MADISON, Ill. — A wild night of IndyCar Series racing brought out the red flag, and some red tempers between several drivers, in Saturday night’s Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway.
Josef Newgarden of Team Penske was the winner, but the real story was Will Power getting taken out of the race in a crash that he strongly believes was triggered by Newgarden bringing the field too slowly to the restart with 10 laps to go.
On the way to what should have been a restart with 10 laps to go, Newgarden brought the field very slow out of Turn Four creating a traffic jam. Will Power had to check up after the green light came on but tried to avoid running into the back of Colton Herta.
Alexander Rossi slammed into the back of Power’s No. 12 Chevrolet sending it launching into the air.
“I was trying to go as late as I could,” Newgarden admitted. “It’s not that much different than what I’ve done before. If anyone on our team looks at the data, they will see a consistent acceleration.
“From what it looked like, the green was just a moment before I went. If there is a slight miscue there, people are on edge and it mistimed the start.
“I did the same speed the next time through, I just went a little sooner.”
Power was irate and gestured toward Team Penske teammate Newgarden for the slow pace leading to the restart. But the tone of the engine and the acceleration were consistent and did not indicate he was off the throttle.
“It was the leader, you are supposed to between Turns Three and Four and he checked up and I knew I was going to get pounded,” Power said. “That’s disappointing. We had a good car. It’s pretty tough from here.
“I don’t know why they would keep backing up and not get going. I do not understand it.”
Team Penske President Tim Cindric called race strategy for Newgarden and gave his thoughts on what happened at the restart.
“It’s really unfortunate with Will getting caught up, that’s the last thing we wanted,” Team Penske President Tim Cindric said. “It’s a shame it ended up that way.
“We are hoping to get a spin and win out of it.”
Earlier in the race, Newgarden spun out of Turn Two but was able to avoid contact with the wall.
Colton Herta also radioed to his crew that Newgarden’s pace to the green was to blame.
“He started, stopped, started, stopped, race control should do something about that,” Herta radioed to his crew.
Andretti Global CEO Rob Edwards, who calls Herta’s race strategy, tried to take a big-picture viewpoint of the end of the race.
“We’ve come a long way since the start of the race and we don’t want to do anything to jeopardize that,” Edwards said.
Kyle Moyer, the IndyCar Team Manager at Team Penske who calls race strategy for McLaughlin said, “Newgarden is the leader, he sets the pace, and he earned that. You have to honor the pace he runs when it goes green.”
When the red flag was rescinded, the green flag waved with seven laps to go. Newgarden had a great jump over teammate Scott McLaughlin and went on to score the victory by 1.7260 seconds.
It was IndyCar win No. 31, moving him into the top 10 in all-time IndyCar winners. It was his second win this season. He also won the 108th Indianapolis 500 on May 26.
“We deserved that one, we had a great car,” Newgarden said. “I hate that that happened to Will Power. The replay looks like I was coming to the field slow, but I wasn’t. I really hate that it got involved in that.”
Rookie Linus Lundqvist of Chip Ganassi Racing was third in the No. 8 American Legion Honda followed by Colton Herta, who started 25th and came across the line fourth.
After the race, Herta was penalized for blocking and moved to the last car on the lead lap, ending the race in fifth position.
Championship leader Alex Palou was fifth in the No. 10 Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing and increased his points lead from 48 points over Power entering the weekend to 59 over Herta after the race.
The surprisingly good race featured a race record 21 lead changes, breaking the previous track record of 13 set in 2019 and 2022.
There were 676 on-track passes and 254 were for position. Of those passes, 115 came in the top 10 and 44 came in the top five. All those are IndyCar Records since the Series returned to World Wide Technology Raceway in 2017.
Power led the most laps with 117. McLaughlin led 67 and Newgarden 17. Marcus Ericsson of Andretti Global led 13 and David Malukas of Meyer Shank Racing led 11 laps.
“We had fast cars and that had to be obvious tonight,” Newgarden said. “We had good fuel numbers and when the race picked up pace, it favored the 2 (Newgarden’s) car. Once I learned you could take the high lane, I thought I thought I taught my teammates that too early because they started using it.
