Newgarden romps to victory in Harvest GP race one thriller

Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden kept his title hopes alive by claiming his third win of the 2020 NTT IndyCar Series campaign in a thrilling first race of the Harvest Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Newgarden was locked in a spectacular battle with rookie polesitter Rinus Veekay and Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta for the race lead as the trio quickly gapped the rest of the field.

Newgarden’s pace eventually lifted him clear of the battling Veekay and Herta to ensure he collected the win and reduced his deficit against title leader Scott Dixon to 40 points.

Alexander Rossi rose through the front-runners despite sustaining a drop-back penalty mid-race when stewards deemed he passed Dixon off-track.

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Rossi lost crucial time but was able to capitalise on the constant battling between Herta, Veekay and Felix Rosenqvist to snatch second place.

Veekay’s afternoon was eventful from start to finish as he fought his way to his first IndyCar podium by classifying third.

Veekay fought hard with Herta in the opening laps before taking the a comfortable lead but utilised a quarter of his 200 seconds of push to pass in just the opening four laps.

He appeared to be in contention for most of the race, but Newgarden’s relentless pace was just too much for Veekay to maintain.

Herta – despite his frantic speed in the opening laps – would have to settle for fourth after pushing at the front for so long on heavily worn tyres, finishing ahead of Rosenqvist.

Will Power started fourth but struggled to keep pace with the leading trio in the opening laps and was fortunate to reach the finish after a wild slide left him perilously close to the wall through the final corner.

Graham Rahal made up places with an off-set three stop strategy to finish in seventh ahead of Meyer Shank Racing’s Jack Harvey.

Dixon’s afternoon had looked to be on the up after moving into the top six at the halfway point of the race but an uncharacteristic lock-up into Turn 1 left him on flat-spotted tyres and he lost touch with the drivers in front.

Dixon hunted down sixth-placed Power but another mistake led to an off-track excursion through the infield section and he dropped to ninth.

Ganassi team-mate Marcus Ericsson was able to push his way up from 15th on the grid to cross the line in 10th place by the end of the 85 laps.

The race ran without a caution period but Marco Andretti was forced to retire with a handful of laps remaining after the rear of his No.98 car caught fire. Andretti was able to bring the car back to the pits for his pit crew to put it out.

The second race of the Harvest GP will be run to 75 laps on Sunday with the race beginning at 14:30 EDT.