IndyCar Iowa: McLaughlin beats O’Ward, Palou stalls then wrecks

Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin won a chaotic opening race of IndyCar’s double-header at Iowa Speedway on Saturday night.

The New Zealander started second and took advantage of a rapid pitstop to jump into the lead and hold the field at bay to win by 0.4814s over Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward at the 0.894-mile oval.

It is the fifth win of McLaughlin’s career, second of the season and first-ever on an oval.

“The XPEL Chevy was unreal,” he said. “What got it done was the guys in the pits got me out front there and we just showed our pace.

“That’s a big deal, man. I’ve been working on that for a couple years. It takes a lot of hard work.”

Team-mate Josef Newgarden’s attempt to earn a seventh victory at Iowa Speedway fell short, rising from 22nd on the grid to finish third and give Team Penske two of the three spots on the podium.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon finished fourth, ahead of Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay.

AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci came back from an early penalty and going a lap down to finish sixth, with Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood in seventh.

Alexander Rossi (Arrow McLaren), Marcus Ericsson (Andretti Global) and Marcus Armstrong (Chip Ganassi Racing) cleaned up the rest of the top 10.

Pole-sitter Colton Herta finished 11th after leading 88 of the 250 laps. McLaughlin led the rest.

The Race

Polewinner Herta led the field to the green flag, which turned yellow moments later after a multi-car crash in Turn 2 after David Malukas made what he called a “rookie mistake” to put his left-side tires on the white line of the apron, which caused his No. 66 Meyer Shank Racing Honda to drift up the track and collect the Juncos Hollinger Racing duo of Agustin Canapino and Romain Grosjean.

Christian Lundgaard also spun in the corner on his own accord, stalling out and needing a tow back to the pits to return to the track several laps down.

The restart came on lap 20 and Herta was forced to fend off a charge by McLaughlin, who attempted a pass on the outside into Turn 1.

Dale Coyne Racing’s Jack Harvey retired after 29 laps after extended and unbearable pain plaguing his neck and back. He needed assistance out and said he felt “agony in the car” and “did more laps than I thought we might do” in the race.

Conor Daly has been on standby and was originally planned to substitute for Harvey for tonight’s race, but IndyCar deemed he would require a special session in order to replace Harvey. That is an option ahead of Sunday’s race.

A delayed call by Race Control handed out a drive-thru penalty – that ended up being a stop-and-go penalty – to Ferrucci, who was running fifth but deemed to get out of line on the restart. He fell a lap down to 22nd as a result.

A caution came out on lap 80 for a loose right-front wheel (with “cracked wheelspoke” reported over the radio) on Graham Rahal’s No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda, which led to pitstops the following lap; McLaughlin managed to just beat out Herta, while championship leader Alex Palou, who was running third, stalled on pit road and fell down to 19th.

Ferrucci was able to get his lap back under that yellow, now running 20th. Meanwhile, Newgarden managed to break into 10th after starting down in 22nd.  

The race resumed on lap 94, with McLaughlin forced to now fend off Herta, who attempted an inside push to the inside but to no avail.

Meanwhile, the No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet of Will Power was handed a drive-through penalty for a pit lane speed violation during his initial pit stop under caution, falling to 20th after running fifth.

The top five at the halfway mark of the 250-lap race was McLaughlin followed by Herta, Dixon, O’Ward and Rossi. Severe vibrations started impacting Herta’s car shortly after.

Herta pitted from second on lap 175 but the caution came out simultaneously as Palou, running 11th, spun across the frontstretch at the start/finish line before crashing into the wall. The Spaniard took ownership of the incident as a “driver mistake.”

McLaughlin led the field down pit road on lap 178 and he managed to beat out O’Ward and Dixon. A phenomenal pitstop by Newgarden saw him jump up four spots into fourth, ahead of Armstrong in fifth.

A restart on lap 189 saw McLaughlin get a clean jump, but it was Armstrong’s spot being challenged by VeeKay, who took it and brought Ericsson with him to drop Armstrong two spots to seventh.  

With 50 laps to go, McLaughlin held a 0.9s lead over O’Ward. The caution flag waved once more with 40 laps to go after the No. 8 CGR Honda of Linus Lundqvist pulled to the apron on the inside of Turn 1. He was towed back and then pushed behind the wall to the garage area.

McLaughlin led the field to the green flag for the restart with 30 laps to go. Ferrucci rocketed up to seventh from 11th, surging by Kirkwood with an outside pass and then an inside move on Armstrong, who was enduring a mechanical issue as red lights were blinking from his rear wing assembly as if he was under caution.

And it foreshadowed as the caution returned with 28 laps to go after Herta performed a half-spin in Turn 3, saving it and continuing on.

The next restart was waved off when Ed Carpenter and Pietro Fittipaldi were involved in a crash after Fittipaldi was hit from behind by Power, sending him into a spin and collecting Carpenter. Power was handed a stop-and-hold penalty for igniting the incident.

At the final restart with 12 laps to go, Ferrucci pulled another outside pass on a restart on Ericsson and moved up to sixth. He applied pressure on VeeKay but was unable to pull off a move.

Newgarden was able to move up to third after passing Dixon, setting his sights on O’Ward with six laps to go.

McLaughlin was unchallenged to the end, with O’Ward and Newgarden cleaning up the rest of the podium spots.