The first race of the Iowa double-header took place on Saturday afternoon, with Josef Newgarden leading the field away from green.
Newgarden led nearly all of the first portion of the race, and looked untouchable as the race passed the halfway point.
Unfortunately for the two-time champion, he lost position on the final pit stop sequence of the day.
READ MORE: IndyCar Iowa – Full Race 1 Results
When he rejoined the track, he was behind Pato O’Ward instead of just ahead. O’Ward then used his advantageous position to hold off Newgarden and take his first win in nearly a year.
O’Ward moved into second in the points with his effort, and has another race on Sunday to continue his momentum.
Newgarden crossed the line second, with his team-mate Will Power rounding out the podium in third.
Scott McLaughlin was the star of the day, coming from the last starting position all the way up to fourth by the end of the day with a quickly repaired car.
He was seemingly one of the only drivers that could pass with ease throughout the entire length of the race, picking off competitor after competitor. McLaughlin passed 24 other drivers on track in total.
With all three Team Penske drivers finishing in the top four positions, it appears that the team finally was able to get the solid result it had been missing.
Alex Palou finished fifth, however, keeping his rivals close as he continues to be the favorite for another championship run.
Staying in line
Overall, the first half of the race itself was relatively unexciting. Once 10 consecutive green flag laps were run, drivers were largely relegated to single file running.
The track opened up towards the end, however, with rubber building just enough to allow side by side racing.
The cautions that did break up the action came just as drivers were preparing to make green flag pit stops anyway and did not provide much in the way of mixed up strategies.
Of the couple incidents that halted the action, the first was right as the green flag as being thrown.
Colton Herta misjudged the timing of the green flag, and had to check up on the front straight. The sudden change upset his car and he spun into the grass.
Herta restarted in last place, but worked his way up to 13th by the end of the event.
There were a couple other incidents that broke up the racing, with the first being caused by Jacob Abel getting into the wall in Turn 2.
He was at the end of a stint, and it looked as if his tires gave up completely. He could do nothing except hold on as his car slid up the track.
Just past the halfway point in the race, Kyle Kirkwood suffered a similar incident.
He simply could not turn when entering Turn 1, and his Andretti Global entry slammed into the barriers a short time later.
A late red flag was caused by Nolan Siegel, who spun into the Turn 4 wall. Crews needed time to repair the SAFER barriers, which meant drivers had to wait a few minutes before resuming the final 15 laps of the event.
There is one more race on the weekend schedule, with tomorrow’s full length event taking place at 12:00 PM CT.
