Josef Newgarden dominates second half for record fifth IndyCar victory at Iowa

The NTT IndyCar Series is back at it Sunday with a 10 a.m. warmup on Peacock and then broadcast coverage of Race 2 starting at 2 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.

Click here for the starting lineup in Race 2.

A rundown of what drivers were saying after the first half of a doubleheader race weekend at Iowa Speedway:

Josef Newgarden, winner: “We did not start where we wanted to be from qualifying. I was so frustrated. We unloaded off the truck perfectly. (Engineer) Luke Mason did an amazing job with this car. To qualify how we did, I’ve messed up qualifying so many times here, and it never gets easier. I’m always so mad at myself that we didn’t get that right. And it was like that in the beginning of the race. It took us literally a stint and half until we got the car just where it needed to be. Once it was comfy, it was the car to beat. We needed to manage that, and we did that. It doesn’t guarantee anything for tomorrow. I promise you everyone is going to get better. They already got much better from last year. We’ve got to stay on our toes.”

Scott McLaughlin, second: “The car was great. I have to thank Josef and congratulate him winning the race, but during the week, we sat down together and went over everything. Man, it helped me today. I badly want to beat that guy, and I’m going to be trying everything I can to beat him. He’s the epitome of a great teammate. And I appreciate the help he’s giving me.”

Pato O’Ward, third: I learned that I couldn’t keep up with (Team Penske). We didn’t have a strong enough car. I was holding onto dear life in some of those laps. So it was a tough one. We’ve got work to do. We’ve got another opportunity tomorrow, so we’re going to try to maximize that, but we’ve got a pretty significant step forward that we have to make if we want to challenge these guys, specifically in traffic. I just felt a little handcuffed with where I could place the car. I could really only use one lane and couldn’t get through traffic the way they could. In ultimate pace, when the tires were fresher, we weren’t far off, but when you start getting into that dirty air, we couldn’t do anything. We’d just get stuck. I tried multiple times. I’m probably the first guy to always try things. I had a few close calls there where I was like all right that’s enough for today.”

Will Power, fourth after brushing the wall at halfway: It just got a little high. The car in front went up, took the air. It was a pretty square hit. I was worried about how much force goes through the suspension of this track. Probably have to change that tonight. We had more push, but I don’t think it hurt the car too bad.

“It’s tough, man. It’s probably a slightly different race (tomorrow). Everyone gets a bit better. It gets a bit harder to get through all that traffic. We just have to review … at the end of the day, it was who got through that traffic better. We had a huge gaggle of cars, and once Josef got me, he’s very good at reading that stuff, and he just got me up the inside.”

Marcus Ericsson, fifth: “This track is always so much fun. It feels like you’re overtaking or going side by side constantly for the whole race. When you have a good car like I have, it’s fun. We had a strong day. We started 10^th, finishing fourth is a good day’s work. We want a bit more but solid day.”

“We had one stint with a lot of rear degradation. Which was strange because the other stints we were actually really good on degradation compared to other people so it was a little bit surprising, but they did a good call to get us in a bit early, and then I started to look after those tires, and we did some changes to make sure we looked after the rear axle more. I think the yellow didn’t hurt, but I don’t think we gained a ton. We were strong in general.”

Scott Dixon, sixth: “It was weird. The first stint had a load of oversteer and got loose really quickly. Maybe should have dialed it out a bit from qualfying with front wing. From that point on, we were OK. Seocnd stint was really strong. We caught the leaders and were a lap down but stayed with them and kept going long and some behind us were going short. We were a top five car at best. Just kind of frustrating, had hoped a little bit better. If we can get the consistency, we’ll be looking good. We get dialed in, we’ll be fine. Starting a little further back tomorrow. Just need a car that hangs on. Little bit of work to do, man.”

Kyle Kirkwood, seventh: “We learned a lot just now. Felt we had really good pace at the end of stints, which was surprising for us. We’re a little different from our teammates, and we’re all able to build off that based on my pace, especially at the end of stints. We had a couple of stints we were an absolute rocket ship. Our third stint, the 27 car was on rails. We need to look at what that was and tune on it and get it in that window. That’s where we made hay and ended up in that sixth area. We’ll look into it and roll into race with a car even better than today.”

