds, stopped but then stalled. After the others had stopped, the veteran Brazilian was down to fourth. Relatively speaking, a disaster.

Newgarden had a 1.2sec lead on Pagenaud with Dixon only half a second behind. Another beneficiary was Rahal, now in sixth behind Hinchcliffe, with Rossi down to eighth behind teammate Hunter-Reay. Kimball and Munoz filled out the Top 10.

On Lap 166, the yellows flew once more – Max Chilton had stuffed his Ganassi car at Turn 4 – and Bourdais, Daly (who’d suffered a slow third stop) and Andretti took the opportunity to pit, the latter for wing angle changes as well as fuel. The long yellow allowed the chance for the track to be cleaned.

Newgarden heavily protected the inside line from Pagenaud on the Lap 175 restart, and Pagenaud’s temporarily reduced momentum allowed Dixon a run, albeit around the outside. When the four-time champion had to concede, it was his turn to lose momentum and Castroneves zapped him on the front straight next time by. Back to a Penske 1-2-3.

Behind Dixon, Hinchcliffe, Rahal, Rossi had charged past teammate Hunter-Reay, for seventh, while Munoz was in ninth ahead of Kimball who pulled off an unsubtle block on Daly a couple of laps later but got away with it. On Lap 184, Rahal became Dixon’s closest pursuer after passing Hinchcliffe.

Up front, Pagenaud closed up on Newgarden briefly but couldn’t make it stick.

The fifth caution came out on Lap 203, when Hunter-Reay brushed the wall exiting Turn 2, soon after Kimball elbowed his way past Munoz for what was now eighth, and Carlos backed off so much that Daly – still steaming from the earlier incident – followed Kimball through. Hunter-Reay, still hurting from his monster shunt at Pocono, would eventually gingerly step out of his car.

Everyone charged into the pits as soon as they opened, and Pagenaud’s crew came out just gnat’s ahead of Newgarden, while Castroneves was jumped by Dixon. This time, Rossi’s crew were faultless and moved him up to fifth ahead of Rahal and Hinchcliffe, while Daly was delighted to take eighth from Kimball, with Munoz 10th. Rahal was then sent to the back of the field for trying to pull away with the fuel probe still in, allowing the last qualifier, Sebastian Saavedra, into 10th.

The Lap 213 restart saw Pagenaud make a perfect restart, and Dixon successfully retained his third place ahead of Castroneves. But the star was Daly, now ahead of Rossi into fifth, while Kimball was past Hinchcliffe into seventh.

The moment that defined the race

On Lap 218, Newgarden made a very aggressive move on Pagenaud who thought he’d protected the inside line. Having gotten a run on the leader, Newgarden stuffed it down the inside at Turn 1, on the white line and curb, and Pagenaud was so wrong-footed that he drifted up wide and allowed Dixon through to second.

Pagenaud tried to come back at the Kiwi, shadowing his every move and Daly was doing much the same to Castroneves for fourth – so close he was forcing the Brazilian to defend from Lap 233 onward, by hugging the inside line down the front straight. He didn’t make it through but he held on for his best finish of the season after the best race of his life.

Up front Newgarden scored his fourth win of the season after The Pass of the season, while Dixon clocked a remarkable second place on a night when Penske had the pace to score a 1-2-3-4. Pagenaud was third, still fuming at Newgarden's aggression, but ahead of Castroneves.

Behind Daly, Rossi took sixth to continue his late-season rich seam of form ahead of Kimball, Hinchcliffe, Munoz and Bourdais who deposed Saavedra in the closing stint to grab tenth.

Rahal recovered to 12th ahead of Jones and Andretti.

IndyCar, Gateway race results

Cla DriverLapsTimeGapIntervalMphPitsRetirementPoints
1   2 united_states  Josef Newgarden  248 2:13'22.0358     139.465 4   53
2   9 new_zealand  Scott Dixon  248 2:13'22.7208 0.6850 0.6850 139.453 4   40
3   1 france  Simon Pagenaud  248 2:13'23.0101 0.9743 0.2893 139.448 4   36
4   3 brazil  Helio Castroneves  248 2:13'23.6026 1.5668 0.5925 139.437 4   33
5   4 united_states  Conor Daly  248 2:13'23.7804 1.7446 0.1778 139.434 5   30
6   98 united_states  Alexander Rossi  248 2:13'24.9459 2.9101 1.1655 139.414 4   28
7   83 united_states  Charlie Kimball  248 2:13'26.2723 4.2365 1.3264 139.391 4   26
8   5 canada  James Hinchcliffe  248 2:13'26.8856 4.8498 0.6133 139.380 4   24
9   14 colombia  Carlos Munoz  248 2:13'29.9190 7.8832 3.0334 139.327 5   22
10   18 france  Sébastien Bourdais  248 2:13'30.2189 8.1831 0.2999 139.322 6   21
11   7 colombia  Sebastian Saavedra  248 2:13'30.6962 8.6604 0.4773 139.314 5   19
12   15 united_states  Graham Rahal  248 2:13'30.8815 8.8457 0.1853 139.311 4   18
13   19 united_arab_emirates  Ed Jones  248 2:13'34.3802 12.3444 3.4987 139.250 4   17
14   27 united_states  Marco Andretti  248 2:13'41.9060 19.8702 7.5258 139.119 7   16
15   28 united_states  Ryan Hunter-Reay  205 1:58'29.9516 43 laps  43 laps  129.748 4 Accident 15
16   10 brazil  Tony Kanaan  168 1:33'11.5693 80 laps  37 laps  135.204 5 Mechanical 14
17   8 united_kingdom  Max Chilton  164 1:28'01.2669 84 laps  4 laps  139.739 4 Accident 14
18   21 united_states  J.R. Hildebrand  100 54'24.6124 148 laps  64 laps  137.842 1 Accident 12
19   26 japan  Takuma Sato  6 6'32.2413 242 laps  94 laps  68.835   Accident 11
20   12 australia  Will Power  5 5'26.1048 243 laps  1 lap  68.996   Accident 12
21   20 united_states  Ed Carpenter  5 5'26.5016 243 laps  0.3968 68.912   Accident 9

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