McLaughlin Earns First IndyCar Oval Win At Iowa

Source: Chris Jones/Penske Entertainment / other

NEWTON, Iowa. — It was a cry-and-dry night for the most part in the cornfields of Iowa on Saturday kicking off a doubleheader weekend at the Iowa Speedway for the NTT IndyCar Series.

Scott McLaughlin made the evening look easy as he led after taking the lead exiting pit road during the first round of pit stops and never surrendered the lead again.

“I’ve been working on that for a while,” McLaughlin said. “I told myself I was not going to call myself an IndyCar driver until I got a win on an oval.”

It’s McLaughlin’s first-ever win on an oval since coming over to the NTT IndyCar Series from Australian Supercars a few years ago.

The race’s start was quickly held up by an opening lap crash involving David Malukas, who gathered up Agustin Canapino after losing control of his Meyer Shank car by touching his inside tires to the apron.

Once restarted, McLaughlin still had to put in some work for the lead early on as he started second next to pole sitter Colton Herta. Herta led the entire first stint of the race, but when the race’s second caution came out the entire field came to pit road for routine service.

McLaughlin and his crew were able to get out just quick enough to beat Herta off pit road. It was the move that gave McLaughlin the lead for the duration. But it was not without an initial fight from Herta who dove to the inside on the subsequent restart. McLaughlin held on, though, on the outside line around the first lap of the restart and kept the lead.

The pit stops did not go well for points leader Alex Palou, who again had issues getting his hybrid engine into gear on exit. That miscue cost Palou several spots after running in third for the first stint.

Palou worked his way forward a bit but soon found himself spinning on the front straight and crashing out in what was a costly occurrence. Palou ended the day 23rd.

It was Palou’s caution that essentially ended the day for Colton Herta, who was on pit road after having nursed a massive vibration on his car for several laps. McLaughlin stayed out and held the lead, but with Herta on pit road, he ended up losing all his track position and had to restart at the rear of the field.

This played into the hands of Pato O’Ward who was elevated to second off of Herta’s misfortune, and Josef Newgarden who moved up through the field from 22nd both on the track and in the pits. O’Ward collected the runner-up result and Newgarden ended up third.

The result for O’Ward was huge as that leaped him into second place in the points and took a big bite out of Palou’s massive points lead coming into the weekend. O’Ward has another opportunity to cut into Palou’s lead on Sunday in the second race of the doubleheader, but the task will be tough as Palou starts second next to pole-sitter McLaughlin.

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