“That final pit stop was a big deal for us. It was a key ingredient for us winning the race. It was nice to get tonight to translate.”
It proved to be a much better race than many expected entering the contest.
McLaughlin got a great jump at the start and led the first lap as Herta moved up from the back. He started 25th in the 27-car field because he crashed on the second lap of his qualification attempt on Friday. He was able to slice through the field, even going four-wide as he moved up to 18th in five laps.
Malukas made a charge on McLaughlin for the lead on lap 8 before the first yellow flag of the race when Katherine Legge and Ed Carpenter both crashed in Turn One.
Racing resumed on lap 14 and three laps later, Malukas passed McLaughlin for the lead.
But it wasn’t long before the yellow light was back on as Conor Daly’s No. 78 Chevrolet did a 360-degree spin off Turn Two and slammed into the wall. Kyle Kirkwood’s No. 27 Honda was also involved.
The incident happened when Rinus VeeKay of Ed Carpenter Racing got loose off Turn Two, into the path of Daly’s Chevrolet.
Championship leader Palou was able to barely avoid the carnage and drive through.
Romain Grosjean’s No. 78 Chevrolet was also involved and had to have the front nose and wing replaced. He lost two laps.
Malukas led the field to the green flag restart on lap 27 before Power went low in Turn Three and shot by Malukas for the lead.
Herta passed Palou to get into 10th place by lap 34 in what developed into a pretty frantic oval race.
Pato O’Ward’s No. 5 Chevrolet died on lap 42 as he radioed to his crew, “It’s gone.”
The team plugged in a computer to the engine after the cover was removed to diagnose the issue. O’Ward entered the race fifth in points, 71 behind the leader, Palou.
O’Ward’s Chevrolet was rolled back into the garage area.
VeeKay, running seventh, was the first to pit on lap 59. Pietro Fittipaldi followed. Palou pitted on lap 60 as did Herta.
Power and Newgarden both pitted on lap 62. One lap later, McLaughlin pitted and that put Nolan Siegel in the lead.
Siegel pitted on lap 68 and Alexander Rossi was the leader ahead of Dixon. Both pitted on lap 70.
That put Graham Rahal in the lead ahead of teammate Christian Lundgaard.
Once those two drivers pitted, Power was back in the lead ahead of Malukas, McLaughlin and Newgarden.
Kyffin Simpson backed it into the Turn Four wall on lap 87 for the third caution period of the race.
Marcus Ericsson pitted from fifth place on lap 90 and Andretti Global believed the driver could make it the rest of the race on just two more pit stops. That put Ericsson 11th.
Dixon made his third pit stop on lap 91 and that also put him in a position to make just two more stops before the end of the race.
Two of the five Chip Ganassi Racing drivers were assessed monetary fines by IndyCar Race Control.
Marcus Armstrong’s was for unattended pit equipment and Dixon was penalized for hitting his own equipment. It did not affect their running positions, however.
The green flag waved on lap 97 with Power leading Malukas, McLaughlin, Newgarden and Armstrong.
At lap 100, Power led McLaughlin by 0.634. Malukas was third, 1.349 seconds back with Newgarden fourth and Armstrong fifth.
Malukas came down pit road on lap 118 for his second pit stop. His crew told him not to use the clutch because his No 66 Honda was starting to have a clutch issue. Power made his second pit stop one lap later as another round of pit stops was underway.
McLaughlin pitted on lap 122, the last of that group to come down pit road. The other drivers were using two different pit stop strategies.
Ericsson was the leader on lap 130 followed by Dixon, Siegel, Linus Lundqvist and Santino Ferrucci.
Dixon took over the lead and was in front of Siegel, Lundqvist, Ferrucci and Ericsson as he started to back up to the field to conserve fuel.
Siegel took the lead when Dixon backed up his pace on lap 144.
Dixon and Siegel both pitted on lap 148. Ericsson pitted one lap later as the field became a battle of three distinct pit-stop strategies.
Ericsson had an issue on pit road, which cost him a significant amount of time and the victory. Siegel and Ferrucci were also issued speeding penalties on pit road, ruining their chances at victory.
“Sorry guys, I locked up the rear,” Siegel radioed to his crew. “That sucks.”
