After two-hour stoppage, Josef Newgarden overpowers fellow Penske driver Scott McLaughlin, but is nearly caught by a rookie
Josef Newgarden (Penske-Chevrolet) has celebrated the last oval race of the 2022 IndyCar season and with it his fifth win of the season. Like all the other drivers in the field, he had to wait two hours for his victory, as the race was temporarily suspended for that time.
The Bommarito Automotive Group 500 on the 1.25-mile oval at Gateway Motorsports Park outside St. Louis was scheduled for 260 laps. It had to be red flagged after 218 laps because rain started. At that point, it was less than 15 laps since Newgarden had lost the lead to Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin at the last pit stop. But he struck back on the restart after the long stoppage.
On the last lap, McLaughlin was pushed out of second place by the strong David Malukas (Coyne-Honda). The IndyCar rookie passed on the outside in Turn 1. However, he could not quite catch up with the leader. At the finish, Newgarden was less than half a second ahead of Malukas, who finished on the podium for the first time.
With his fifth win of the season, Newgarden has now emphatically laid claim to a third IndyCar title. He is just three points off the top of the standings.
Historic pole for Will Power – start brought forward
Will Power (Penske-Chevrolet) started from the pole for the 67th time in his IndyCar career. Power thus equalled the decades-long sole record holder Mario Andretti. The start of Saturday’s race was brought forward half an hour because the rain was already in the air. So the race started at midnight, converted to Central European Summer Time.
The top 7 in the points classification had taken the top 7 of the starting grid in Friday’s qualifying (individual time trial over two laps). When Saturday got underway half an hour earlier than originally planned, Power won the start and came back from the first lap as the leader ahead of Marcus Ericsson (Ganassi-Honda). Behind, Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden lined up, as did Scott Dixon and Alex Palou (both Ganassi-Honda) and Patricio O’Ward (McLaren-Chevrolet).
The green flag is out in St. Louis.
Time to settle in for 260 laps.
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The first pit stop under green was made from lap 55. Power retained the lead. Behind, Penske teammate McLaughlin moved up to second. But it was O’Ward who showed the most forward momentum in the early stages. After completing the first lap of the race in seventh place, he was already in third position after the first pit stop.
Newgarden got past O’Ward temporarily, but the McLaren driver countered a few laps later to regain third position. From lap 110 onwards, the race went green again for the second routine pit stop. Power remained ahead of McLaughlin and O’Ward. Less later McLaughlin lost the Power chaser position to O’Ward.
Patricio O’Ward strong – Josef Newgarden stronger on fresh tyres
At the front, however, Takuma Sato (Coyne-Honda) picked up a couple of lead laps due to a deviating pit stop strategy. Sato’s teammate – IndyCar rookie David Malukas – was also on a very similar strategy.
Jack Harvey (Rahal-Honda) brought out the first yellow with a slide into the Turn 4 wall, at which point 144 of the 260 scheduled laps had been completed and it was clear that full points would be awarded in the event of a weather-related stoppage.
And the first yellow phase triggered by Harvey caused further shifts in terms of strategy. While the majority of the field took the opportunity to make a third pit stop, Power, O’Ward and the Ganassi trio of Ericsson, Dixon and Palou stayed on the track. They speculated on rain and did not want to give away any track position. Power’s Penske teammates McLaughlin and Newgarden, on the other hand, were among those who pitted.
RESTART: The green flag is back out and @PatricioOWard to the lead!
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The restart came before the rain. O’Ward performed the manoeuvre of the race by attacking the front-runner Power on the outside of Turns 1/2 and actually got around the pole-sitter. However, O’Ward did not enjoy his lead for long. On the one hand, he was instructed to save fuel, as were Power and Co. On the other hand, Newgarden and McLaughlin had fresh tyres.
Newgarden came closer with giant steps. It didn’t take him long to get around O’Ward on the outside and take the lead. But Newgarden still had a long way to go to take his fifth win of the season.
Rain causes two hour break with Scott McLaughlin in P1
Few laps after Newgarden, McLaughlin also passed O’Ward. That gave Penske a double lead. But as the driver who had previously led most of the distance was not one of them. Power and co. who had stayed out under yellow, came in for their third pit stop from lap 190, and under race pace.
