By David Morgan, Associate Editor
MADISON, Ill. – The Bus Bros. finally had their long-awaited battle Saturday night at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.
As the laps wound down in the Bommarito Automotive Group 500, Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden found themselves as the only two cars on the lead lap with both needing just a splash of fuel to make it to the end.
McLaughlin had been the man in charge, leading 67 laps on the day, with Newgarden in hot pursuit.
When the caution flag flew with 19 laps to go for a crash between David Malukas and Will Power, it would come down to the faster of the two Team Penske cars on pit road. Newgarden’s crew had a lightning-fast stop to get him out ahead of McLaughlin and that was the advantage he needed.
It wasn’t a simple run to the finish though as a mangled restart with nine laps to go brought out the red flag to set up a final dash to the finish. Newgarden would have to hold off McLaughlin, Linus Lundqvist, Colton Herta, and Alex Palou to get the job done.
In true Newgarden fashion, he leapt out to a quick lead on McLaughlin on the final restart and was able to walk it on home from there, banking his second win of the season and first since winning the Indianapolis 500 back in May.
Newgarden gave all of the props for the win to his pit crew for getting him out in clean air when he needed it the most, putting him in prime position to bring home the victory.
“It was just a hard fight to the end,” Newgarden said. “It was really tough trying to get it right with traffic, time the pit stop sequences. Then at the end, if you ask how we got it done, we had a fast car. We were really good in traffic which is a difference maker. You can’t ignore the final pit stop was a big deal for us. It is hard to say if it works out that we don’t get that done. It certainly was a key ingredient to us winning the race.
“Our guys in the pit lane, it’s a big credit to them. They’ve been really good this year. They’ve had some good cars outside of Indy this year that haven’t translated. It was good to get tonight to translate.”
To add even more intrigue to his victory, Newgarden had to overcome a spin on Lap 196 to even be in position to battle his teammate for the win late in the race. Luckily, he was able to keep it off the wall and avoid contact with any other drivers.
He recovered nicely from the spin losing only a couple of positions in the process and as the strategy played out, he found himself in the late battle with McLaughlin and as they say, the rest is history.
“Just good fortune,” Newgarden said of his escape from the spin. “I got sideways ’cause I think I pushed just a little high in the gray. Man, I’m going to wreck this car. I was like, What an idiot.
“I got sideways. Then it’s like happening. I’m trying to correct it. It didn’t really hit anything. Then I got the clutch in, engine is still going, no one hits me, we got going again.
“I think it was just pure luck that we stayed off the wall. I got away with one is what I would say. I made a mistake and I got away with one. Really cool.”
McLaughlin came home with his sixth podium finish of the season, but explained afterwards that it felt like one that got away in the end.
“Isn’t it crazy? Two years ago, I would have been ecstatic. Today I feel like we just missed one,” McLaughlin said.
“It is what it is. I’m very proud of how we ran. DEX Imaging Chevy has been great all weekend. We led a lot of laps, and the car just came on as the temps went down on the track.
“I felt like we felt that last night. We stuck with our guns at the setup. It was a little difficult at the start. I didn’t think I was the best car by any means. Once the race started coming to us, I felt we had a really good chance there.
“The last yellow was good for us. Then all the kerfuffle at the end. Ultimately it was I think just nice to bring home really good points. Yeah, we’ll just keep this momentum rolling. All we can do. Keep knocking out results.
“I know I can just keep knocking away. We got some big races coming up. It’s going to be tough, but we’ll never stop believing. Bon Jovi said it the best. ‘Don’t stop believing.’
Linus Lundqvist would make a charge to third over the final eight-lap sprint to the finish following the red flag, marking the second podium finish of his young career to go along with the one he obtained at Barber in April.
The Chip Ganassi Racing pilot was ecstatic for the finish, which will help him to make the case for his future in the series going forward.
“Unbelievably happy,” Lundqvist said. “We’ve had a season with a lot of ups and downs, let’s put it that way. I think the summer break was actually good I think for everybody on the team to kind of take a little bit of time to reflect, especially on my side kind of reflect on the lessons that I’ve had to learn.
“This weekend in itself has not been ideal. We had some issues in P1, then qualifying didn’t go exactly to plan. We knew we had good pace in the car. The American Legion Honda was fast. Especially when we actually got some clean air, I was able to push. I think most of the race was just fuel running, hitting your fuel mileage, which I think was the same for everybody. We were able to extend.
“I think we got a little bit lucky with the last yellow. Unlucky with the second to last yellow. Kind of worked out in the end for us.”
Points leader Alex Palou came away with a fourth-place result after starting mid-pack following a pre-race grid penalty, helping him to extend his points lead to 59 points over Colton Herta heading into the final four races of the season.
Herta crossed the line in fourth after his late battle with Lundqvist, but would be assessed a penalty after the finish to drop him to the last car on the lead lap in fifth.
The remainder of the top-10 finishers went to Felix Rosenqvist, Nolan Siegel, Marcus Armstrong, Sting Ray Robb, and Rinus VeeKay.
From Gateway, the NTT IndyCar Series heads out to the West Coast to take on Portland International Raceway. The Bitnile.com Grand Prix of Portland is scheduled for 3:00 pm ET on USA Network and Peacock.
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