Update: Around 11 p.m. ET, Team Penske issued this statement on Josef Newgarden’s condition:
“Josef Newgarden was involved in an incident late in Sunday’s race at Iowa Speedway, after which he was evaluated and released from the infield care center. Following the conclusion of the race Newgarden lost consciousness and fell, sustaining a cut on the back of his head. Due to the 45-minute drive to MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center and the traffic outside the racetrack, the medical helicopter was determined to be the best mode of transportation. After being evaluated, all scans were negative. Newgarden will be held overnight for observation. Following INDYCAR protocol, Newgarden will be evaluated by the INDYCAR medical staff on Thursday.”
Original Story Follows
NEWTON, Iowa – Pato O’Ward’s first career victory at Iowa Speedway in Sunday’s Hy-Vee Salute to Farmers 300 was a perfect example of taking advantage of an opportunity. It came after presumptive race favorite Josef Newgarden crashed while leading the race on Lap 236.
Newgarden collapsed after the race and was airlifted to Mercy One Des Moines Medical Center in Des Moines for further evaluation. He was awake and alert but was transported because of the distance and traffic to the hospital.
“We had a driver that fell at his (motorhome) and struck his head, and we just want to send him downtown just for further evaluation because we don’t have the ability to get more advanced imaging or radiographs,” said outgoing IndyCar Director of Medical Affairs Dr. Geoffrey Billows. “But he’s awake and talking to us.”
Newgarden suffered an abrasion from the fall, but the fact it happened an hour after his crash was a concern because that is a potential symptom of a concussion.
“That’s the thing that makes it confusing,” Billows told a group of reporters. “He crashed. He was evaluated here after the crash, and he was fine. We actually went and talked to him afterwards. And then apparently after he talked to him. He exited his (motorhome) and passed out or fell or whatever and hit his head. We just felt out of the abundance of caution, we wanted to make sure he doesn’t have any kind of head injury.
“We were going to re-evaluate him Thursday because of the level of Gs on the accelerometer.”
Per IndyCar protocol, any driver who shows signs of a concussion or other injuries must pass a medical evaluation later in the week before they are cleared to drive.
IndyCar’s next race is just six days off – Saturday’s Gallagher Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. Practice and qualifications are Friday.
After Newgarden’s crash, he spoke to the media following the incident.
“It definitely was a bit of a shot,” he said. “I want to cry. I’m so sad for my team. I don’t know what happened. It was a good run. It’s just one race but I feel terrible for us. Team Chevy and Hitachi guys did a great job. Something went wrong there.
“I’m not sure. Everything felt fine to me up to that point. I did have a vibration at the start of the stint, which isn’t abnormal. Tire balances are always shifting. It’s very possible that we had a mismatched set or something. It wasn’t diabolical whatsoever. Actually, everything felt just fine. It was totally unexpected when it happened. It caught me by surprise. I didn’t know what happened until I was in the wall.
“This is racing. Team Penske is the best. I never have this stuff so maybe we were due. We can’t afford it for this year. But we’ll fight back. We have a great team here.
“This is just heart-breaking. I don’t have the evidence in front of me right now, but something went wrong.”
Newgarden went on to say the hit “definitely rocked me. I got a little bit shaken from it but I’m OK.”
The crash put O’Ward into the lead and when the race was restarted with 50 to go, the driver from Monterrey, Mexico was able to drive away from Team Penske’s Will Power. He won the race by 4.4276-of-a-second over Power’s Chevrolet.
Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin was third followed by three Chip Ganassi Racing drivers, Scott Dixon in fourth, Jimmie Johnson in fifth and Ericsson in sixth.
It was the highest IndyCar finish in Johnson’s career. He joined IndyCar in 2020 after winning a record-tying seven NASCAR Cup Series championships from 2002 to 2019 for Hendrick Motorsports.
“New tires on an Indy car around here reminds me of Bristol,” Johnson said. “You just drive above and beyond what your brain tells you the car can do. Here later in a run, tires fall off. Reminds me of maybe like Darlington in a Cup car which both are two of my favorite tracks to drive.
