Josef Newgarden Doubles Up at Iowa; Sweeps Weekend

The HyVee INDYCAR Weekend came to a close Sunday with a familiar face back atop the podium. Josef Newgarden dominates the day and wins the HyVee OneStep 250 Sunday at Iowa Speedway, his second of the weekend. Team Penske teammate Will Power ran second and Alex Palou placed third to round out the podium.

Newgarden cruised to another win, his sixth victory at Iowa. Again it was a dominant day for the Team Penske driver. He led 212 laps of the 250 in the second race of the weekend. Leading 129 laps during Saturday’s win, this was a much more dominant drive for Newgarden.

Starting seventh, Newgarden was able to drive to the front quickly and never looked back. A hotter track never seemed to play a factor to the naked eye. Newgarden sweeps the weekend and completes the job he set out for.

“By no means easy. Today was different, you look at the order and it was jumbled in the top ten,” Newgarden said during the post-race press conference. “Balance wise, with a hotter track you are getting different reactions from the car. I think that’s why you saw the order slightly jumbled.

“Great day, I feel really happy about today. Yesterday felt incomplete, that’s the only way that I can really put it. When you have a doubleheader and you have a really good car it just didn’t feel finished. A much happier day and a great team win.”

It is his fifth straight oval win and he now moves into a tie with Rick Mears at 13th in all-time INDYCAR wins.

Balance is key at Iowa and Newgarden had to battle it all day. Once they found the balance early he never had to adjust. Throughout the stops he made during the day, his team never made a wing adjustment.

“It was more difficult today to manage the front and rear axle,” Newgarden said. “You could get yourself in a bad spot on either end of the race car today. That’s why we saw people moving around a lot. Because it was really easy to get it wrong and it changed from stint to stint.”

Power ran second to Newgarden on Sunday. After leading over 100 laps on Saturday, his car faded late. He hit the wall and lost key track position. Sunday he rebounded to run second and led 30 laps early.

While his car was a little better today, Power still didn’t have a lot for Newgarden. It didn’t take long for Power’s Penske teammate to climb the standings.

Newgarden got around Power near the first fuel stop after lap traffic played a factor yet again. Being trapped, Power lost the lead and really battled back to second. He fell to fourth at one point but was able to make strides and make the car better.

Chasing a points championship, Palou was able to turn a below average day into a podium finish. He never led a lap during the race Sunday but ran a consistent race. Putting himself in a great spot for his points championship.

After Newgarden made up a lot of points on Saturday, Palou was able to keep a safe distance in his points lead on Sunday. A good day for points and a changing car made better by his team allowed Palou to get to the front and take that podium spot.

HyVee OneStep 250 Results at Iowa Speedway: