Josef Newgarden races to 4th IndyCar win of season

KEN ROBERTS

MADISON, Ill. - Josef Newgarden passed teammate Simon Pagenaud and drove away to his fourth IndyCar series victory of the season Saturday night at Gateway Motorsports Park.

Newgarden, the 26-year-old Team Penske driver from Tennessee, increased his series points lead over Chip Ganassi driver Scott Dixon with two races remaining in the 17-race schedule. Dixon was second, 0.6850 seconds back.

Pagenaud was third, followed by Helio Castroneves and Conor Daly.

Newgarden led 61 of the 248 laps on the 1.25-mile oval en route to his seventh career victory and Penske’s fourth at Gateway and 196th overall.

In front of crowd of about 40,000 fans, Newgarden got by Pagenaud coming out of Turn 2 on the inside on Lap 218. The teammates touched wheels, forcing Pagenaud to back off and settle into third place.

The first 17 laps were run under yellow after the caution came out before the cars could make an official lap when Tony Kanaan spun out at the exit of Turn 2.

Then when the green flag finally flew, pole-sitter Will Power immediately dropped to third entering Turn 1 as Newgarden took the lead. But, before Power could make it through Turn 2, he spun, hit the outside wall and Ed Carpenter flew in the air and over the top of Power’s machine.

Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato also spun in the melee. All three were unable to continue.