Yahoo Autos What You May Have Missed from Pato O'Ward's IndyCar Win at Iowa Speedway
Pato O’Ward was happy, but also kind of bummed, that he finished second in Saturday’s front end of the IndyCar weekend doubleheader at Iowa Speedway. He really wanted to beat Josef Newgarden to the finish line, but came up just a wee bit short.
So what did O’Ward do for an encore and to make up for what he felt he left on the table Saturday? Simple: He went out and won Sunday’s Hy-Vee Salute to Farmers 300.
That gave the Arrow McLaren SP driver near-maximum points and put him right back into contention for the 2022 championship, moving up to fifth in the standings after taking the checkered flag, now just two points behind Josef Newgarden and Scott Dixon, who are tied for third, 34 points behind points leader Marcus Ericsson.
“The No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP, the guys in the pits were awesome,” O’Ward said. “I think that’s what gave us our win. I did my job in the car to keep us safe and just maintain there. I knew we had the pace, but it’s just tough whenever you’re going through the traffic. It’s different every lap.
“I’m super stoked, super happy. We knew we had a great car. It was just a matter of being there and capitalizing when it counted. It was very, very enjoyable. It’s been a great weekend.”
It was O’Ward’s second win of the season, having previously won the fourth race of the year at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama.
“Hopefully we can win a couple more, that would be fantastic,” O’Ward said. “We’ve had a good year but we dumped two wins in the past couple months. So it’s definitely been a frustrating. … But this is the perfect momentum we need going into the months of August and September and obviously close out the month of July at Indianapolis next week.”
The Mexico native has now won on four different types of tracks in the IndyCar Series: big oval (Texas), temporary street course (Belle Isle), permanent road course (Birmingham) and now on a short oval, the .875-mile circle track in Iowa.
And how about this for a unique footnote on his win: In the last three doubleheaders on the IndyCar circuit, O’Ward has won the second race of each weekend: at Iowa on Sunday, and at Detroit and Texas both last year.
Will Power Knocking on Door to Championship
While Newgarden crashed out and finishded 24th in the 26-car field on Sunday, his two Team Penske teammates left Iowa with big smiles on their faces.
Will Power finished second and is now just eight points behind series points leader Ericsson.
“It was a good day,” said Power, who finished third in Saturday’s race. “You would have loved to get the win but we led some laps and we were really fast. It was really cool to get on the podium again and close in on the points lead. We’re going to get one of these wins soon. We’re there. Just enjoying it, loving the racing and love this track.”
Power was concerned about what happened to his teammate and his wreck.
“I didn’t know it was a suspension failure,” Power said of Newgarden’s mishap. “If I had heard that, you do start to get worried. It’s tough, having that sort of thing, having something break. I feel bad for him. Nothing worse for him, ending up in the wall because it’s not your fault.”
And then there was the other Team Penske teammate, Scott McLaughlin, who joined Power and O’Ward on the podium with his own third-place finish Sunday.
“I’m really proud,” the New Zealand native said. “I really struggled to run the bottom. When other cars started to run the bottom, I went straight up high. I threw it up in there and hoped for the best and we were all right.”
Jimmie Johnson Has Best Day in IndyCar
For the first time in his IndyCar career, Jimmie Johnson’s name could be said in the same sentence as the top-five finishers.
Johnson finished 11th Saturday, but roared back to finish an IndyCar career-best fifth on Sunday, one position behind Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon.
“This is a really special day for me and everybody that’s been on this journey with me in the IndyCar Series,” Johnson said.
Johnson has now earned his two best finishes in IndyCar this season on ovals, having finished a previous best sixth earlier this year at Texas Motor Speedway.
“It took me getting on the ovals to get my best finishes and I’m so glad I was able to do that today,” Johnson said. “It was just such a fun day. Today I had it in me. I raced everybody clean and hard and just had an awesome day.”
In addition to finishing right behind Dixon, Johnson bested his two other teammates, Indianapolis 500 winner Marcus Ericsson, who finished sixth, while defending series champion Alex Palou was 13th (after finishing sixth on Saturday).
What’s wrong with Andretti Autosport?
The Michael Andretti-owned team had a rough weekend, without question. No matter what the organization tried, nothing seemed to work.
Ironically, former Formula One driver Romain Grosjean, in his first full season with the Andretti group, was the highest-finishing driver for the organization both Saturday (finished seventh) and Sunday (ninth).
“I’m very proud of the whole weekend,” Grosjean said. “It was my first time driving here at Iowa. We struggled a bit more today with the car but I did a good job finishing, only the second time I’ve been on a short track … and finished ninth.”
As for his teammates:
• Colton Herta finished 24th Saturday before rebounding to a 12th-place showing Sunday.
• Alexander Rossi, who is headed to Arrow McLaren SP next season, finished 13th Saturday and 18th Sunday.
• Devlin DeFrancesco was 17th Saturday and improved slightly to 15th on Sunday.
Grosjean hopes to keep his momentum going Saturday on the IMS road course.
“We’re going to make some changes on the car,” he said. “The last few road courses haven’t been really good to us. Hopefully we go there, I’m glad to turn right and brake a little bit, but I’m definitely getting more and more acquainted with ovals and I like it.”
