Newgarden Wins Gateway After Controversial Late Restart

Source: Icon Sportswire / Getty

He took the checkered flag despite some late-race drama involving his own teammates, as a restart with seven laps remaining caused Will Power to be involved in a wreck.

Newgarden started fourth as part of a strong qualifying performance from Team Penske. Scott McLaughlin started on pole and seemed to be the man to beat going into the Saturday evening race at World Wide Technology Raceway.

“At the end of the day, tomorrow’s payday,” McLaughlin said. “We’ll make sure we’re on top of things.”

He appeared to be so as he led for much of the race as each driver scraped and clawed for position in what resembled a superb showing of classic IndyCar oval racing on a track not named Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the first time in quite a while.

Pato O’Ward, who is in play for the championship, suffered engine trouble halfway through the race and had to retire his car. Not long after that, Newgarden, battling for position with McLaughlin got caught on the outside of lap traffic and spun out, but avoided making contact with the wall.

The subsequent caution was able to keep him from losing too much track position.

Newgarden was able to find himself back in front again thanks to some nifty strategy called by his crew and with less than ten laps left he was leading the race with McLaughlin and Power close behind.

Then came the beginning of the late race drama in which David Malukas was fighting with Will Power for a podium spot. Malukas got pinched by Power from the outside between turns one and two and clipped the wheel of Power. This caused Malukas to spin out and crash ending what looked to be a promising night for the still-young driver.

“Power just came by and screamed at me,” Malukas said after climbing out of the car. “He had a full second lane to work with. I gave him the space. If he had stayed in the second lane we both would have been fine.”

This was not the end of the drama involving Power as the subsequent restart brought even more carnage. Newgarden appeared to wait as long as he could to get into the throttle as the green flag waived. His delay caused the field behind him to stack up and ultimately led to Power being run into from behind and ending his race with seven laps to go.

Power was animated, to say the least, as the field came by again, flipping the middle finger to his teammate.

“Whoever is leading, wherever you’re supposed to go between (turn) three and (turn) four, he just kept checking up,” Power said. “I do not understand it.”

Newgarden took the green flag again once the wreck was cleaned up and led the final seven laps to take his 31st career IndyCar win. Race control reviewed the restart in question and did not assess Newgarden a penalty.

“It was a good night for this race,” Newgarden said. “My team won this race. It’s their victory. The track raced really well! There was a second lane! Just great.”

The result did not help Will Power who entered the night second in the points. He dropped to fourth in the championship standings. A fourth-place result in the race for Colton Herta leaped him into second in the standings behind Alex Palou, who despite a nine-place grid penalty and starting 16th was able to finish fifth and protect his points lead.

The series will head west next as they will tackle their final road/street course of the season out in Portland this coming Sunday.

The post Newgarden Wins Gateway After Controversial Late Restart appeared first on WIBC 93.1 FM .

The post Newgarden Wins Gateway After Controversial Late Restart appeared first on 93.5 / 107.5 The Fan .