NEWTON, Iowa (AP) — Josef Newgarden continued his mastery of the ovals on the IndyCar Series this season with his win in Saturday's race of the weekend doubleheader at Iowa Speedway.
It was Newgarden’s third win of the season, all on ovals, and his fifth win at Iowa Speedway. Newgarden also won at Texas Motor Speedway and the Indianapolis 500.
Scott McLaughlin finished second. Pato O'Ward, who along with Newgarden won in last season's doubleheader at Iowa, was third, and Marcus Ericsson finished fourth.
Newgarden, who started third, kept pace with Team Penske teammates Will Power and Scott McLaughlin throughout the early portion of the race as they weaved their way through the 28-car field on the .875-mile oval. The three began lapping cars by Lap 17 and had lapped everyone but the rest of the top 10 by Lap 58.
Power, the pole-sitter for this race and Sunday's 250-lap race, led all but one of the first 120 laps. McLaughlin challenged early but couldn't get around Power, but Newgarden was able to get into the lead on the 121st lap with a pass on the back straightaway after Power slid a little high coming out of the second turn.
The race was run without a caution flag until Graham Rahal hit the wall coming out of the fourth turn on Lap 152. Newgarden was able to maintain his lead out of the ensuing round of pit stops, with McLaughlin right behind him.
Newgarden kept the lead throughout the last round of pit stops on Lap 207, and withstood a late run from McLaughlin, who got to within a second of Newgarden as they ran into lapped traffic in the final three laps.
Newgarden led a race-high 129 laps.
Power, who has never won at Iowa Speedway, clipped the wall in Turn 4 on Lap 146 and never challenged for the lead again. He finished fifth, the last driver on the lead lap.
Series points leader Alex Palou finished eighth. Scott Dixon, who was second in the standings coming into the race, finished sixth.
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