Alex Palou, eighth: “Before coming here yes, two top 10s are good. We didn’t have the pace last year. We had a bit more pace today and could have been better. Great job on pit stops. That yellow didn’t help us, didn’t hurt us. We’ll see tomorrow.”

Pato O’Ward finished third in Race 1 at Iowa Speedway but first in class behind Team Penske’s dominant trio.

Josef Newgarden (first), Scott McLaughlin (second) and Will Power (fourth) combined to lead 248 of 250 laps, and O’Ward said his No. 5 Dallara-Chevrolet was hardly in the ballgame.

“I learned that I couldn’t keep up with them,” the Arrow McLaren driver told NBC Sports’ Dave Burns. “We didn’t have a strong enough car. I was holding onto dear life in some of those laps. So it was a tough one.

“We’ve got work to do. We’ve got another opportunity tomorrow, so we’re going to try to maximize that, but we’ve got a pretty significant step forward that we have to make if we want to challenge these guys, specifically in traffic. I just felt a little handcuffed with where I could place the car. I could really only use one lane and couldn’t get through traffic the way they could. In ultimate pace, when the tires were fresher, we weren’t far off, but when you start getting into that dirty air, we couldn’t do anything.”

The question now becomes does O’Ward’s team have enough time to fix it? There will be two 10-minute warmups Sunday morning (10 a.m. ET, Peacock).

“I have a very clear picture of what we need,” O’Ward said. “We’ve just got to get creative and see how we’re going to find that. Obviously we put our best foot forward coming into qualifying for the race, knowing what we’ve had here in the past, and we think this is going to be working for us. But we need to take another step if we want to challenge for the win tomorrow.”

Here’s the finishing order in Race 1 at Iowa Speedway, where Josef Newgarden scored his record fifth IndyCar victory.

Click here for the full stats package from Saturday’s race.

Click here for the results.

Lap leader summary.

Points summary.

Here are the top 10 in the standings through 11 of 17 races this season:

Josef Newgarden dominated the second half of Race 1 at Iowa, scoring his IndyCar-record fifth victory at the 0.894-mile oval.

Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin finished second, followed by Pato O’Ward, Marcus Ericsson and Will Power, who started on pole position and led more than 100 laps before scraping the wall.

“I love Iowa, it was a great day,” Newgarden told NBC Sports’ Dave Burns. “It’s tough in IndyCar. These guys about to go a lap down always run the leader hard. That’s the name of the game. It’s legal but a little frustrating at times. It’s gotten worse. It was much worse here than I’ve ever had it.

“I’m going to study the tape. I’m going to be better tomorrow. Because if that’s how it’s going to be, then I’ve just got to elevate my game for Race 2.”

Newgarden led a race-high 129 of the final 130 laps in winning the fourth consecutive IndyCar race on an oval — a streak that dates to when he crashed while leading in Race 2 at Iowa last year.

Since then, the two-time series champion has won at Gateway, Texas Motor Speedway, the Indy 500 and Iowa — and will have another chance to remain perfect on ovals Sunday. He has won seven of the past nine oval races in IndyCar.

Championship leader Alex Palou finished eighth — which was exactly the finish he’d been targeting to maintain his run for a second championship with six races remaining in the season.

He still leads by 98 points over Newgarden (who passed sixth-place finisher Scott Dixon for second in the standings).

Only the top five cars finished on the lead lap.

With 50 laps remaining in Race 1 at Iowa Speedway, Josef Newgarden has a comfortable lead over Scott McLaughlin as Team Penske continues to dominate.

The only downside for Newgarden? The two-time series champion likely will move into second in the standings with a fifth Iowa win but won’t cut much into his 2023 championship deficit.

Points leader Alex Palou is on track for a top 10 that will keep him in runaway position for his second title with six races remaining in the season.

Josef Newgarden got away unscathed on the first restart of the race, but Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin was under fire from Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward.

