{"id":58970,"date":"2021-07-04T20:03:26","date_gmt":"2021-07-04T20:03:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wordpress_X\/index.php\/2021\/07\/04\/ewgarden-breaks-through-with-first-2021-win-on-special-penske-weekend\/"},"modified":"2021-07-04T20:03:26","modified_gmt":"2021-07-04T20:03:26","slug":"ewgarden-breaks-through-with-first-2021-win-on-special-penske-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/ewgarden-breaks-through-with-first-2021-win-on-special-penske-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"Newgarden breaks through with first 2021 win on special Penske weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

This victory almost seemed like destiny for Josef Newgarden and Team Penske.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Newgarden drove to the first victory of 2021 for himself and Team Penske on Sunday, leading 73 of 80 laps and holding off a charging Marcus Ericsson to win The Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio in the No. <\/span><\/p>\n

2 XPEL Team Penske Chevrolet. It ended a dry spell of nine races without a victory for Newgarden and Team Penske, the winningest team in INDYCAR SERIES history.<\/span><\/p>\n

The win, the first for Newgarden and Team Penske since the 2020 season finale last October at St. Petersburg, also snapped a streak of two straight race weekends of heartbreak for the driver and team. Newgarden has won the P1 Award at the last three races, including this one, but lost the lead late in the final three laps at both Race 2 of the Chevrolet Dual in Detroit on June 13 and the REV Group Grand Prix presented by AMR on June 20 at Road America.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two-time INDYCAR SERIES champion Newgarden also earned his 19th career victory on the same weekend that the legendary Team Penske is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its first INDYCAR SERIES win, by Mark Donohue on July 3, 1971 at Pocono Raceway. It also didn\u2019t hurt that American driver Newgarden won on Independence Day.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d start each stint and feel like we had everything under control,\u201d Newgarden said. \u201cYou get to the back end of it, and I felt like I was starting to fall apart, so it was really hard to hang on. I had my wing man, Tim (Cindric, Team Penske president), coaching me all the way, just making sure I knew what was up.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis team has been doing the job. Everyone has been giving me a hard time, asking what\u2019s up with us not winning a race. But I don\u2019t think these people at Team Penske could have done anything different. We\u2019ve been in the game almost every race, had great performance. It\u2019s great to seal a win here finally.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ericsson\u2019s late charge in the No. 8 Huski Chocolate Chip Ganassi Racing Honda fell just short, but he earned his seventh top-10 finish of the season. Championship leader Alex Palou captured the final podium position in the No. 10 NTT DATA Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reigning and six-time series champion Scott Dixon helped Chip Ganassi Racing take three of the top four finishing positions, ending up fourth in the No. 9 PNC Bank Grow Up Great Honda. 2016 Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge winner Alexander Rossi finished fifth in the No. 27 NAPA AUTO PARTS\/AutoNation Honda, his best result this season.<\/span><\/p>\n

The fraught moments over the last 10 laps of the race for Newgarden were quite a contrast from earlier portions of the race on the undulating, 13-turn, 2.258-mile circuit. Newgarden led Ericsson by 6.6 seconds before entering the pits for his final pit stop, on Lap 53.<\/span><\/p>\n

That lead was trimmed to approximately four seconds shortly after Ericsson made his final stop, one lap after Newgarden.<\/span><\/p>\n

The gap between the top two ebbed and flowed over the next 15 laps, with Newgarden padding his lead to 7.1 seconds on Lap 66. But then Newgarden started to encounter slower traffic ahead, and Ericsson began using his push-to-pass button more often to draw closer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ericsson pulled to within 2.6 seconds with five laps remaining, slicing that margin to 1.4 seconds with two laps to go. When the white flag waved to signal the final lap, Newgarden led Ericsson by .8665 of a second.<\/span><\/p>\n

One mistake, and it could have been a third consecutive race of late calamity for Newgarden. But he kept his cool and deftly maintained enough of a gap from the slower traffic ahead so those cars\u2019 turbulent air didn\u2019t affect the handling of his machine and also didn\u2019t let Ericsson get close enough to attempt a pass for the win.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a great day,\u201d Ericsson said. \u201cI\u2019m really proud of the whole team. We were pushing very, very hard there at the end to catch Josef. A couple of more laps, and we could have challenged for it. But overall, P2 was a very good result today.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The strong day for Chip Ganassi Racing ended with three of its drivers in the top five of the series standings. Championship leader Palou is 39 points ahead of Pato O\u2019Ward of Arrow McLaren SP. Dixon is third, 56 points behind Palou. Newgarden remained fourth, 69 points back of the leader, and Ericsson jumped three positions to take fifth in the standings, 104 points behind Palou.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the early laps, Colton Herta \u2013 who started second in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda \u2013 appeared to be the only driver who could keep pace with Newgarden. But Herta\u2019s chance to compete at the end for a win was eliminated by two troublesome pit stops.<\/span><\/p>\n

