1. This was nearly a painful defeat for Josef Newgarden and his #2 Team Penske crew. Pitting on the wrong lap nearly cost him victory after a brilliant strategy call.
When under caution for Jack Harvey brushing the wall, it was ominous whether or not rain would play a role in this race. The field was through two of three planned pit stops, but that caution just after halfway presented an opportunity for teams. They could come and get tires.
Newgarden did, as did teammate Scott McLaughlin. It was an extra stop, but they didn't lose any ground, or at least didn't lose much ground. When the race restarted, McLaughlin and Newgarden shot forward. Newgarden made a brave pass on the outside of McLaughlin when the New Zealander was stuck in traffic and in a few laps, Newgarden would be in the lead, but McLaughlin made up his own ground and would soon be second and as those two pulled away from the field.
Newgarden opened a healthy lead, nearly seven seconds over McLaughlin, but Newgarden lost time in traffic. The gap closed and when it was time for the final pit stops, McLaughlin was in striking distance. McLaughlin stopped first. Newgarden came in the following lap but caught Christian Lundgaard entering pit lane and lost time. When stops were done, McLaughlin was ahead of Newgarden on track and four laps later, the rain started. Newgarden came in on the wrong lap. It is a nature of the beast, especially at Gateway with its pit lane access road.
It turned out to be McLaughlin's gain and rain nearly turned into a blessing for the New Zealander. It looked like Newgarden was going to have this race get away from him. But the storm didn't last long. The lightning cleared, the track dried and the race restarted after a two-hour delay. Newgarden wasted no time and took the lead into turn three on the first lap on the restart. Newgarden played a suffocating defense on the field, holding the gap to McLaughlin and not letting traffic slow him up. It ends with Newgarden's fifth victory of the season, a single-season best for him in a 12-year career.
Strategist Tim Cindric made the right call to bring Newgarden in. Both McLaughlin and Newgarden had spent basically the entire first half of the race in the top five, but Will Power was gone. Marcus Ericsson was comfortably in second. Newgarden was actually struggling in traffic. The team took the gamble and Newgarden turned this into a better result than if it followed status quo.
Newgarden pulled off a victory at Texas doing something similar to this a few years ago and it led to a championship. With two races remaining Newgarden is three points behind Will Power. It could have been a night where Newgarden was looking for ten more points that he thought he was in his pocket. With the restart, Newgarden grabbed those ten points and erased this Gateway race from being a future nightmare.
2. Everyone loves a hometown hero and though Madison, Illinois is nearly 300 miles, over four hours south of Chicago, David Malukas nearly pulled off an incredible upset in front of his fellow Illinoisans. Malukas was dialed in for most of this race thanks to aggressive strategy from Dale Coyne Racing as the rain approached in the first part of the race. When the red flag came out, Malukas was in the top five with how things played out.
But he also had fresher tires and when the race went green, he was one of the fastest drivers on track. Malukas picked his way through the lapped cars and ahead of Will Power and Patricio O'Ward. Then he closed a three-second gap to Newgarden and McLaughlin and ran with the big boys for the final 15 laps. On the final lap, Malukas made his move to the outside of McLaughlin and it stuck. Malukas was second, making it an American 1-2 in his home state.
Malukas has shown spurts of speed this season. Sometimes it is only midfield running but running better than other established names. In this case, Malukas was one of the best drivers on track tonight. It feels like when a driver charges late and falls short everyone says, "if he had five more laps, he would have won." Well, that isn't always the case and Newgarden is a 25-time race winner. I am not sure Malukas would have beaten Newgarden tonight, but he looked capable of doing it.
It is the first milestone achievement of a promising career. It could not have come at a more special place for Malukas and Dale Coyne Racing.
3. Weather nearly helped Scott McLaughlin win the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 from Gateway Motorsports Park, but the restart meant one more time facing Newgarden. Newgarden again out-maneuvered his teammate, but McLaughlin had a stout night.