O’Ward, who won Race 2 at Iowa last year, nearly snatched second away from McLaughlin, who was able to fend off the challenge.

The top five with 75 laps remaining: Newgarden, McLaughlin, O’Ward, Will Power and Marcus Ericsson.

The race’s first caution flag is for Graham Rahal, who spun through the frontstretch grass after clipping the outside wall in Turn 4 with his No. 15 Dallara-Honda.

The Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver climbed out under his own power.

“To be frank, it was literally like the worst car I’ve ever driven on an oval,” Rahal told NBC Sports’ Dave Burns. “There’s a major rethink needed overnight. All our cars are struggling. We’ve got to put our heads down, because I didn’t feel close at all, and that’s disappointing.”

The race opened with 152 laps of green, an IndyCar record at Iowa.

There are six cars on the lead lap: Josef Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin, Pato O’Ward, Will Power, Marcus Ericsson and Kyle Kirkwood.

All pitted under yellow, and they will need at least one more stop, probably with about 30 to go if the race stays green the rest of the way.

Seeking his fifth victory at Iowa Speedway, Josef Newgarden has settled into a lead of nearly 7 seconds over Scott McLaughlin.

Will Power, Newgarden’s other Penske teammate, brushed the wall on the exit of Turn 4 and has fallen to fourth after leading more than 100 laps from the pole.

The top five with 100 laps remaining: Newgarden, McLaughlin, Pato O’Ward, Power and Marcus Ericsson.

Josef Newgarden made a power move into the lead past Penske teammate Will Power. off Turn 2.

After Power drifted a little high on the entrance to Turn 1, Newgarden dove into first with his No. 2 Dallara-Chevrolet and nearly washed up into Power’s No. 12.

After leading at the halfway mark of Lap 125, Newgarden pitted under green, cycling Takuma Sato briefly into the lead.

With more than 50 percent of the race complete, there have been no yellow flags.

Pole-sitter Will Power has led all but a few of the first 100 laps, but the defending series champion is in a dogfight with his Penske teammates.

After staving off several challenges by Scott McLaughlin, Power now is under fire from Josef Newgarden, a four-time winner at Iowa.

Power deftly has navigated traffic while hanging on to the lead, putting all but eight cars a lap down after 100 laps. He leads Newgarden by a scant 0.115 seconds with 150 laps left.

The top five at Lap 100: Power, Newgarden, McLaughlin, Pato O’Ward, Marcus Ericsson.

Leader Will Power and Penske teammates Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden pitted from the top three positions, the first of three expected stops for the prerace favorites.

Points leader Alex Palou cycled into the lead but quickly pitted.

With 20 percent of the race in the books, Will Power has a gap of just over a second on teammate Scott McLaughlin, having led the first 50 laps.

Power, who is seeking his first victory after 15 starts at Iowa, already has lapped 16 of 27 cars in the field.

In another sign that it’s his year, runaway points leader Alex Palou, who admittedly is weak on short ovals such as Iowa, has entered the top five (but is 12 .7 seconds off the lead).

Colton Herta’s star-crossed season took another turn for the worst on his first pit stop.

Already pitting early with a No. 26 Dallara-Honda that was overheating after starting sixth, the Andretti Autosport driver’s crew had trouble with his left-front wheel, and Herta then stalled the car while trying to leave.

After nearly a 45-second stop, Herta rejoined four laps down in last, ensuring he will remain winless through 11 of 17 races this season.

In search of his first victory at Iowa Speedway, Will Power has led the first 25 laps from the pole position at Iowa Speedway.

There’s been no change in the top five since the start with Power, Scott McLaughlin, Josef Newgarden, Pato O’Ward and Scott Dixon beginning to put cars a lap down.

The Team Penske Chevrolets of Will Power and Scott McLaughlin led the 28-car field to the start of 500 laps at Iowa Speedway this weekend.

Unlike last Sunday at Toronto (where eight cars crashed on the exit of the first turn), the start was clean on the 0.894-mile oval.

Ryan Hunter-Reay was the big mover on the first lap, gaining five spots in the first two corners after starting 19th.