Ericsson was back in the pits after a few laps, and it appeared his race was over. His crew wheeled the No. 28 Honda back to the garage area with an MGU failure on the hybrid engine.
“We were having a really strong day,” Ericsson said. “We were having a really good weekend, fighting until the end and had it taken away from you.
“The Honda mileage was really good, and I was hitting the mileage we needed. We were looking really good. We had the car and the speed to win that thing. It just doesn’t want to go our way.”
Rahal also retired his car and was out of the race.
Herta pitted on lap 168 as Power was the leader followed by McLaughlin and Newgarden. But Newgarden pitted on lap 169, the first of his group to pit using that strategy.
Sting Ray Robb was in front for a few laps as he had yet to pit. He was ahead of McLaughlin, Newgarden, Power, Malukas and Lundqvist.
Dixon pitted before a dramatic moment in the race when Newgarden’s No. 2 Chevrolet got into the gray high-line area of the track, spun out and lost control, but was able to keep the car from hitting the wall in Turn Two. That brought out the yellow flag on lap 196.
The timing of the yellow worked against Dixon, who was two laps down after making his pit stop. If that had come a few laps later when the lead group of drivers pitted, he would have gotten one of those laps back.
McLaughlin, the leader, and Newgarden pitted on lap 200. Power stayed out as did Malukas, putting down those drivers at the head of the field.
Racing resumed on lap 207 with Power getting a jump on Malukas. There were eight cars on the lead lap at that point and Power’s strategy was to run hard for about 20 laps to build a lead before making his final pit stop.
Malukas made his last stop on lap 219 for a splash and go with a tire change. Power pitted one lap later for his last stop, so both were good to go the remainder while the other drivers were uncertain if they could make it to the end.
Rossi, who was running third, pitted on lap 230 for 10 seconds worth of fuel and no tires. McLaughlin passed Herta with 27 to go to put him a lap down, leaving just three cars on the lead lap. Rosenqvist pitted with 22 laps to go and that put McLaughlin and Newgarden as the only two cars on the lead lap.
Malukas tried to dive to the inside of Power in Turn One for what could have been the victory. The two cars touched; Power was able to continue but Malukas slammed hard into the outside wall with 20 laps to go.
The race course was littered with debris meaning an extensive clean up with McLaughlin and Newgarden the only two left on the lead lap.
“I set it up, went to the inside, but from my side I came in, Power just came by and screamed at me, I gave him as much room as a I could,” Malukas said. “I would still give him the move. I would continue to give him the move.
“It’s really unfortunate. Yeah, that sucks.
“It was just such a good weekend for us. I really wanted that result. Toronto was a good result, and this was going to be another good one. We’ll carry it to Portland.”
With 18 laps to go, Newgarden and McLaughlin both pitted for fuel and new tires. Newgarden was in and out in 5.1 seconds, needing very little fuel. By pitting, that put eight drivers on the lead lap as both Newgarden and McLaughlin lost their advantage.
That was before the aborted restart with 10 laps to go that brought out the red flag. Power believed Newgarden was way too slow heading to the green flag that created the crash and the hot tempers at the end.
While plenty happy to be in victory lane, Newgarden understands his frustration.
“Well, I know Will pretty well,” Newgarden said. “I get that he’s upset. He got wrecked out of the race. He’s a championship contender. When you get run into, especially after the night he had, he had a great night, a fast car, he drove super well. He led two-thirds of this thing. Imagine how he feels. I get it. I get that he’s upset.
“I think he’s going to try to place blame wherever he directly sees it right off the bat. He gets hot quick. I think when you calm down and look at it, it’s probably not going to be exactly what he thought it was in the moment.
“But the point is, he’s going to be upset because this is not good for his night in the championship?
“Believe me, the last thing I want to happen is for Will to get hit. I can tell you that right now.
“If I go and sit with my boss tonight, he’s going to look at me and say, Did you do a good job tonight? I want him to think I did a good job every single night that I see him.
“I wouldn’t change much from my procedure. It’s not that different than what I’ve done in the past. I hate that Will got caught out in a situation tonight, someone running into him.
“It’s not fun.”