NEWTON, Iowa – Scott McLaughlin of Team Penske scored the first oval victory of his career in Saturday night’s Hy-Vee Homefront 250 at Iowa Speedway.
The first race of the Hy-Vee IndyCar Race Weekend at Iowa Speedway was a showcase of McLaughlin’s dominance in the No. 3 XPEL Chevrolet for Team Penske. He led 164 laps in the 250-lap contest at the seven-eighths mile Iowa Speedway.
He defeated Pato O’Ward’s No. Chevrolet by 4.814 seconds. It was McLaughlin’s sixth career IndyCar victory.
“The XPEL Chevy was unreal,” McLaughlin said. “What worked tonight was the crew. I’ve been working on this one for a few years, to get a win on the oval.
“I never was going to call myself an IndyCar driver until I won on an oval. I’m going to call myself an IndyCar driver now.”
O’Ward cut into Alex Palou’s lead and now trails by 37 points with the second-place finish.
“I was super happy with the car, but you can’t do anything without two lanes, this is now a one-lane race track,” O’Ward said. “I kept it clean on the track. Super stoked.
“Yeah, Arrow McLaren. Let’s go. I have the car. I have the team to do it. We need that little door to open to get in front of everybody and that is where we can get it done. I’m pumped for tomorrow.”
Team Penske teammate Josef Newgarden was third in the No. 2 Chevrolet for Team Penske followed by Scott Dixon’s No. 9 PNC Bank Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing.
Rinus VeeKay of Ed Carpenter Racing rounded out the top five in the No. 21 Chevrolet.
A big crash in turn 2 at the start of the race was triggered when David Malukas’ Honda slid sideways into the path of both Juncos Hollinger Chevrolets driven by Agustin Canapino and Romain Grosjean, whose car was lifted off the ground at the back of the pack.
The yellow light was immediately turned on for caution as the field had yet to complete the first lap under green.
Christian Lundgaard, driving the No. 45 Hy-Vee Honda, had to be towed back to the pit area by the AMR IndyCar Safety Team.
Malukas’ left front tire touched the white line at the apex of the turn, causing the spin.
“It was a rookie mistake, checked up on the start, hit the white line and didn’t execute it well,” Malukas said. “That was on me. I feel really, really bad. That was dumb, just dumb.”
Newgarden, who started 22nd, gained eight positions on the start.
Lundgaard’s car was repaired, but he returned to the track 20 laps down.
The green flag waved on lap 20 with Herta leading McLaughlin, Palou and Dixon.
Jack Harvey, who continues to experience a neck issue that causes great pain, pulled out of the race shortly after the restart.
“In truth, I pretty much made the decision hoping Conor Daly would drive, but IndyCar did not clear him without doing a practice so that forced our hand to start the race,” Harvey said. “I’m a very lucky person to get to do what I do, but it was agony in the car with the pain.
“It splits our spirits to the core knowing you can’t do it. I still wanted to do my part and today, it was to start the race. It hurts. When I say it hurts, it’s not just a little bit of pain.
“It really hurts to be in the car.”
Ferrucci was ruled out of line at the restart and drew an IndyCar penalty with a drive-through penalty. He went from fifth to 22nd but received an extra stop-and-go penalty for failure to follow the direction of IndyCar.
The yellow flag waved a second time on lap 81 when Graham Rahal reported something shattered on his front suspension. It was actually a cracked wheel, something potentially dangerous that happens on a high-speed track with such high loads.
During the ensuing pit stop, McLaughlin won a drag race off pit lane and beat Herta’s Honda off pit lane by just a foot. Palou was slow leading pit lane and that dropped him back to 19th.
McLaughlin led the field to the restart on lap 94 and Herta immediately made an aggressive move by going low to try to pass McLaughlin for the lead. McLaughlin went to the high side on the restart in a frantic frenzy.
Will Power of Team Penske was penalized for speeding on pit road and had to serve a drive-through penalty.
By lap 126, Newgarden had advanced from 22nd to 10th since the start of the race.
McLaughlin led Herta by 1.968 seconds at lap 150.
Herta pitted on lap 176 with 75 laps to go, but as he was leaving pit lane, Palou lost control and crashed into the outside wall at the frontstretch. It was Palou’s first crash since Road America in June 2022.
“I think I just lost it out of turn 4,” Palou said. “A driver’s mistake. Unacceptable for the 10 car. The car was good.
“It just wasn’t our day.”
Because Herta had just pitted, and the yellow came out, that put him one lap down.
Herta got a wave around from IndyCar race control but will be at the tail end of the lead lap.
During the pit stops, McLaughlin was first off pit road, but Newgarden left in fourth place.
The restart began on lap 189 with McLaughlin leading O’Ward. McLaughlin’s Chevrolet got a little squirrely, but once the power kicked in, he moved away from O’Ward.
At lap 200, McLaughlin led O’Ward by .9196 seconds.
Linus Lundqvist pulled off to the inside of turn 1 with 39 laps to go for another yellow flag to slow the race.
With 30 laps to go, the field lined up for another restart and Mclaughlin hit the throttle to pull away from O’Ward. Dixon and Newgarden battled for third. Marcus Armstrong’s Honda was flashing its rear lights on the wing and IndyCar issued a black flag. Those lights are for caution.
Herta went into turn 3 and slid up the track but was able to save the Honda without losing control.
The yellow flag waved to make sense of the situation.
They lined up for another restart with 21 laps to go, but Ed Carpenter and Pietro Fittipaldi both crashed at the back of the pack a few seconds after the green flag waved.
Power ran into the back of Fittipaldi to trigger the crash. He was issued a 30-second stop-and-go penalty.
With 12 laps to go, McLaughlin hit the pedal on the restart but further back, Ferrucci was involved in some wheel-to-wheel action to try to get into the top five.
With 10 laps to go, McLaughlin led O’Ward by 0.7 seconds. Newgarden and Mclaughlin started trading fastest laps of the race, saving the most speed for the end.