Newgarden adds to his IndyCar lead
There are no slouches in the IndyCar Series, proven each week by the incredibly close competition across the grid. The intensity has given the series yet another tight championship race in the homestretch of its season.
Josef Newgarden dominated at Iowa to pad a fragile lead that Alexander Rossi had trimmed to just four points. Then came a Newgarden rout Saturday night on the oval at Iowa, which gave him breathing room in what is essentially a four-driver title race.
There’s Newgarden, winner of four races this season, and the points leader for all but one week.
He is being relentlessly chased by Rossi, winner of two races to date this season and consistently strategizing on how to claim his first IndyCar title.
Simon Pagenaud won the Indianapolis 500 – a race worth double points – to enter the championship picture and he is hanging tough with the front-runners with three wins on the season. Both Newgarden and Pagenaud are former series champions.
The final contender is reigning series champion Scott Dixon, who can’t be counted out even at 98 points behind Newgarden.
The five-time series champion could have fallen out of the title picture entirely at Iowa, where his Chip Ganassi Racing team hasn’t thrived in recent years. Dixon even went a lap off the pace during the race before adjustments and pit strategy allowed him to make a late charge through the field and close in on Newgarden.
“I’m like, ‘Scott? Where the hell did he come from?’” Newgarden said after the race.
The runner-up finish gives Dixon a chance with five races remaining this season.
The September finale, a return to Laguna Seca in Monterey, California, after a 15-year absence, is worth double points. Of the drivers in the championship picture, only Dixon has raced the historic speedway in an Indy car.
Up next, though, is Sunday’s stop on the road course at Mid-Ohio, where Rossi won last season. Then comes Pocono, where Rossi also won last year.