NEWTON, IOWA – Josef Newgarden returned to a victory lane setting that’s oh so familiar to him in IndyCar’s vibrant return to the Iowa Speedway.
The Tennessee native now holds four-career victories at the track and also stands at four wins on the 2022 NTT IndyCar Series season.
“For whatever reason, when we’re not winning the race, we’re off,” Newgarden said in his postrace press conference. “If we can find some kind of middle ground on the off-weekend’s, I think we’d be leading the championship points really handily.”
At the very least, the win makes those points a little closer.
Newgarden is now second in the NTT IndyCar Series championship race, standing 15 points behind Marcus Ericsson, who raced well on Saturday afternoon before getting a bit too high in the turns and losing a number of spots to his competitors. He still came home P8.
The victory marks career win No. 24 for Newgarden, tying him with Bobby Rahal and Ralph DePalma at No. 17 on the all-time wins list.
Jimmie Johnson showed a plethora of speed during Saturday’s race, taking advantage of the outside lane to drive around others and make a charge to the top five positions.
At one point, Johnson was leading laps, albeit during a pit cycle, before coming home with a P11 finish.
“I had so much fun out there today,” Johnson said. “I’ve watched so many great races on this track and to drive on it in person was such a rush. Here it was just down and dirty. Short track racing. Fits my style really well.”
As the field moves to Sunday, only one thing is assumed – Newgarden will be strong. That can still happen, but the Team Penske racer is more concerned with the days they have away from Iowa.
“Our boring days – we need to be finishing second or third,” Newgarden said. “When we can figure that out? We’ll be in business.”
The series returns to the track Sunday afternoon for the second race of the doubleheader weekend, scheduled to start at 2:00 p.m. CT on NBC.
NTT IndyCar Series results
HyVeeDeals.com 250
Iowa Speedway
Sat. July 23, 2022
1. Josef Newgarden
2. Pato O’Ward
3. Will Power
4. Rinus VeeKay
5. Scott Dixon
6. Alex Palou
7. Romain Grosjean
8. Marcus Ericsson
9. Graham Rahal
10. Christian Lundgaard
11. Jimmie Johnson
12. Callum Ilott
13. Alexender Rossi
14. David Malukas
15. Kyle Kirkwood
16. Helio Castroneves
17. Devlin DeFrancesco
18. Jack Harvey
19. Conor Daly
20. Dalton Kellett
21. Takuma Sato
22. Scott McLuaghlin
23. Simon Pagenaud
24. Colton Herta
25. Ed Carpenter
26. Felix Rosenqvist
NTT IndyCar Series point standings
After 11 of 17 races
1. Marcus Ericsson 375
2. Josef Newgarden -15
3. Will Power -22
4. Alex Palou -33
5. Scott Dixon -38
6. Pato O’Ward -59
7. Scott McLaughlin -93
8. Colton Herta -115
