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| Josef Newgarden fights back in title defense at Harvest GP |
Josef Newgarden picked up his third victory of the 2020 NTT IndyCar Series season and gave new life to his championship defense in the first Harvest Grand Prix race. The victory brought Newgarden within 40 points of Scott Dixon and, at the current deficit, the title battle will continue to the St. Petersburg finale in three weeks. Newgarden had not finished better than seventh on the IMS road course before yesterday. Newgarden has never swept a doubleheader weekend and he has never had podium finishes in both races of a doubleheader weekend. The only time he has won consecutive races was at Toronto and Mid-Ohio in 2017.
Alexander Rossi picked up his third consecutive podium finish yesterday after a runner-up finish to Newgarden. It was Rossi's first podium finish on the IMS road course. His previous best finish at the track was fifth in 2018. Rossi has not won this season, but his first and only victory of the 2017 season came in the penultimate race at Watkins Glen. Rossi finds himself one point outside the top ten of the championship and he has only been in the top ten of the championship after one race this season, the second Iowa race.
Rinus VeeKay has been the darling of the weekend, after he won his first career pole position on Thursday and scored his first career podium finish on Friday. It was Ed Carpenter Racing's first podium finish on a road/street course since Newgarden was second at Watkins Glen in 2016. Today will be VeeKay's 13th start. Five drivers have scored their first career victory in their 13th start: Bill Vukovich, Jimmy Bryan, Dick Atkins, Kenny Bräck and Marco Andretti.
Colton Herta ended up fourth yesterday and, outside of his three victories, Herta has never stood on the podium. Yesterday was the fourth time Herta has finished fourth in his IndyCar career. He has six consecutive top ten finishes, one off his career best streak, which spanned the final three races of 2019 and the first four races of 2020. Herta is now third in the championship, but 118 points off Scott Dixon and he has been mathematically eliminated from championship contention.
Felix Rosenqvist picked up his second top five finish of the 2020 season yesterday with his fifth-place result. His only other top five finish was his victory in the second Road America race. Rosenqvist has started in the top ten in ten of 12 race this season, but he has only started in the top five once. He started fifth in the second Mid-Ohio race and was caught up in a first lap accident.
Will Power was sixth in the first Harvest Grand Prix race, his fourth consecutive top ten finish. Prior to this streak, Power had two top ten finishes in the first eight races of the 2020 season. The only times Power has finished in the top five on the IMS road course are his three victories and all three of those victories he started on pole position. Power has never finished better than his starting position in eight IMS road course starts.
Graham Rahal has three consecutive top ten finishes after he was seventh in the first Harvest Grand Prix race. Rahal has not started a race in the top five since the second Road America race. He has finished better than his starting position in the eight races since that Road America race. Rahal has been the top Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing finisher in seven of 12 races this season.
Jack Harvey ended up eighth yesterday, the ninth top ten finish of his IndyCar career. Harvey's third place finish in last year's Grand Prix of Indianapolis remains the only top five finish in his career. He has started in the top five six times in his career and his average finish when starting in the top five is 13.667.
Scott Dixon will have to do some work to clinch the title today after he finished ninth yesterday. Dixon's championship lead is down to 40 points. If Dixon wins today, he will need Newgarden to finish third or worse and score fewer than three bonus points to clinch the championship. There is a chance Newgarden could leave this race with the championship lead. Dixon has to finish at least 16th to maintain the championship lead into St. Petersburg.
Marcus Ericsson was tenth yesterday, his eighth top ten finish of the season. Despite Ericsson's strong results, he has been the top Chip Ganassi Racing finisher only once, at the second Mid-Ohio race. He has been the worst Ganassi finisher in four races, the Indianapolis 500, the second Gateway race and the first Mid-Ohio race and yesterday in the first Harvest Grand Prix race.
Max Chilton fell one position shy of his first top ten finish since 2017 in the first Harvest Grand Prix race. It was a strong race for Chilton, with him starting ninth on his way to finish 11th. He had consecutive top ten starts between the 2019 season finale at Laguna Seca and his first start of 2020 in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Chilton started tenth in both races. Today will be Chilton's 70th start. Thirteen drivers have had their first career victory come after their 70th career start including Bryan Herta, Christian Fittipaldi, Roberto Moreno and Arie Luyendyk.