Strategist Kyle Moyer deserves credit. It was either going to be Moyer or Tim Cindric on the #2 Team Penske pit stand getting a claim of the victory today. They saw an opportunity to take fresh rubber and go forward. It paid off. It was an extra stop and they traded a few spots to take tires, but that deficit vanished once the race restarted. They were easily a half-second faster at the restart and Will Power and Patricio O'Ward weren't going to hold them back.
IndyCar races can fall into a trap. Everyone is so focused on fuel saving and making the fewest number of pit stops that teams miss when an extra stop can be a good thing. In the case for two-thirds of Team Penske, they saw a better path to victory today. It worked out in Scott McLaughlin's favor though he didn't end up on the top step of the podium.
McLaughlin has been stellar this year. He already has two victories and nearly won two oval races this season. Considering his Supercar past, the championships and the Bathurst 1000 victory, while tying in his IndyCar success as a sophomore, we are watching a special talent in the 21st century.
4. Patricio O'Ward couldn't quite take control of this race. First, it looked like O'Ward was going to get the best of Power, but then Newgarden and McLaughlin called their audible and shot to the lead. Then O'Ward lost out to Malukas and what looked like a possible victory became a fourth-place finish.
It is a good result, and O'Ward gained ground in the championship. Somehow, the top seven in points will enter the penultimate race of the season at Portland closer together than they were entering the antepenultimate race at Gateway. This season!
Anyway, O'Ward stays alive but must gain ground and a significant chunk in the next race if he wants to be hoisting the Astor Cup at Laguna Seca. He could do it but his season has been inconsistent enough to question what O'Ward you will see in the final two races. The team hasn't helped either. Arrow McLaren SP has been on its fair share of mechanical woes. It is the reason why O'Ward is seventh and needs to make up ground in the first place. One great race I can see. Two? That is pressing for it.
5. A double top five finish for Dale Coyne Racing with Takuma Sato in fifth caps off a tremendous night for this group. It is Dale Coyne Racing's second double top five finish ever in IndyCar. The other was the first race of the 2013 Belle Isle doubleheader when Mike Conway won and Justin Wilson was third. David Malukas was 11 years old when that happened.
Sato looked competitive all night and this was by far his best race of the season. Is fifth harsh considering his teammate was second? No. Interestingly, Malukas finished ahead of Sato in every oval race this season despite Sato qualifying ahead of Malukas in four of five oval races. These are two drivers heading in different directions in their career. Malukas is ascending. Sato is losing a little on his fast ball, but Sato still has something. We don't see it as much as we once did, but we saw it tonight.
6. Sixth is hard to swallow for Will Power. After winning his 67th pole position and seeing Power go untouched for basically the first half of the race, this felt like a night where Power was going to take control and even maybe position himself to threaten to lock up the championship at Portland. The weather went against him. Others ran more aggressive while Power didn't roll those dice. It cost him a little, but I think other cars just got better as Power remained static.
The Coyne cars got better. O'Ward got better. There are three positions lost right there. Power didn't lose the championship tonight. It would be really hard to look at this night and say Power did something wrong. Newgarden nailed the strategy and a few cars got better. Power didn't hit the wall. He didn't have a careless pit lane violation. He didn't do anything foolish. The championship is that close where a sixth-place finish feels devastating.
But it isn't and Power still holds serve entering Portland.
7. Marcus Ericsson is hanging in there but he was seventh after taking tires before the final restart and he restarted basically in seventh. He didn't gain anything substantial in those final laps. That isn't good. My one concern when Ericsson was leading the championship was he never flexed his muscle. There were plenty of opportunities, but every race Ericsson was leading it seemed like he either only gained three or five points or he lost ten to 12 points.
Ericsson is still in it, but after seeing what Newgarden did tonight and has done in other recent races, after seeing Power's consistency and after seeing Scott Dixon pull himself back in the fight without appearing to exert much effort, should we really believe Marcus Ericsson, who has one top five finish in the last seven races can pull out this championship from fourth, 17 points back, in the final two races?
Math is on his side but his run of form and the run of others is not.
8. Scott Dixon wasn't great tonight. It felt like he was always in sixth-place, which was sixth among the championship hopefuls. Dixon only lost eight points to Power. I know I basically just threw dirt on Ericsson, and Dixon is only three points closer to Power than Ericsson, but we have seen Dixon overcome this margin with this many races to go before.
Dixon could show up to Portland and top every session before leading 100 laps, winning the race and suddenly be up 25 points in the championship entering the final race and only needing a top seven finish to clinch it. No one would be surprised if that happened.
You cannot never rule out Scott Dixon. As long as he remains alive, he is a serious contender for his seventh championship.
9. Álex Palou was third of the Ganassi cars most of this race and wound up ninth. A good night, but not a great one, especially when Palou is winless and his title defense is holding on by a thread. Not to forget mentioning Palou has two other teammates alive for the championship and those two drivers aren't in a lawsuit with the team.
It is hard to see any favors going Palou's way in the final two races. Unless the bottom drops out on the Ganassi organization at Portland and Palou is the last one standing and running for the race victory, I don't see the team prioritizing his strategy, but he has been consistent this year, and Palou has at least made it difficult for the team to turn its back on him.
10. Graham Rahal gets to say he had a top ten finish. Rahal doesn't have any good runs at Gateway. It is hard to classify this one as amazing, but for a guy who has been average this year and terrible at this track, tenth is a good night.
There is a clear gap between Chip Ganassi Racing, Team Penske, Patricio O'Ward and everyone else. Tonight, Dale Coyne Racing got to mix it up and claim best of the rest, but Rahal was in tenth position it felt like for about 60% of this race. This is a moral victory.
11. Tic-tac-toe, three Andretti Autosport cars in a row, and we are covering them all three here. Colton Herta was 11th. Devlin DeFrancesco gets his best career finish in 12th. Romain Grosjean overcomes a grid penalty for an engine change and a conservative alternate strategy to finish 13th.
Colton Herta had zero top ten finishes on ovals this season. Herta hasn't had a top ten finish in the last seven oval races and in eight of the last nine. This isn't good. Everyone thought this was going to be Herta's year. A lot of things went wrong, some on Herta and some on the team. Zero top ten finishes on ovals is not going to win any drivers a championship.
DeFrancesco had a good race. He qualified well, he ran basically between ninth and 14th all race. Good. He has one good race. Fourteen bad races and one good race is still 14 bad races.
I wish Grosjean didn't have the engine penalty relegate him from ninth on the grid to 18th. I don't think he would have done much better than eighth or ninth, but I at least wanted to see him mixing it up for key positions, especially after how he drove at Iowa.
We should just get Alexander Rossi out of the way now because Rossi was running in the top ten, looked comfortable doing so, and then the team appeared to run him out of fuel before his second stop, which caused mechanical issues and cost Rossi about 13 laps.
Are we surprised Andretti Autosport fucked over one of its drivers? No. We should expect it in every race now. None of the Andretti cars were all that great tonight. It is a shame Andretti Autosport went from short oval masters to afterthoughts. There was once a time Andretti Autosport rocked up to a short oval and you penciled one of its cars in for victory. Tonight, it had zero cars in the top ten and that feels like a worthy result for this operation. It has a lot of work to do and I don't expect much to change.
12. Jimmie Johnson was 14th, but that was a bit of a flattering result. Johnson spent much of this race outside the top twenty, but as other cars fell by the way side, and Johnson took tires before the final restart, he ended up picking up a few positions. Johnson wasn't terrible this weekend. Gateway didn't click like Iowa did.
As good as Johnson is on ovals, I expected one of these oval weekends to be difficult for him. It turned out to be Gateway. But Johnson did about as well as I expected for him on ovals. I expected him to get a few top ten results and push for the top five. He had two top ten finishes and one of those was a fifth at Iowa. Not bad.