“Throughout a tire run here, in the beginning of a run, the way the car hammers the ground, the way it drives, the way I was running my line, it was much like Bristol. Bristol is so much fun to drive on.
“It’s hard to say it’s the most fun I had. Yesterday the element of surprise I had on everyone, even proving to myself that I can race with these guys, there was some shock and awe that went with that that was quite humorous, I thought.”
As for the race itself, with the ease that Newgarden has mastered Iowa Speedway, he refused to call himself the favorite to win Sunday’s second race of an IndyCar doubleheader at Iowa Speedway.
“In these races, anything can happen,” Newgarden said on Saturday.
His words were prophetic. He was running away with Sunday’s Hy-Vee Salute to Farmers 300 at the 0.894-mile short oval, blistering the field and apparently on his way to victory lane for the fifth time in his career.
Suddenly, on Lap 236, “anything” actually happened. His car suddenly snapped loose in Turn 4 and back hard into the wall. It appeared that suspension failure in the car’s rear caused the issue that stunned the driver as much as the fans and the rest of the field.
“What happened?” Newgarden said while he was still in the car to his crew.
It was a costly crash to the Team Penske driver. Had he driven to the victory, he would have been the points leader by 10 points. Instead, he dropped to fourth in points, 34 points behind the leader. He is tied with Scott Dixon in points.
Prior to the crash, Newgarden’s Chevrolet let 148 laps of the 300-lap contest.
Power started on the pole and led the first 66 laps before pit stops. Newgarden took the lead on Lap 84 and was out front until his next pit stop on Lap 196.
He was back in front again on Lap 199 until he crashed.
O’Ward, who finished second in Saturday’s Hy-Veedeals.com 250, was running second at the time of Newgarden’s crash and was in front, where he stayed for the remainder of the 300-lap contest.
O’Ward scored his fourth career victory in his 50th career start. It was his eighth podium in the last 10 races.
“Great weekend for us,” O’Ward said. “We knew we needed to execute this weekend, just to have a shot at the championship. We’ve let a lot of points go from us because of one thing or another.
“We executed. The guys were great in the pits. I did my job in the car. I knew we had the pace to win one. The problem was just trying to get up to Josef. One thing is getting up to him, and one thing is passing him. I’m glad he’s okay. We took advantage of the opportunity that presented itself. I just walked away with it. I knew we had the pace to do it. It’s just about being in the right situation.”
O’Ward’s Chevrolet had plenty of speed in both races, but the dynamic of the race completely changed after Newgarden’s crash.
“Obviously, we were there, we were there to take advantage of an opportunity that got presented to us,” O’Ward said. “I think even with him not finishing the race, I think we still would have given him a hard time. There was still one more pit stop to go.
“I was positioning ourselves to do what we just did. Super proud of the boys in the pits. The car was fantastic. I knew it was just all about getting into the Penske sandwich because, yeah, Will was not making it any little easy on me. I knew Josef was going to do the same. It was one thing to get up there, but one thing to pass.
“It just explains how hard it is, how difficult it can be whenever you’re going through the lap traffic, how you get some people, other people behind you are going to get them in a very different situation. That’s how you can lose or gain time.
“You’re never going to perfect it but trying to lose the least amount of time possible in that situation.”
The top six drivers in the championship are now separated by 44 points with five races remaining.
“I think the biggest thing is because everybody that’s fighting for the championship is having good weekends,” O’Ward said. “No one is having bad weekends.
“For us, we’ve thrown away and we’ve given away an easy hundred points just either whether it was a strategy or if it was, I won’t mention the other ones. We’ve just thrown away a lot of points that would have put us in a way better position of where we are right now.
“I have no other choice but to try and claw back. We can just be riskier than others. I really don’t care. Four, five and six for me doesn’t really change anything. I don’t care for sixth or fourth. We need to go for one and two because we’ve already got a four and a three.
“The only way to do that is to win because you’re not going to get those points by being consistently in the top five. I think if you’re in the lead, it would be a different story, but we’re not.”