Conor Daly matched his best road course finish of 2020 with his 12th-place result yesterday. Daly was 12th on the IMS road course in July. Daly has yet to finish in the top ten with Ed Carpenter Racing this season. The only other team Daly did not score a top ten finish for in his IndyCar career was Harding Racing, where he drove for three races in 2018.
Charlie Kimball ended up 13th and he has finished outside the top ten in eight consecutive races. Kimball has been the top A.J. Foyt Racing finisher in nine of 12 races and the top qualifier in seven of 12 races.
James Hinchcliffe's first race in the #26 Honda saw him finish 14th, the final car on the lead lap. He has started 18th or 19th in his last three starts on the IMS road course. He has finished outside the top ten in six of eight starts on the IMS road course.
Santino Ferrucci's 15th-place finish yesterday was his worst on the IMS road course, as it was the first time Ferrucci did not finish in the top ten at the track. That result dropped Ferrucci outside the top ten of the championship for the first time since the second Iowa race. He has not been worse than 12th in the championship since he was 21st after this year's season opener at Texas.
Simon Pagenaud has finished outside the top fifteen in five of the last six races and his 16th-place finish yesterday was his worst since he retired from the 2015 Grand Prix of Indianapolis because of a gearbox failure. Pagenaud has not started in the top five for a race since he was third in the Texas season opener. His last top five start on a road/street course was fourth at Mid-Ohio last year.
Álex Palou started 17th and finished 17th yesterday. Both were better than how Palou did in July on the IMS road course, but he has not had a top ten finish since his seventh-place result in the second Road America race. He is 63 points behind VeeKay in the Rookie of the Year battle. He will have to outscore VeeKay by at least 14 points to prevent the Dutch driver from clinching it in the second Harvest Grand Prix race.
Takuma Sato has finished outside the top fifteen in the last three races after Sato ended up 18th in race one. Sato has never started in the top ten on the IMS road course and he has never led a lap at the track. He has qualified behind his teammate Rahal in the last three races.
Hélio Castroneves' first race with Arrow McLaren SP ended up in a 20th-place finish. Twentieth was also Castroneves' most recent finish for a team other than Team Penske nearly 21 years ago at Fontana with Hogan Racing. Castroneves has finished outside the top ten in his last five starts.
Sébastien Bourdais' first race with A.J. Foyt Racing ended up in a 21st-place finish. Bourdais has never finished in the top ten in his first start with a team and his best finish in a second race for a team was ninth with Dragon Racing in that sensational drive with a Lotus engine at Barber Motorsports Park in 2012.
Patricio O'Ward picked up his worst finish of the season with a 22nd-place result in race one and it also doubles as the worst finish in O'Ward's IndyCar career. His previous worst was 19th in last year's Grand Prix of Indianapolis. O'Ward could become the first driver to score a first career victory in the 21st start of a career since Rosenqvist did it back in July at Road America. Only three drivers had their first career victory come after a finish of 22nd and those three drivers are Roger McCluskey, Bryan Herta and Mike Conway.
Sage Karam was 23rd yesterday, matching his IMS road course finish from July. Karam has finished outside the top twenty in five consecutive starts and in eight of his last nine starts. Dalton Kellett scored his worst road course finish yesterday in 24th.
Marco Andretti's engine failure saw his best starting position on the IMS road course end with his worst finishing position. Andretti has finished dead last in three of the last five races.
Qualifying for Harvest Grand Prix race two will be at 10:20 a.m. ET. The first qualifying group will feature VeeKay, Herta, Andretti, Rosenqvist, Chilton, Rahal, Hunter-Reay, Ericsson, Palou, Castroneves, Karam, Kimball and Kellett.
Newgarden will lead the second qualifying group that features his championship rival Dixon, his Penske teammates Power and Pagenaud as well as Harvey, Rossi, O'Ward, Daly, Bourdais, Hinchcliffe, Ferrucci and Sato.
NBC's coverage of Harvest Grand Prix race two begins at 2:30 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 2:31 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 75 laps, ten laps shorter than race one.
