Newgarden wins after spin and controversial restart

Josef Newgarden recovered from a spin to take victory in a chaotic IndyCar Series race on Saturday night at the 1.25-mile oval in St. Louis.

The Team Penske driver narrowly avoided disaster on lap 196 when he pressured teammate Scott McLaughlin for the lead and spun in Turn 2. He suffered no permanent damage, however, and rejoined the track in fourth place.

As Newgarden moved back up, the action erupted on a late restart with nine laps to go. Newgarden got going slowly and the cars, including team-mate Will Power and Arrow McLaren’s Alexander Rossi, ran into trouble and crashed, bringing out a red flag.

Power climbed over the wall and gave Newgarden the middle finger as he escorted the field down pit road.

“The worst part is obviously the #12 (teammate Power) doesn’t make it,” Newgarden said after the race. “I hate that it happened right at the end. I saw it on TV, it looked like the green went out before I went out for a second and it caused a big accordion.

“So, I hate that that happened. This is the last thing you want to do with 10 to go, is create a mess. That was not my intention.”

Josef Newgarden, Team Penske Chevrolet

Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images

After an extensive clean-up, the stoppage was again caused by cars leaving the pit lane and the green flag was activated on lap 254.

Newgarden had a clean start this time, with a solid 0.6s lead over Scott McLaughlin. Colton Herta was attacked by Linus Lundqvist for third and took the spot with five laps to go.

Newgarden drove smoothly to the checkered flag for the remainder of the race, while McLaughlin extended the lead over Penske to 1-2, ahead of Lundqvist in third.

Alex Palou also passed Herta in the closing stages to take fourth place, slightly increasing his lead in the IndyCar championship. Scott Dixon was in eleventh place, after his race was disrupted by an extra pit stop due to a problem with the car.

Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward, who was in fifth place, had a race to forget. A suspected engine problem on lap 41 forced him to pit shortly after. He turned the engine off while the team inspected the #5 Chevrolet before pushing it behind the wall.

IndyCar St Louis – Race Results