Castroneves Ties Foyt Mark
Meyer Shank Racing had one of the roughest weekends of all teams.
Saturday, Helio Castroneves finished 16th, one lap off the lead lap, his fourth finish of 16th or worst in the last five races, while teammate Simon Pagenaud was 23rd, six laps off the pace, after contact with Takuma Sato.
Pagenaud had been coming on of late: starting with the Indianapolis Grand Prix, he had six consecutive strong finishes between his Indy GP finish and 12th at Road America.
Sunday, it was more of the same as Saturday for both drivers, as Castroneves finished 21st, five laps behind the winner, and Pagenaud was 23rd, 19 laps off the pace.
Ironically, Sunday marked Castroneves’ 369th career start in the IndyCar Series, tying him for most starts in American open-wheel racing with legendary racer A.J. Foyt.
But Wait, There's More
Felix Rosenqvist bounced back strongly from Saturday’s crash, which left him last in the 26-driver field, with a completely rebuilt car on Sunday, finishing seventh. I was aiming for a top-three today, had a brake issue, but we managed to recover real well,” Rosenqvist said. … Scott Dixon continues to methodically make his way up the standings ladder. After winning at Toronto last week and finishing fifth Saturday, Dixon finished fourth Sunday, helping him into a tie now for third place in the standings with Newgarden. “It was a little frustrating on the restarts, hard to attack on the last one and I couldn’t pull it off,” Dixon said. But conversely, it was a “good points day for us, just 34 points back and tied for 3rd.” … Rookie Christian Lundgaard learned how fickle IndyCar racing can be this weekend. He finished 10th in Saturday’s race, his fourth consecutive race of between eighth and 11th. Sunday, not so much. The Danish driver finished last in the 26-driver field due to mechanical issues. … The series returns to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on Saturday for the second Indy GP of the season, part of the weekend doubleheader with NASCAR, whose Cup Series hosts the Brickyard 400 on Sunday. IndyCar is currently in a span of five races in a 22-day period. The final race of the five-race stretch is August 7 on the streets of Nashville, which afterward will leave the series with just three more races before the end of the season (August 20 at St. Louis, Sept. 4 at Portland and the season finale on Sept. 11 at Laguna Seca). … Actor Mark Wahlberg gave the command to start engines and served as the race’s grand marshal.
Follow Autoweek contributor Jerry Bonkowski on Twitter @JerryBonkowski
Hy-Vee Salute to Farmers 300
Results
Results Sunday of the Hy-Vee Salute to Farmers 300 presented by Google NTT INDYCAR SERIES event on the 0.894-mile Iowa Speedway, with order of finish, starting position in parentheses, driver, engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):
1. (7) Pato O'Ward, Chevrolet, 300, Running
2. (1) Will Power, Chevrolet, 300, Running
3. (5) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 300, Running
4. (18) Scott Dixon, Honda, 300, Running
5. (13) Jimmie Johnson, Honda, 300, Running
6. (15) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 300, Running
7. (9) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 300, Running
8. (14) David Malukas, Honda, 300, Running
9. (10) Romain Grosjean, Honda, 300, Running
10. (4) Takuma Sato, Honda, 300, Running
11. (22) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 300, Running
12. (12) Colton Herta, Honda, 299, Running
13. (11) Alex Palou, Honda, 299, Running
14. (23) Graham Rahal, Honda, 299, Running
15. (25) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 298, Running
16. (3) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 298, Running
17. (19) Ed Carpenter, Chevrolet, 297, Running
18. (21) Alexander Rossi, Honda, 296, Running
19. (8) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 296, Running
20. (6) Jack Harvey, Honda, 296, Running
21. (24) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 295, Running
22. (26) Dalton Kellett, Chevrolet, 294, Running
23. (16) Simon Pagenaud, Honda, 281, Running
24. (2) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 235, Contact
25. (20) Kyle Kirkwood, Chevrolet, 117, Contact
26. (17) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 112, Mechanical
Race Statistics
Winner's average speed: 140.681 mph
Time of Race: 1:54:23.2097
Margin of victory: 4.2476 seconds
Cautions: 2 for 26
Lead changes: 7 among 5 drivers
Lap Leaders:
Power 1 - 65
Sato 66 - 67
Malukas 68
Power 69 - 83
Newgarden 84 - 195
Sato 196 - 198
Newgarden 199 - 234
O'Ward 235 - 300
Updated NTT IndyCar Series Point Standings
Ericsson 403, Power 395, Newgarden 369, Dixon 369, O'Ward 367, Palou 359, McLaughlin 317, Herta 278, Rosenqvist 275, Rossi 265, Pagenaud 257, VeeKay 254, Rahal 248, Grosjean 245, Daly 223, Lundgaard 208, Malukas 204, Castroneves 196, Sato 184, Johnson 158, Ilott 150, Harvey 148, DeFrancesco 139, Kirkwood 126, Kellett 94, Tpny Kanaan 78, Santino Ferrucci 71, Carpenter 67, Tatiana Calderon 58, JR Hildebrand 53, Juan Pablo Montoya 44, Simona De Silvestro 21, Marco Andretti 17, Sage Karam 14, Stefan Wilson 10.
