Scott McLaughlin said he didn’t feel like a true IndyCar driver until he won a race on an oval track. He achieved that goal on Saturday night.
McLaughlin continued his strong performance at Iowa Speedway, winning the first race of the IndyCar Series doubleheader for his first victory on an oval track.
During the race, McLaughlin led for 164 of the 250 laps and finished nearly half a second ahead of second-place driver Pato O’Ward at the 0.875-mile oval.
“I just accomplished one of my biggest goals for this year,” McLaughlin said. McLaughlin, now in his fourth full IndyCar season, had previously won five races on road courses and street courses in the series.
“I felt like a skilled open-wheel driver, but becoming an IndyCar driver means winning on all three types of tracks,” McLaughlin said. “I’m proud to say I’ve now won on an oval, as well as on road and street courses. It’s a proud moment for me.”
McLaughlin had the fastest car throughout the weekend. He set the quickest time in Friday’s practice session, broke the track’s single-lap record in Saturday’s qualifying to secure the pole position for Sunday’s race, and started from the front row in this race after posting the second-fastest lap in qualifying.
He also showed his speed during pit stops under caution flags, consistently coming out of the pits ahead of his competitors.
Colton Herta, who started the race from pole position, led for the first 86 laps. However, McLaughlin managed to overtake him by a narrow margin during a pit stop under caution. Herta attempted to regain the lead after the restart, but McLaughlin successfully defended his position.
“I thought I had him,” McLaughlin said about taking the lead after the pit stops. “I believed I was ahead of him. It must have been by a tiny margin. I’m not sure exactly.”
McLaughlin was leading by more than three seconds when series points leader Alex Palou crashed on Lap 177. Herta, who had just pitted before the crash, fell a lap behind, and McLaughlin maintained his lead after the pit stops during the caution period.
“In the end, I knew I did my part, but this was a team effort,” McLaughlin said. “They put me in the lead, and I could demonstrate how strong our car was by controlling the pace from the front.”
McLaughlin secured Team Penske’s eighth IndyCar victory at Iowa Speedway. It was the second win for a Penske car at the track this season — Ryan Blaney won the NASCAR Cup Series race in June.
“Blaney texted me and said, ‘Now we’re both winners at Iowa,’” McLaughlin said.
Josef Newgarden, McLaughlin’s teammate who swept last year’s doubleheader, finished third after starting 22nd. Scott Dixon finished fourth, and Rinus VeeKay took fifth place.
“You can’t start from the 22nd,” Newgarden said. “In past years, I might have been okay starting so far back. But tonight, it was almost impossible to make up that ground.”
Concerns about the track, which was partially repaved in May, having only one racing line proved true until late in the race.
The top 10 positions remained unchanged through the first 80 laps of the race, except when Santino Ferrucci, who was in fifth place at the time, had to serve a stop-and-go penalty for an improper restart.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed with how we raced,” O’Ward said. “It was really difficult to get that second lane working. We had a strong car, capable of winning. But there just wasn’t enough room to pass.”
“It was all about calculated risks tonight,” Newgarden said. “You were always on the edge of disaster. There wasn’t much space to maneuver. Every time you moved off the ideal racing line to pass someone, you were taking a chance. I took a few risks myself, but I had to. We had to take some risks to move forward.”
Palou finished in 23rd place. He holds a 37-point lead over O’Ward, 43 points over Will Power, and 44 points over Dixon. McLaughlin moved up to fifth place, trailing by 59 points.