Only about 15 laps later, second-placed McLaughlin and leader Newgarden also pitted under green. For them it was the fourth stop of the race. And at this one, McLaughlin got past Newgarden. Newgarden, who stopped one lap later, had Christian Lundgaard (Rahal-Honda) in front of him when entering the pit lane and thus, unlike McLaughlin, did not have a completely free approach.
Less than 15 laps after the pit stop, during which McLaughlin passed Newgarden, the rain started. The red flag was shown. The 1.25-mile oval was dried out, but the rain was not the only problem. Because there were thunderstorms near the track, it was clear that it would not go on so quickly. Only when the thunderstorms had cleared was there any thought of continuing. And after two hours of standstill, the race did indeed continue on a completely dry track.
Newgarden overpowers McLaughlin on final restart
In the midfield, the yellow was used after the red was lifted to add fuel and change tyres once more. The restart was made with 36 laps remaining. Front-runner McLaughlin got away best, but before the lap was completed, Newgarden stabbed inside at the end of the back straight and past.
Back to green flag racing in St. Louis!
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Passing Scott McLaughlin, Josef Newgarden never relinquished the lead. The man of the final stage, however, was not him but David Malukas. The rookie moved up from fifth to second in the final stint, scoring his first IndyCar podium and narrowly missing out on his first win. Scott McLaughlin, who was already dreaming of his first oval win during the interruption, had to settle for P3 on balance.
Patricio O’Ward was fourth as the best-placed driver with only three pit stops. Fifth was Takuma Sato, meaning Dale Coyne’s team got both cars into the top five. Long-time leader Will Power was only P6 at the end. He was followed by Ganassi drivers Marcus Ericsson (7th), Scott Dixon (8th) and Alex Palou (9th) as well as Graham Rahal (Rahal-Honda) who completed the top 10.
Romain Grosjean (Andretti-Honda) had qualified for ninth on the grid, but he was not allowed to start from this position. Because an engine change was made following the previous race (Nashville), which exceeded the penalty-free quota (four engines), there was a demotion of nine grid positions. From 18th on the grid, Grosjean was put on a different strategy. In his case, however, it was not quite as successful as with Sato. Grosjean finished in P13.
Jimmie Johnson, who had been absolutely convincing in the previous oval races and had recently finished an IndyCar race in the top 5 for the first time at Iowa Speedway, did not do quite as well this time. He had been able to test at Iowa Speedway in advance, but not at Gateway Motorsports Park. In the 26-strong field, Johnson was the first driver to be lapped, but still managed to move up to P14.
Rinus VeeKay (Carpenter-Chevrolet) and Alexander Rossi (Andretti-Honda) did not finish, both plagued by electronics problems, although Rossi was able to resume the race in the meantime. Rahal driver Jack Harvey and VeeKay’s Carpenter teammate Conor Daly also failed to see the chequered flag. In the case of Rossi, Harvey and Daly, however, it was abandonment just before the end. VeeKay had already had to pull out of the race in the early stages.
Two races to go: Seven drivers still in the title race
With two races remaining in the season, the 2022 IndyCar standings remain tightly contested. Will Power remains the championship leader after finishing sixth in the race. But race winner Josef Newgarden is now just three points behind his Penske teammate.
Scott Dixon is third in the standings, 14 points behind Power. Dixon’s Ganassi teammate Marcus Ericsson is another three points behind. Next up is defending champion Alex Palou in another Ganassi Honda. He is 43 points behind. And all is not lost for Scott McLaughlin (54 points behind) and Patricio O’Ward (59 points behind) either.
Seven drivers in the title race and only two races to go: the battle for the 2022 IndyCar title is the most exciting in many years in this respect, especially since it is not a season finale with double points. By the way: Will Power and Scott Dixon are the only drivers in the field who have completed every single race lap of the season so far.
The last two races of the season take place on permanent circuits, both located in the western USA: on 4 September in Portland (Oregon) and on 11 September at Laguna Seca Raceway in California.