A fuel probe issue kept Herta in the pits for 25 seconds on his first stop, on Lap 31, dropping him from second to eighth. Herta\u2019s car then stalled when he was exiting the pits after his second and final stop on Lap 57. Herta ended up finishing 13th.<\/span><\/p>\n

It took a few laps for the race to find its rhythm due to two early incidents.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Lap 1, 2012 series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay and Felix Rosenqvist ended up spinning after contact from cars behind them in Turn 4 due to first-lap traffic. Teammate James Hinchcliffe hit the rear of Hunter-Reay\u2019s No. 28 DHL Honda, punting him into the tire barrier, and contact from Romain Grosjean turned around Rosenqvist\u2019s No. 7 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet.<\/span><\/p>\n

All of the drivers were able to continue. But Rosenqvist and Hunter-Reay needed lengthy pit stops for repairs and ended up finishing 23rd and 24th, respectively, both two laps down.<\/span><\/p>\n

An incident on Lap 4 ended up eliminating 2014 series champion Will Power and Ed Jones from the race. Power spun after light contact with Dixon during a hard battle for position in Turn 5, with Power\u2019s No. 12 Verizon 5G spinning 180 degrees and pointing toward the onrushing field in a cloud of white tire smoke.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Jones never saw Power\u2019s stranded car due to the tire smoke, and his No. 18 SealMaster Honda collided with Power\u2019s car. inflicting heavy damage to both. Both drivers were released after evaluation at the track\u2019s medical center.<\/span><\/p>\n

Those two incidents triggered the only two full-course cautions of the race, helping Newgarden average 108.405 mph in the victory.<\/span><\/p>\n

The next NTT INDYCAR SERIES race is the inaugural Big Machine Music City Grand Prix on Sunday, Aug. 8 on the streets of Nashville, Tennessee, which starts a stretch of three consecutive race weekends for the series.<\/span><\/p>\n

Following the highly anticipated street race in Nashville, the series heads to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course for the Big Machine Spiked Coolers Grand Prix on Saturday, Aug. 14 and then shifts to World Wide Technology Raceway for the final oval race of the season, the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 on Saturday evening, Aug. 21.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Results:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

1. (1) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 80, Running<\/span>
2. (3) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 80, Running<\/span>
3. (7) Alex Palou, Honda, 80, Running<\/span>
4. (5) Scott Dixon, Honda, 80, Running<\/span>
5. (6) Alexander Rossi, Honda, 80, Running<\/span>
6. (8) Graham Rahal, Honda, 80, Running<\/span>
7. (18) Romain Grosjean, Honda, 80, Running<\/span>
8. (20) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 80, Running<\/span>
9. (22) Santino Ferrucci, Honda, 80, Running<\/span>
10. (19) Takuma Sato, Honda, 80, Running<\/span>
11. (12) Sebastien Bourdais, Chevrolet, 80, Running<\/span>
12. (14) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 80, Running<\/span>
13. (2) Colton Herta, Honda, 80, Running<\/span>
14. (15) Simon Pagenaud, Chevrolet, 80, Running<\/span>
15. (24) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 80, Running<\/span>
16. (11) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 80, Running<\/span>
17. (9) James Hinchcliffe, Honda, 80, Running<\/span>
18. (17) Max Chilton, Chevrolet, 80, Running<\/span>
19. (23) Jack Harvey, Honda, 80, Running<\/span>
20. (26) Ryan Norman, Honda, 79, Running<\/span>
21. (21) Dalton Kellett, Chevrolet, 79, Running<\/span>
22. (25) Jimmie Johnson, Honda, 79, Running<\/span>
23. (13) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 78, Running<\/span>
24. (10) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Honda, 78, Running<\/span>
25. (4) Will Power, Chevrolet, 3, Contact<\/span>
26. (16) Ed Jones, Honda, 3, Contact<\/span><\/p>\n

Race Statistics:<\/span>
Winner’s average speed:<\/b> 108.405 mph<\/span>
Time of Race:<\/b> 1:39:58.8551<\/span>
Margin of victory:<\/b> 0.8790 of a second<\/span>
Cautions:<\/b> 2 for 6 laps<\/span>
Lead changes: <\/b>5 among 3 drivers<\/span><\/p>\n

Lap Leaders:<\/b><\/span>
Newgarden 1-29<\/span>
Herta 30-31<\/span>
Newgarden 32-52<\/span>
Ericsson 53-54<\/span>
Herta 55-57<\/span>
Newgarden 58-80<\/span><\/p>\n

INDYCAR SERIES point standings:<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Palou 384<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. O’Ward 345<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Dixon 328<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Newgarden 315<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. Ericsson 280<\/span><\/li>\n
  6. Pagenaud 271<\/span><\/li>\n
  7. Herta 260<\/span><\/li>\n
  8. VeeKay 257<\/span><\/li>\n
  9. Rahal 256<\/span><\/li>\n
  10. Sato 226<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    This victory almost seemed like destiny for Josef Newgarden and Team Penske.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[137],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-58970","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-indycar"},"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58970\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}