Caitlin Clark, the University of Iowa women’s basketball star for the team that reached the 2023 NCAA championship game, gave a spirited command to start engines.

A look at some of the major headlines heading into the only race weekend doubleheader of the NTT IndyCar Series season (which will begin on NBC and Peacock at 3 p.m. ET):

—Team Penske is the obvious favorite despite skipping a test session that was attended by every other IndyCar team but Arrow McLaren.

Despite turning the fastest lap in practice, Josef Newgarden fretted Friday that other teams had closed the gap. But that didn’t seem the case after qualifying as Penske swept the top three starting spots in Race 1 with Will Power, Scott McLaughlin and Newgarden.

Power and McLaughlin both will be starting on the front row Sunday in Race 2. Power’s twin poles are the first time that a Penske driver had qualified first this season.

“It’s awesome for the team,” McLaughlin said. “We didn’t test here, (and) basically the whole field (did). For us, it’s a big testament to trusting our work and trusting what we’ve done behind the scenes, trusting what we had last year. It’s great for the team.”

—IndyCar powerhouses Penske and Ganassi were left baffled by fuel miscalculations at Toronto that resulted in Will Power and Marcus Ericsson needing to make unscheduled late pit stops.

Power said his team was “2 percent” wrong on estimating when the 18.4-gallon fuel tank in his No. 12 Dallara-Chevrolet would run dry. IndyCar teams don’t have fuel flow meters to monitor consumption. Drivers receive notice only when the tank reaches 1.8 gallons, setting off a warning light that means they have about one or two laps remaining.

Both Power and Ericsson have lobbied for the ability to keep track of fuel in real time.

“I think they don’t do it for cost reasons because it’s probably around 10 grand for a fuel flow meter,” Power said. “It would make the strategy much easier, much easier.”

Joking that he was “blaming it on Canada,” Ericsson was befuddled that Penske and Ganassi both would encounter the problem at the same race on the same stint (and with different manufacturers, as Chevrolet and Honda help teams with calculating fuel).

“It doesn’t make sense we were one lap short,” Ericsson said. " That’s what we don’t understand. Everything checked out.

“It’s 2023 and we don’t have (fuel flow monitors). I have that in my rental car. I can see how many miles I have left in my rental car when I have to go to the fuel station. We don’t have that in IndyCar, which I find very strange.”

—Conor Daly, who lost his full-time ride at Ed Carpenter Racing after the Detroit Grand Prix, will be making his second start in the past three races in place of Simon Pagenaud, who still is recovering from his terrifying practice wreck at Mid-Ohio.

—IndyCar has strengthened the rear-wheel bearing retaining nuts for Iowa, the first oval race since a tire flew over the grandstands late in the 107th Indy 500.

Full results for the qualifying session that set the starting lineup for both races at Iowa. Here’s the starting lineup for Race 1.

Click here for Race 1 qualifying results

Click here for Race 2 qualifying results

Will Power swept Hy-Vee Race Weekend doubleheader qualifying for the second consecutive season at Iowa Speedway, earning his 69th and 70th career pole positions in the NTT IndyCar Series.

It was the first time Power had qualified first since last season’s finale at Laguna Seca (where he broke Mario Andretti’s pole record).

Power also started first in both races last year, finishing third and second at Iowa. He is winless at the 0.894-mile track in 15 starts.

Penske swept the top three spots in qualifying for today’s race with Scott McLaughlin qualifying second and Josef Newgarden third.

McLaughlin also qualified second for Sunday’s race. Newgarden, who has four victories at Iowa (including in Race 1 last year) will start seventh.

“I’ve been trying to win this race for a long time,” Power told NBC Sports’ Kevin Lee during the Peacock broadcast. “I know Newgarden will be the guy you’ve got to beat, but we’ll do our best today.

“Obiviously fantastic to get another couple of poles. That number 70 is nuts. Just lucky to be in with such a great team that gives you that equipment to do so. Hopefully back it up with a win in one of these two races.”

