Newgarden Wins at Gateway as Championship Battle Tightens

Mother nature set up a wild 40-lap shootout at World Wide Technology Raceway, which ended with Newgarden in victory lane for the fourth time at the track. This was his third consecutive victory at Gateway, but it was nearly stolen from him on the final lap of the race.

Newgarden and his teammate Scott McLaughlin were battling for the lead with about 50 laps remaining, when rain began to fall. The race was red-flagged for rain with 43 laps remaining, with McLaughlin ahead. The two drivers pitted just before the rain arrived, but Newgarden got caught behind traffic coming to pit road, which ultimately cost him the lead. He was not about to let it cost him a race win.

Saturday's race began in daylight, but ended under the lights after a delay of 2 hours and 9 minutes. The finish was well worth the wait as two drivers, in particular, put on an incredible show.

Newgarden wasted no time once the race resumed and took the lead with 36 laps to go and never looked back. The two-time series champion has been dominant on the ovals this season, outside of Indianapolis. He won three of the four races, but it would have been four-for-four had it not been for the shock failure at Iowa that took him out of the race while leading.

“I was so happy we could finish this race,” Newgarden said. “Scott McLaughlin, he wanted to win, too. I love that about us. We have a good relationship. He drove me super fair there at the end.”

“Scott drove me super-fair at the end there and we had a good fight,” Newgarden said. “It’s a big night for everybody at Team Penske. We just had to have a good restart. I knew Scott was going to be good and he had a good car, so I just tried to work the high lane. Got to give him credit, he easily could have won tonight.”

While Newgarden had firm control of this race in the closing laps, he was fortunate that this race was only 260 laps in length. David Malukas was on the hunt, and was on Newgarden's rear wing as they crossed the finish line. It was a career-best finish for the rookie, who likely needed just another lap or two to get his first victory. The final margin of victory was just 0.470 seconds.

“Two laps to go, that was the lap I decided to do the outside lane, and it worked so well,” Malukas said after his runner-up finish. “We ended up getting around O’Ward and got around a lapped car, and then I saw the cars in front and they were two Penskes, and I was like, Oh my God, it’s two Penskes! I might have been able to get Josef if I’d tried the high line earlier, but that was like a win for me, a win for the team.”

McLaughlin was unable to hold Malukas at bay, and settled for the final spot on the podium. Pato O'Ward held on for another top-four finish at a track that is quickly becoming one of his favorites. In his four career starts at Gateway, the Arrow McLaren SP driver has now finished 3rd, 2nd, 2nd, and 4th. Takuma Sato rounded out the top-five, capping an extraordinary day for Dale Coyne Racing.

McLaughlin praised Malukas after his impressive performance. “That’s racing,” Scott said. “Dave’s move on the last lap, credit to him. He’s a phenomenal young kid and he’s going to go far. He was coming and I was a little loose so I got a bad run off Turns 3 and 4, so I took the inside line, he took the outside and there was still grip there. Hell of a move. But good points for us.”

The victory moves Newgarden into 2nd place in the championship, with just two races remaining. He is now just 3 points behind his teammate Will Power, who finished 6th after starting on pole for a record 67th time in his career. Newgarden led 78 laps today, while Power led a race-high 128 laps.

Power was in position to capitalize but the team opted not to pit him at a crucial moment in the race. “I thought the yellow would help us, but the team didn’t tell me the number we’d have to hit if we didn’t pit,” Power said. “If I’d known that number, I definitely would have pitted.”

Marcus Ericsson had a quiet but steady race, finishing in 7th. The Indy 500 winner is the only driver in the series to finish inside the top-ten in all five oval races this season. He is 4th in the championship standings, just 17 points out of the lead as he aims for his first series title.

Three points ahead of Ericsson in the standings is a guy that knows a thing or two about championships. That would be his teammate, and six-time series champion Scott Dixon. He finished 8th tonight and still has a legitimate shot to add another Astor Cup to his collection. Chip Ganassi cars finished 7th, 8th, and 9th tonight as Alex Palou scored another top-ten.

"Average night. We just really struggled to get on a roll," Dixon said. "Any kind of undercut or whatever we tried we got blocked into a lapped traffic scenario. Definitely frustrating. We missed a valuable pit stop I think on one of the cautions which maybe would have changed it, maybe not. The team did a hell of a job, the pit stops were awesome all night. It came out okay, we're still 14 points out of the championships and with two races to go we're definitely in it."

Graham Rahal rounded out the top-ten tonight, in what was a great weekend for the No. 15 crew. After four consecutive finishes of 18th or worse at Gateway, Graham finally turned the tide at this track. The second-generation driver was fast all weekend but his two RLL Racing teammates did not have the same experience. Christian Lundgaard finished 19th and Jack Harvey 24th after getting into the wall on Lap 144.

Colton Herta finished where he started, in 11th position, as none of the Andretti cars were able to get to the front. Two of his teammates finished just behind him in Devlin DeFrancesco and Romain Grosjean. The fourth car, driven by Alexander Rossi, had another race to forget as he finished 25th.

Rossi's rotten luck at Gateway continued, as he made his final oval start with the team. The driver of the No. 27 Honda came to pit road on Lap 124 and his engine cut off. The team was unable to get his car re-fired and his night was ruined. His 13th place finish in 2019 is his best result here in the last five races.

Legendary drivers Jimmie Johnson and Helio Castroneves completed the top-15 at Gateway, but they were never a factor in the race. Helio’s Meyer Shank Racing teammate Simon Pagenaud was also out to lunch after their strategy did not pan out. Simon finished in 20th, in what has been a disappointing season for the 2016 series champion.

It was a brutal weekend for Ed Carpenter Racing, as their three drivers finished 22nd, 23rd, and 26th tonight. It went south from the drop of the green flag when Rinus VeeKay tapped the inside wall. During his first pit stop, his No. 21 Chevrolet suffered electrical issues, and his day was done. Conor Daly had a shifting issue on his car at Lap 202 of the race and Carpenter struggled yet again to have any pace. The team owner has finished 20th or worse in his last four races at Gateway.

Felix Rosenqvist had an eventful weekend. After spinning during his qualifying run on Friday, the Arrow McLaren SP driver started at the back of the pack and shot his way through the field. After passing 12 cars in the first two laps of the race, he settled in. Their strategy also didn’t pay off, but he once again showed his value as a top driver in this series.

The championship is now essentially a battle between four drivers. Power, Newgarden, Dixon, and Ericsson are all within 17 points. Palou sits in 5th but the reigning champ likely won’t be able to defend his title this year as he is 43 points behind. McLaughlin is 54 points back as the top-six drivers are all with either Penske or Ganassi.

A wild night under the lights has set the stage for the penultimate race of the 2022 season. The series will have another weekend off before the final two races on the west coast to determine the championship. First up will be a trip to Portland. Coverage for Sunday's Grand Prix of Portland begins at 3:00 ET on NBC.