- Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden wins for a record fifth time at World Wide Technology Raceway
- Polesitter Scott McLaughlin finishes runner-up for 1-2 Team Penske sweep
- 21 lead changes, 676 passes by the field establish new track records
MADISON, Ill. (August 17, 2024) – Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden continued his dominance of World Wide Technology Raceway by winning Saturday’s Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline for a record fifth time in nine visits to the demanding 1.25-mile oval.
But it was far from easy for the two-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion in a race that featured a track record-breaking 21 lead changes and 676 passes among the field.
World Wide Technology Raceway
Newgarden overcame a late spin and then had to hold off his teammate, polesitter Scott McLaughlin, following a red-flag restart with six laps remaining to secure his second win of the season and 31st of his career.
“It was just a hard fight to the end,” Newgarden said. “It was really tough trying to get it right with traffic, and time the pit-stop sequences.
“Then at the end, if you ask how we got it done, we had a fast car, for sure. I think we were really good in traffic, which was a difference maker, but then you can’t ignore that final pit stop was a big deal for us. It’s hard to say if it works out if we don’t get that done, but it certainly was a key ingredient to us winning the race so our guys in the pit lane, it’s a big credit to them.”
Newgarden brought out a caution on Lap 196 of 260 when he spun attempting to take the lead from McLaughlin, but did not sustain any damage to his No. 2 Chevrolet outside of flat spotting his tires and having to pit for fresh ones.
He managed to stay among the foursome that had run up front the majority of the race – teammate Will Power (race-high 117 laps), McLaughlin (67 laps led) and Meyer Shank’s David Malukas (11 laps led) – for the ensuing restart on Lap 206.
Then Newgarden’s closest competitors began to fall out of the race. The first was Malukas, who went to overtake Power on the inside for fourth place but the two had contact that sent the No. 66 into the wall.
The caution gave Newgarden and McLaughlin, who were both going to be close or short on fuel to be able to finish, an opportunity to dive in, get a splash and four fresh tires. Newgarden’s pit crew got him out in a stunning 5.1 seconds to give him his first lead of the race and one he would not surrender despite the hectic close.
Power survived the contact with Rossi, but was the next to bow out on the ensuing restart led by Newgarden. As the field approached the green flag, they got stacked up behind Newgarden with Alexander Rossi’s car flying over the rear of Power’s. Jack Harvey and Romain Grosjean also were collected and INDYCAR issued a red flag to clear the debris.
“It was definitely late,” Newgarden said of the restart. “I was trying to go as late as I could … It’s not that different of a restart than I’ve done before. I’ve done a lot of restarts from the front and it’s not that different from other restarts that have gone late. So I don’t know that I’d change much.
“It’s the last thing you want to happen at the end. I mean I don’t want to create a wreck, so I wasn’t trying to do that. It was not my intention. I don’t know that I’d do much different.”
It would become a six-lap shootout for the victory with the top four being Newgarden, McLaughlin, Colton Herta of Andretti Global with Curb-Agajanian and championship leader Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing, respectively.
Newgarden got a tremendous jump on the restart, opening a .6 of a second lead on the first lap and pushing it to over a second by the next lap. Meanwhile, hard-charging Chip Ganassi Racing rookie Linus Lundqvist passed Herta and Palou to move up to third. Newgarden, who led the final 17 laps, was never challenged as he won by 1.7260 seconds over McLaughlin.
“It was a little difficult at the start,” McLaughlin said. “I definitely don’t think I was the best car by any means. But once the race started coming to us, I really thought we had a really good chance there. I mean the last yellow was good for us, and then all the kerfuffle at the end. Ultimately, it was just nice to bring home really good points, and we’ll just keep this momentum rolling.”
In the INDY NXT by Firestone development series, Andretti Global driver Louis Foster continued his dominant march toward the championship with his series-best sixth victory coming in Saturday’s OUTFRONT Showdown.
Foster led all 75 laps and cruised to a 3.34-second victory over Jacob Abel of Abel Motorsports for his sixth win in the last eight races. He now holds a 91-point advantage over Abel with three races remaining. The runner-up finish by Abel was his eighth podium of the season. Abel’s teammate Yuven Sundaramoorthy rounded out the top three with his first career podium finish.
Salvador de Alba Jr. of Andretti Cape INDY NXT finished fourth and Callum Hedge of HMD Motorsports took fifth.
For information on upcoming events at World Wide Technology Raceway, please visit www.wwtraceway.com.
