With Saturday’s win Josef Newgarden has now won one-third of the races in 2022 and is back in thick of the Indycar Championship Hunt.
When Newgarden needed another good run to put himself back in the championship, Iowa Speedway popped onto the schedule not once but twice. This is his fourth career win at Iowa Speedway and a very important one. Newgarden’s win now puts him 15 points back from the Championship lead.
Story of the year for Newgarden has been highest of highs and bad timing. He isn’t quite sure why things have gone array at certain tracks and in certain races. That’s why Iowa Speedway couldn’t have come at a better time.
“We have had odd timing this year,” Newgarden said. “Stuff that we can’t control such as at Ohio we had bad timing. At Toronto we had bad timing with a caution. Those things have held us back. When we’re not winning the race, we’re off.”
When things looked bleak in the championship race, Newgarden saw Iowa Speedway and took advantage of his opportunity. Newgarden jumped out to massive leads throughout the day. He seems to be the only guy in the series that has mastered Iowa Speedway. One of his favorite places to race at, now he gets part two on Sunday.
He comes to a place that essentially has been a second home to Newgarden and dominates. Will Power started on the pole and led the first few laps of the event. After Newgarden was bumped from the pole spot in both races by Power, he was very upset and came back determined. With that determination, Newgarden passed Power early in the race and drove away. He hardly gave up the lead and never did while on track. Only green flag pit stops took that lead away from Newgarden.
While Pato O’Ward and Power gave Newgarden a challenge a couple of times throughout the race. Lap traffic played havoc on Newgarden at times but then he would be able to pull away as the second place car caught up. Regardless, Newgarden crushed the field once again at Iowa, a place that he has just been on a tear at.
Newgarden has owned Iowa Speedway throughout the majority of his career and now picks up win four in central Iowa. It was a win that set the tone for the weekend especially coming off of a second place starting spot. He has now led over 1,000 laps at Iowa and looks to pick up win No. 5 in Newton on Sunday.
Will Power said that Newgarden will be on pace to win the race on Sunday. Newgarden followed that statement by saying, “tomorrow is not a given… It will be a great race but nothing tomorrow is given.”
If “tomorrow is not a given” for Newgarden then lightning must have struck. He’s turned Iowa Speedway into a second home and looks to duplicate his dominate performance on Sunday.
