The Penske Team driver has conquered the fifth affirmation of the season with his Chevrolet powered single-seater, with an advantage of 0 “470 over the very gritty rookie David Malukas (Dale Coyne Racing with HMD), at the best result of his career.
This was also Newgarden’s third consecutive victory on the 1.25-mile oval at Gateway. The two-time Champion of the Newgarden series was only three points behind teammate and series leader Will Power (sixth with 128 laps to his name) with just two races to go.
The official distance of this race was 260 laps, but the delay of the rain practically caused 213 laps to be held in daylight followed by 47 in the spotlight.
By the time the race resumed at 9.05pm local time, track conditions had changed significantly as the water had cleared the asphalt and grip had improved thanks to the cooler temperatures after dark.
The starting grid returned to the track under Caution, then McLaughlin took off when the green flag flew on lap 224. But Newgarden wasted no time getting McLaughlin onto the back straight at Turn 3 on lap 225 to take the lead.
McLaughlin remained about 0 “6 behind his teammate for the next 34 laps, but was unable to pass. Meanwhile, Malukas moved from fifth to the restart to second, overtaking O’Ward on lap 245 and aiming for Newgarden and McLaughlin.
After passing the latter in the fight for second place on the last lap with a courageous move to the outside in turn 1, Malukas hits the place of honor.
The teams attempted various pit strategies in the second half of the race to try to be in the lead when the expected rain came in order to grab the win if the race didn’t restart. Malukas and Sato adopted an alternative strategy that sent the former to lead from lap 207 to 211, but was then forced to the pits. The rain came only two laps later.
It seemed that the strategy of the pits and the traffic had hampered Newgarden just before the flood.
McLaughlin pitted from second on lap 207. Newgarden paused in the next one following Christian Lundgaard (Honda).
Newgarden’s pit lap was 1.065 slower than McLaughlin’s, who held the lead when Newgarden rejoined the track after his stop to the red flag.
Scott McLaughlin finished third with Team Penske’s Chevrolet, despite leading the restart with 37 laps to go, after the red flag for rain and lightning.
Pato O’Ward finished fourth with Arrow McLaren SP’s Chevrolet, followed by Takuma Sato, his best result of the season with Dale Coyne Racing’s Honda.
The race for the championship remains tight. Seven riders still have a mathematical chance of winning the title, encased in just 58 points from Power to O’Ward.
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