The best qualifier in NTT IndyCar Series history made his presence known at Iowa Speedway.

After sweeping both pole positions last year, Will Power is on pace to do it again in this No. 12 Dallara-Chevrolet with laps of 181.426 mph and 181.578 mph after no driver had cracked 179 mph in the first 20 attempts of the session.

“The car was good, as good as you can do at this point in the line,” Power told NBC Sports’ Kevin Lee.

Power has a record 68 pole positions, having surpassed Mario Andretti in last year’s season finale at Laguna Seca.

There are seven drivers left in the session.

After winning one of the races at Iowa last year, Arrow McLaren was a prerace favorite, but its Dallara-Chevrolets are off to a tough start.

Both Alexander Rossi and Felix Rosenqvist were well outside the top five for both races on their qualifying runs.

Pato O’Ward, who had the victory in Race 2 last year, was better but still short of the front row for both races.

Romain Grosjean bumped David Malukas from atop the scoring pylon on Race 1.

The Andretti Autosport driver, whose contract status is uncertain beyond 2023, will have a strong starting spot in Saturday’s 250 lap race.

He will start deeper in the order for Sunday, but Grosjean told NBC Sports’ Kevin Lee that his No. 28 Dallara-Honda should race well.

“I had a big moment in Turn 3 on the second lap,” Grosjean said. “It’s great to be fast in qualifying, but I think mainly we have a good race car.”

Early observations from IndyCar qualifying at Iowa:

—David Malukas turned two impressive laps above 178 mph, putting his No. 18 Dallara-Honda on the provisional poles for both races with two dozen drivers left to make attempts.

Malukas told NBC Sports’ Kevin Lee that his car was helped by qualifying being delayed nearly two hours because of rain because the warmer conditions favored his setup.

—Jack Harvey did what he could to ameliorate his nine-grid starting penalty Saturday, going to the top of the charts for both races as the fourth driver to make an attempt.

—Conor Daly, who is subbing in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Dallara-Honda for Simon Pagenaud (recovering from his crash at Mid-Ohio), fared better on his second lap than his first but likely will start midpack in both races. Daly scored his only IndyCar pole at Iowa in 2020.

After a delay of nearly two hours, Ed Carpenter kicked off IndyCar qualifying at Iowa Speedway.

There will be 26 more drivers taking laps in the session, which should end by around noon ET after setting the starting lineups for twin 250-lap races (the first lap counts for Saturday’s race, the second for Sunday).

The frontstretch then will be turned over for a Carrie Underwood concert.

The IndyCar Series announced a nine-position grid penalty to Jack Harvey, citing the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver for avoidable contact on the opening lap of last Sunday’s Honda Indy Toronto.

Harvey was involved in an eight-car crash on the exit of the first corner.

It’s the first time IndyCar has imposed a grid penalty on a driver for on-track behavior since Devlin DeFrancesco was docked six spots at Long Beach last year after being involved in three crashes at Texas Motor Speedway.

Per the IndyCar rulebook, the avoidable contact grid penalty is six positions on road and street courses and nine on ovals (teams receive the same penalties for unapproved engine changes during the season).

Jack Harvey told NBC Sports reporter Kevin Lee that he strongly disagreed with the punishment, and IndyCar on NBC analyst Townsend Bell also felt it was too harsh and “a massive surprise.”

“It’s bizarre timing,” analyst James Hinchcliffe said.

Driver etiquette has been a seasonlong topic with many IndyCar stars lobbying race stewards and series officials to impose more penalties.

A 20-minute downpour hit just as NTT IndyCar Series qualifying was scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. ET.

The session, which will set the starting lineup for both races at Iowa Speedway, is expected to begin as soon as track drying is finished. As of 11 a.m. ET, pit lane has been opened for cars, and the series is aiming to begin at 11:15 a.m. ET. Live coverage is on Peacock.

Drivers will make two laps: The first will set the field for Saturday’s race, the second will count for Sunday.

Per Nathan Brown of the Indianapolis Star, Benjamin Pedersen won’t be qualifying after his car failed technical inspection this morning.