NEWGARDEN’S 5TH WIN ROCKETS HIM INTO SECOND

A rain delay saved the victory for Josef Newgarden, who earned his Indycar-best fifth win of the season Saturday night at World Wide Technology Raceway and again tightened the championship standings.

Newgarden had been bumped from the lead by Team Penske teammate Scott Mclaughlin shortly before the race was stopped for rain and lightning with 43 laps remaining. After a delay of just over 2 hours, the race resumed with 36 laps to go and Newgarden needed only one to get past his “Bus Bro” buddy and hold on for the victory in Madison, Ill.

Although he has more than double the wins of any of his rivals, Newgarden has only been in the middle of the title hunt. He started the race on the short oval outside St. Louis ranked fourth in the standings, 22 points behind leader Will Power, his Penske teammate.

Newgarden is now second in the standings and just three points behind Power with two races remaining. Newgarden won for the third consecutive year at WWTR and fourth time in his career.

“Great effort, great team,” Newgarden radioed his team. “Great, great effort. Perfect car.”

David Malukas, the rookie for Dale Coyne Racing, put on a stunning display of picking his way through traffic after the final restart. He passed Mclaughlin on the final lap to disrupt the potential Penske 1-2 finish, and had the race gone one more lap, Malukas might have had a shot at catching Newgarden for the win.

Newgarden in a Chevrolet beat Malukas in a Honda by 0.4708 seconds.

Elliott in charge

Chase Elliott took the NASCAR Cup pole at Watkins Glen International, edging Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson for the top spot. Elliott, a two-time winner at The Glen, turned a fast lap of 1 minute, 10.477 seconds around the 2.45-mile natural terrain road course. Larson, who won last year’s race at The Glen, finished in 1:10.516, just ahead of Michael Mcdowell.

Elsewhere

Larson held off AJ Allmendinger to win the Xfinity Series race at Watkins Glen. Larson was riding in third behind leader Ty Gibbs and Byron when the two leaders made contact in the tricky bus stop with under five laps to go and spun off to the side, leaving a clear path for Larson to zip through.

Defending event champion Matt Hagan topped Funny Car qualifying in the NHRA Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway in Minnesota. Paired with points leader Robert Hight for the final passes of the day, Hagan had a 3.843-second run at 331.36 mph in Tony Stewart Racing’s Dodge Charger Hellcat SRT. Top Fuel points leader Brittany Force also qualified No. 1.