It looked like Josef Newgarden’s race to lose. Then Pato O’Ward made his final stop.
The driver of the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet overcut Newgarden, who pit with 43 laps to go, by pitting a lap later than him, cycled out ahead and held him off for two restarts in the final 14 laps to score the victory in Synk 275 Race No. 1 at Iowa Speedway.
“Super happy for, first of all, all the guys and gals at Arrow McLaren,” O’Ward said. “We’ve been working really hard. But the guy we’re chasing down keeps winning a bunch of them.
“Also very happy for Team Chevy. This was important and very deserving for Team Chevy. I’m glad it was an all-Chevy podium.”
It’s his eighth career victory in 100 NTT INDYCAR Series starts and first of the 2025 season (as well as first by a Chevrolet driver in 2025).
Newgarden led a race high 232 laps, but couldn’t overtake O’Ward in the closing laps and brought his No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet home to a runner-up finish. His teammate, Will Power, rounded out the podium in third.
“Our car was really good,” Newgarden said. “Team did an amazing job. Been good all weekend. Really proud of the Astemo car we put out there. Team Chevy did amazing. It was great to see them get a result. They’ve really deserved one all year. Yeah, that’s that.”
Scott McLaughlin, who started last after a wreck in qualifying, finished fourth and championship leader Alex Palou rounded out the top-five.
Christian Rasmussen, Conor Daly, Santino Ferrucci, Marcus Armstrong and Scott Dixon rounded out the top-10.
Pato O’Ward overcuts on final stop to win Race 1 at Iowa
Race summary
Josef Newgarden led the field to green at 5:19 p.m. ET, but caution flew on the first lap when Colton Herta spun out through the frontstretch grass.
Back to green on Lap 9, Newgarden caught the tail-end of the field on Lap 28 and commenced putting cars a lap down. After 10 laps, however, he struggled to put Herta a lap down. Which let Conor Daly eat into his lead. Daly, however, couldn’t cut it down to more than half a second and fell back to a second behind Newgarden. Caution flew on Lap 74 when Jacob Abel got into the marbles and hit the wall in Turn 2. Everybody pitted under the caution.
Back to green on Lap 86, the field settled into a green flag run. Newgarden attempted to lap Kyffin Simpson on the high line on Lap 145, but lost momentum in the process and Pato O’Ward cut into his lead. Caution flew on Lap 153 when Kyle Kirkwood got into the marbles with a cut right-front tire and hit the wall in Turn 2.
Back to green on Lap 166, as with the last run, the field settled into a green flag run. Alexander Rossi kicked off a cycle of green flag stops on Lap 219. Newgarden pit from the lead with 43 laps to go. O’Ward pit from the lead with 42 to go. He cycled out ahead of Newgarden with 40 to go. Alex Palou pit from the lead with 35 to go and O’Ward cycled to the lead.
Caution flew with 28 to go when Nolan Siegel got loose and hit the Turn 4 wall. Wall repairs brought out a red flag with 17 to go.
Back to green with 14 to go, caution flew seconds later when Callum Ilott ran high in Turn 2, got loose and hit the wall.
Back to green with nine to go, Newgarden pounced on O’Ward to no success. He got loose in Turn 2 with eight to go and O’Ward drove onto victory.
Pato O’Ward overcuts on final stop to win Race 1 at Iowa
Nuts and bolts
The race lasted one hour and 46 minutes, at an average speed of 139.146 mph. There were six lead changes among five different drivers and five cautions for 47 laps.
Palou leaves with a 105-point lead over O’Ward.
The NTT INDYCAR SERIES returns to action, Sunday, at 1 p.m. ET for Race 2 at Iowa Speedway.
Synk 275 powered by Sukup Race Results
- (5) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 275, Running
- (1) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 275, Running
- (7) Will Power, Chevrolet, 275, Running
- (27) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 275, Running
- (4) Alex Palou, Honda, 275, Running
- (19) Christian Rasmussen, Chevrolet, 275, Running
- (2) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 275, Running
- (9) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 275, Running
- (11) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 275, Running
- (6) Scott Dixon, Honda, 275, Running
- (14) Graham Rahal, Honda, 275, Running
- (10) David Malukas, Chevrolet, 275, Running
- (23) Colton Herta, Honda, 275, Running
- (12) Louis Foster, Honda, 275, Running
- (15) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 275, Running
- (25) Rinus VeeKay, Honda, 274, Running
- (3) Felix Rosenqvist, Honda, 274, Running
- (22) Kyffin Simpson, Honda, 274, Running
- (20) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 274, Running
- (16) Robert Shwartzman, Chevrolet, 274, Running
- (21) Christian Lundgaard, Chevrolet, 274, Running
- (24) Sting Ray Robb, Chevrolet, 274, Running
- (17) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 260, Contact
- (8) Nolan Siegel, Chevrolet, 246, Contact
- (13) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 236, Mechanical
- (18) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 151, Contact
- (26) Jacob Abel, Honda, 72, Contact
Race Statistics
Winner’s average speed: 139.146 mph
Time of Race: 01:46:00.6760
Margin of victory: 0.2352 of a second
Cautions: 5 for 47 laps
Lead changes: 5 among 5 drivers
Lap Leaders:
Newgarden, Josef 1 – 232
O’Ward, Pato 233
Power, Will 234 – 236
Palou, Alex 237 – 240
Armstrong, Marcus 241 – 243
O’Ward, Pato 244 – 275
NTT INDYCAR SERIES Point Standings: Palou 461, O’Ward 356, Kirkwood 322, Dixon 302, Lundgaard 272, Rosenqvist 272, Power 238, Herta 234, Armstrong 232, McLaughlin 229, Ferrucci 222, Malukas 205, VeeKay 193, Newgarden 186, Rasmussen 183, Rossi 181, Simpson 174, Daly 170, Rahal 158, Ericsson 156, Siegel 153, Foster 134, Shwartzman 123, Robb 113, DeFrancesco 110, Ilott 102, Abel 69, Takuma Sato 36, Helio Castroneves 20, Ed Carpenter 16, Jack Harvey 12, Ryan Hunter-Reay 10, Kyle Larson 6, Marco Andretti 5
