Scott McLaughlin has finished second in the Indycars Illinois race. Photo: Richard Dole
On Lap 195 on Saturday, Josef Newgarden found himself spinning through the exit of Turn 2, losing control while trying to track down teammate and race leader Scott McLaughlin.
Just five laps later, Newgarden found himself not only in front of his teammate but in front of the rest of the IndyCar field, taking the chequered flag at the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Illinois.
In going from near disaster to race winner, Newgarden won at WWTR for the fifth time in his career and fourth time in five races. He won three straight there from 2020-22 before Scott Dixon won last year.
While Team Penske took the top two spots with Newgarden and McLaughlin, the Penske camp also took the most painful hit of the night near the end of the race.
As the cars were coming to green on a late-race restart, fourth-place Will Power bumped third-place Colton Herta, causing Power to check up. Alexander Rossi, running in fifth, then slammed into the back of Power, pushing Power's car nose-up into the air and ending the day for both cars.
Power, who entered the day second in the standings and 49 points behind leader Alex Palou, ended it in fourth place and 66 points out of the lead. After the wreck, Power blamed the incident on Newgarden, who was leading the race - and is a teammate of Power.
"Where are you supposed to go?" Power said when interviewed on TV following the wreck. "In between [Turns] 3 and 4, [Newgarden] he just waited, then he went. He went, he stopped. I knew that was going to happen. As soon as I checked up because [others] checked up, I knew I was going to get pounded [from behind]."
"The worst part [of the day] is [Power] not making it home," Newgarden said.
"I hate that that happened at the very end. I watched it on the TV and it kind of looked like the green went [on] before I went - just momentarily - and it caused a big accordion [effect].
"So, I hate that that happened. That's the last thing you want to happen with 10 [laps] to go is to create a mess."
McLaughlin 'gutted' but happy for team
A crucial moment occurred with 18 laps to go when Newgarden took the lead from McLaughlin with a lightning-fast pit stop.
"It was a one-one with the teams in the pit stop so we lost track position,'' McLaughlin told Sky Sport.
On the last restart, McLaughlin said his hybrid would not work and he could not close the gap on Newgarden.
He described the race events as "pretty chaotic".
"I'm super proud bringing second home. I'm gutted we didn't get the win obviously but overall Team Penske 1-2, you can't be upset about that."
Rookie Linus Lundqvist of Chip Ganassi Racing finished third, followed by Palou (also a Ganassi driver) and Andretti Global/Curb-Agajanian's Herta in fifth.
McLaughlin's fellow New Zealanders Marcus Armstrong and Scott Dixon finished eighth and 11th respectively.
McLaughlin is fifth in the Indycars season standings, behind Palou, Colton Herta, Dixon and Power.
The series returns to the track on 26 August for the Grand Prix of Portland.
- Reuters/RNZ Sport