The return of IndyCar to the track after the summer break once again generated numerous twists and turns in the finale of the Bommarito 500, a race held on the oval of Madison, on the outskirts of St. Louis (Illinois). The one who emerged, for the fifth time on this circuit, was Josef Newgardenwinner not without controversy in front of his teammate Scott McLaughlinwith the podium seeing the presence of the Swede Linus Lundqvist. Will Power and David Malukas were also candidates for the win, but both drivers ended their race in the closing stages. At the foot of the podium, but author of a sensational comeback, Colton Herta, 4th after starting from 25th position. Fifth, finally, Alex Palou, who with these results maintains the championship lead with four races to go.
Race report
The start saw a great start from poleman McLaughlin, who immediately pulled away from Malukas, who was then overtaken by Power. A battle behind McLaughlin that continued with a new exchange of positions just before the eighth lap, that is, before the caution for the contact between Katherine Legge and Ed Carpenter. The yellow flag was also shown just after the 15th lap, this time for an accident involving Daly, Kirkwood and Grosjean, in a phase of the race that generated a continuous battle for the first three positions between Malukas, McLaughlin and Power. From here to the 97th lap, that is, at the time of the restart following another caution for Simpson’s accident, Power remained steadily in the lead ahead of Malukas and McLaughlin, with the latter able to take advantage of an uncertainty at the start by the Lithuanian-American driver to move up to second place. A virtual podium that did not change even after the second stop of the first three drivers, at least until the 166th lap. With the third pit stop, McLaughlin took the lead of the race on Power, while Malukas lost third place to Newgarden. However, 30 laps later, here is the first of the many twists that occurred in the final part of the race: Newgarden himself lost control of the car, but avoided the impact with the barriers with great control of the car and only lost the position to Malukas.
With the yellow flags coming out and the race restarting with 54 laps to go, Malukas and Power pitted, with the top three changing with the new leader McLaughlin ahead of Newgarden and Rossi’s Arrow McLaren. With 30 laps to go, thanks to Rossi’s pit stop, Lundvist moved up into the podium ahead of Herta and Power, the latter determined to push hard to get back among the leaders. However, with 23 laps to go, another twist occurred: after Lundqvist’s pit stop, and in an attempt to catch up with Power, Malukas made contact with the Australian, crashing into the barriers and ruining any chance of finishing on the podium.
Thus the Pace Car entered the track again, with McLaughlin and Newgarden taking advantage of this to make their final pit stop. The challenge between the two in the pit lane was resolved in favor of the winner of the last Indianapolis 500, who thus took the lead, while Herta maintained 3rd place. The truly incredible episode, however, occurred 9 laps from the end, that is, at the moment of yet another restart: even before the finish line, in fact, Rossi hit Power, putting an end to the race for both, with the latter particularly furious with Newgarden, guilty of having slowed down during the restart after the green flag.
After this episode, the Race Direction opted for the red flagwith the final six laps still to go. While Newgarden defended his lead, taking his second win of the season, McLaughlin completed the Penske one-two ahead of a raging Linus Lundqvist, who in the finale snatched 3rd place from Herta to take his second podium of the season. Finally, the top-5 was completed by the leader of the overall standings Alex Palou, who also started from the back due to a penalty, but maintained the championship lead.
Bommarito 500 2024, Race: arrival order
| POS. | PILOT | TEAM | LAPS/GAP |
| 1 | Josef Newgarden | Penske | 260 rpm |
| 2 | Scott McLaughlin | Penske | +1.7260 |
| 3 | Linus Lundqvist | Ganassi Chips | +3.7875 |
| 4 | Colton Hertha | Andretti Global | +6.2446 |
| 5 | Alex Palou | Ganassi Chips | +6.0516 |
| 6 | Felix Rosenqvist | Meyer Shank | +1 lap |
| 7 | Nolan Siegel | Arrow McLaren | +1 lap |
| 8 | Marcus Armstrong | Ganassi Chips | +1 lap |
| 9 | Sting Ray Robb | A.J. Foyt | +1 lap |
| 10 | Rinus Veekay | Ed Carpenter | +1 lap |
| 11 | Scott Dixon | Ganassi Chips | +1 lap |
| 12 | Santino Ferrucci | A.J. Foyt | +1 lap |
| 13 | Conor Daly | Juncos Hollinger | +1 lap |
| 14 | Peter Fittipaldi | Rahal Letterman Lanigan | +1 lap |
| 15 | Christian Lundgaard | Rahal Letterman Lanigan | +2 laps |
| 16 | Romain Grosjean | Juncos Hollinger | +2 laps |
| 17 | Ed Carpenter | Ed Carpenter | +2 laps |
| 18 | Kyle Kirkwood | Andretti Global | +52 laps |
| 19 | Jack Harvey | Dale Coyne | Withdrawn |
| 20 | Alexander Rossi | Arrow McLaren | Withdrawn |
| 21 | Will Power | Penske | Withdrawn |
| 22 | David Malukas | Meyer Shank | Withdrawn |
| 23 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan | Withdrawn |
| 24 | Marcus Ericsson | Andretti Global | Withdrawn |
| 25 | Kyffin Simpson | Ganassi Chips | Withdrawn |
| 26 | Pato O’Ward | Arrow McLaren | Withdrawn |
| 27 | Katherine Legge | Dale Coyne | Retreat |
Next appointment
With the long wait over after the summer break, IndyCar will restart its engines next weekend. The event, the fourth to last of this season, will also be the last of the calendar on a road or street track before the grand finale on two oval tracks. Specifically, the top American series will return to Portland August 23-25.
#Bommarito #Race #Newgarden #wins #controversy
