Tempers Flare, Josef Newgarden Wins at WWTR After Chaotic Restart

Josef Newgarden secured his second win of the 2024 season in the crash-filled Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at WWT Raceway on Saturday evening. At least one of Newgarden's Penske teammates leaves the track displeased with the result after blaming Newgarden for causing an accordion crash on the second to last restart, forcing the No. 12 to retire from the race.

With 20 laps remaining, Power and David Malukas touched while battling for fifth, but with where the pits were cycling without another yellow, they were battling for the lead. The contact ended Malukas's race and brought out the yellow flag. At the time, Newgarden and his Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin were the only two drivers on the lead lap; neither of them had enough fuel to make it to the end and had to pit for a splash; taking advantage of this position, they both changed four tires as well.

The Penske No. 2 pit crew for Josef Newgarden gave the reigning Indy 500 champion a splash of fuel and changed four tires in 5.1 seconds to release him back to the lead next to his teammate Scott McLaughlin.

Newgarden was almost out of the race on lap 196 when he spun while attempting to make a pass on McLaughlin and successfully saved it, not damaging his vehicle. This was the second time today's driver kept it out of the wall after Callum Hedge had a similar save in the Indy NXT race.

Rolling to the restart with ten laps to go, Newgarden was slow to accelerate, and an accordion crash resulted behind him when his teammate Will Power checked up from third and was rear-ended by the Arrow McLaren of Alexandar Rossi. With under 10 to go, the race was red-flagged to clean up the debris and finish the race under green. Jack Harvey and Connor Daly were also collected. The race was red-flagged to preserve the finish.

When NBC's Dillon Welch asked what happened, Power was not happy and blamed his race-winning teammate for the crash.

The leader, whoever was leading," Power said on the reason for his race-ending crash. "Where are you supposed to go between three and four? He waited, then he went, he stopped, he went, he stopped. I knew that was going to happen as soon as I checked up because he checked up again; I knew I was going to get pounded. Man, it was disappointing; we had such a good car."

Power also had words for Malukas, whose race ended a few laps prior when the two collided. Malukas told Georgia Henneberry of IndyCar on NBC that Power came by to scream at him.

"Power just came by and screamed at me. I don’t even know if he got a penalty there, but I braked, I slowed down, I gave him as much room as I could other than the curb, and he gave me a tap. There’s not much more I can do, 'You’re screaming at me? Man, you have a whole second lane, you could go up there'. I would continue to do the move. I thought it was a good move. I gave him the space; we slowed down."

Malukas was projected to finish in the top five before the contact and instead was scored in 21st.

Newgarden led off the last restart with eight to go and pulled away to his fifth win at WWT Raceway and 31st career victory in IndyCar, officially entering the top ten for all-time wins.

After the race, Newgarden stated that he was upset that Power was caught up in the accordion crash, saying, "The worst part about it is the No. 12 not making it home. I hate that that happened at the very end. I watched it on TV, and it looked like the green went out before I went, just momentarily, and caused a big accordion."

McLaughlin led the most laps of the race with 63 but had to settle for second behind his teammate. Linus Lundqvist secured his second podium of his career and his first on an oval.

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