Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden claimed victory at the second race of the Bomarrito Automotive Group 500 double-header in a race filled with tactical battles in the pit lane.
The race had initially been delayed due to a massive oil spillage, caused by a piece of track equipment, and once the green eventually dropped two of the warm-up laps were declared as part of the event.
It was a tense affair at the Worldwide Technology Raceway as lapped traffic proved hard to pass which led to the leading drivers playing with their strategy in the pit stops.
Newgarden would claim the lead from O’Ward in the final stops as the Penske driver narrowly beat the Mexican off pit road with the pair going side by side on the pit exit. O’Ward, on the outside, had to concede.
The Arrow McLaren rookie had to settle for second and another podium spot from the Gateway weekend. He tried to get closer to Newgarden in the final laps but the first and only caution of the race for Takuma Sato hitting the T2 wall, prevented any further attempts as the race was curtailed behind the safety car.
Will Power would finish where he began in the afternoon – third. The Australian nearly lost the podium to the chasing Rinus VeeKay in the final laps as a lapped Marco Andretti took the dirty across the nose of Power’s No.12 Verizon-Chevrolet and allowed the Dutchman to have a look at a pass.
VeeKay copied the ‘early stop’ strategy which worked for him in the first race of the weekend and it paid off yet again as the ECR driver moved up from 18th on the grid to finish in fourth.
Championship leader Scott Dixon had no answer for the pace of the leading quartet and would have to settle for fifth, making it now eight out of nine race finishes in the 2020 season inside the top five places.
Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta looked to be in contention with the leading pack, but the 21-year old lost out to VeeKay for fourth after the Dutchman made an aggressive pass into Turn 3 which took the air off the nose of Herta’s car, allowing Dixon through, leaving the youngster to finish in sixth
Chip Ganassi’s Felix Rosenqvist bettered his best ever finish on an oval from Saturday’s first race of the weekend in the No.10 Monster Energy-Honda in seventh place.
Conor Daly would come across the line in eighth place in the No.59 Carlin, ensuring he keeps his strong form at Gateway going with another finish inside the top 10.
After a recent run of strong results, Polesitter Sato ended up in the wall with 4 laps remaining, but would only drop to ninth due to the caution period despite a clearly damaged car.
Santino Ferrucci would round out the top 10 for Dale Coyne Racing moving up several places from his lowly 16th place starting position. A bungled final pit stop put pay to any challenge the Connecticut-born driver had of moving any higher up the order.
Round 10 of the NTT IndyCar Series is currently set to be the Harvest Grand Prix for a second run on the Indianapolis road course on October 2-3.
However, IndyCar is looking to try and reinstate the previously postponed round at Mid-Ohio in the middle of September.
| # | Driver | Gap |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Josef Newgarden | 01:32:15.2431 |
| 2 | Pato O’Ward | 1.4356 |
| 3 | Will Power | 3.3580 |
| 4 | Rinus VeeKay | 4.4369 |
| 5 | Scott Dixon | 6.2173 |
| 6 | Colton Herta | 7.0022 |
| 7 | Felix Rosenqvist | 9.6894 |
| 8 | Conor Daly | 9.9199 |
| 9 | Takuma Sato | 10.8130 |
| 10 | Santino Ferrucci | 15.6741 |
| 11 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 16.6569 |
| 12 | Alex Palou | 18.8580 |
| 13 | Jack Harvey | 20.0777 |
| 14 | Alexander Rossi | 20.9892 |
| 15 | Marco Andretti | 1 Lap |
| 16 | Simon Pagenaud | 1 Lap |
| 17 | Oliver Askew | 1 Lap |
| 18 | Charlie Kimball | 1 Lap |
| 19 | Tony Kanaan | 1 Lap |
| 20 | Graham Rahal | 2 Laps |
| 21 | Ed Carpenter | 3 Laps |
| 22 | Zach Veach | 4 Laps |
| 23 | Marcus Ericsson | 10 Laps |
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