Newgarden wins race under caution
Josef Newgarden raced to his second IndyCar victory of the season Sunday, holding off rookie Pato O’Ward before a late caution ended the race at World Wide Technology Raceway under the yellow flag in Madison, Illinois.
It’s the second IndyCar race to finish under caution in one week. Takuma Sato won the Indianapolis 500 under yellow last Sunday.
In the second of two weekend races at the short oval outside of St. Louis, it was Sato who brought out the caution with four laps remaining when he hit the wall. The pace car picked up the field with three laps remaining and IndyCar did not have enough time to restart the race.
It denied O’Ward a chance to challenge the reigning IndyCar Series champion for the victory. Newgarden, in a Chevrolet for Team Penske, won for the 16th time in his career and closed the points deficit on championship leader Scott Dixon.
Dixon won Saturday in the first race of the Gateway doubleheader and has four victories in nine IndyCar races this season. Newgarden and Team Penske have three wins.
Newgarden was put in position to win the race when his crew got him off pit lane on the final stop ahead of O’Ward. Newgarden and the Mexican driver had a drag race back onto the track that Newgarden won.
“This was a pit stop victory for me,” Newgarden said. “Really proud of my team. I didn’t win the race, they won it.”
O’Ward, the top rookie in the Indy 500 with a sixth-place finish, earned his second podium of the weekend for Arrow McLaren SP. He was third on Saturday and has six finishes this season of eighth or higher.
“We’re knocking on the door,” O’Ward said. “We are very close and we are going to keep pushing.
NASCAR Trucks: Sheldon Creed beat Franklin natie Sam Mayer on a restart with 13 laps to go Sunday at World Wide Technology Raceway to win his third Truck Series race of the season and a $100,000 bonus In Madison, Illinois.
Creed’s victory pushed his bonus earnings to $150,000 this year in the Triple Truck Challenge. He won two of three races in the challenge.
Brett Moffitt finished second and was followed by Austin Hill. Mayer finished fourth. Seymour’s Ty Majewski placed ninth. Statford’s Derek Kraus finished 13th, Eagle River’s Natilie Decker finished 28th and Necedah’s Johnny Sauter did not finish the race.
NASCAR: William Byron snaked his way through a smoky crash late Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla, and narrowly avoided another melee a few laps later.
Those moves got him to victory lane for the first time in his NASCAR Cup Series career and back in the playoffs for the second consecutive season.
They also helped knock out Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson, a seven-time series champion whose final season won’t end with another title.
Winless in 120 races, Johnson made a trip to victory lane to congratulate Byron and the No. 24 team, the one now directed by Johnson’s former and long-time crew chief, Chad Knaus.
“It’s a big win for Chad Knaus and William Byron,” Johnson said. “I really felt like we had a way to transfer, to win, or point our way in and things just got ugly.”