13. It is after 11:00 p.m. ET and this race begin a little after 6:00 p.m. Eastern. Let's wrap this up. Hélio Castroneves was 15th. Felix Rosenqvist was sensational at the start going from 26th to 13th in the first two laps... and then he stalled out without really ever challenging the top ten only to finish 16th. Kyle Kirkwood did nothing and finished 17th, which is a great race for him considering any other time Kirkwood has done something noteworthy this season it has been an accident and a wasted result. Kirkwood at least beat teammate Dalton Kellett by a position. You know what? A double top twenty night for A.J. Foyt Racing is about as good as this team can expect at the moment.
14. Christian Lundgaard was 19th, and outside of slowing Newgarden entering the pit lane, Lundgaard wasn't noticed all race. Simon Pagenaud had some rough days on ovals this year. I am not sure how he lost all this ground and finished 20th.
15. It was a learning experience for Callum Ilott. Ilott was three laps down, but he got laps and didn't tear up the car and he finished ahead of Ed Carpenter, who was 22nd and you have to wonder if an oval-only program is really worth it for Carpenter. It should also be pointed out Carpenter was 22nd and the best Ed Carpenter Racing driver. Tough night for ECR.
Conor Daly deserved better. Not significantly better, but better nonetheless. Mechanical issues brought Daly to pit lane when he had been running around 15th for most of this race. Mechancial issues also took out Rinus VeeKay after only 53 laps. Ed Carpenter Racing is again showing its inconsistency. We see the pace and then we have races like this where all the cars are at the bottom and no one really has an answer. It is fascinating how a team can be so good at Indianapolis and out to lunch at every other oval, especially when it was once known for being good at all the ovals.
16. Jack Harvey needs a hug. This was his best race of the season, he was in the top ten and ahead of Graham Rahal and then Harvey got caught wide in turns three and four and brushed the wall, damaging the car enough that he ended up losing multiple laps. It is the kind of result Harvey really couldn't afford tonight. It sucks because he was a solid top ten car for the first half of the race, but he needed to close this race out.
17. The IndyCar race was always scheduled for an earlier start than usual for past Gateway race so it could immediately follow the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Watkins Glen. USA Network would get the races effectively back-to-back. The NASCAR race would end, burnouts, victory lane and then right into IndyCar.
The IndyCar race was pushed up a further half-hour due to weather and that worked out because if this race had the same 8:30 p.m. ET start as in the past, it wouldn't have started on time anyway. We got to see 223 laps before the weather kicked in. If Gateway was scheduled to start at 8:30 p.m. ET, it would have been delayed, not started until after 10:00 p.m. ET. We would have been lucky if the race finished before midnight.
I didn't mind the evening start time. The crowd was smaller than past Gateway races from the looks of it but not puny. I was surprised how many people were seated low in turn two. It could have been the same size crowd just spread out more. That is likely not the case, but it was still respectable. IndyCar has to balance getting a good television window and making sure the tracks can sell a healthy number of tickets. It helped that Gateway wasn't oppressively hot this year. That is normally the case.
It was cool to see the race finish under the lights and the race did get better the darker it got. IndyCar has to pick and choose its battles. It needs viewers, but is one late race the end of the series? Likely not. IndyCar did get 14 races on network NBC this year. IndyCar has never had this many races on a network station. That is good for the series, but it has a choice now. We saw races on network television that didn't get great crowds, but could have in different time slots. Gateway is one of those.
Does IndyCar need 14 races on network to survive? Could it live with 12 network races? Or 11? That would still be far more than IndyCar got for the better part of 15 years. Gateway was always going to be on USA, a cable race. It only started a little earlier to maximize the audience from the NASCAR race. I am fine with that. IndyCar has found success in such situations before, but this offseason will be a good chance to re-evaluate the philosophy and decide what is best for scheduling these races.
18. There is only one more off-weekend in this IndyCar season. That is next weekend. Then it is Portland and Laguna Seca back-to-back. With how close the championship is, it is hard to believe it is almost over. You would think there are still a dozen races remaining. But there are only two.
