New Zealander Scott McLaughlin took his first IndyCar oval win in the Hy-Vee Homefront 250 at the Iowa Speedway.
It didn’t take long for the yellow flag to fly on the .875 mile tri-oval when David Malukas put the left front wheel of his #66 Meyer Shank Racing Honda below the white line and spun. Malukas collected both Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolets of Augustin Canapino and Romain Grosjean.
”Didn’t anticipate it well and ended up driving on the apron and lost the car,” said Malukus. “It was really dumb by me.”
Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s Christian Lundgaard, like Malukas, put the left front of his #45 Honda below the white line and spun.
Canapino and Grosjean were unable to continue and saw their night end before they could turn a single lap.
Lundgaard was able to return to the track 17 laps down.
The race resumed on lap 20 with pole-sitter Bryan Herta leading Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin.
The first oval race of the hybrid era brought significant changes to pit strategy. Last year’s race saw four pit stops, but this year teams were planning for 90-lap stints in hopes of completing the race with two pit stops.
Jack Harvey retired his number #18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda after 28 laps due to neck pain. IndyCar did not clear Conor Daly earlier in the day to take Harvey’s place in the first doubleheader race, but he will be behind the wheel for tomorrow’s race.
A.J. Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci received a drive-through penalty on lap 44 for being out of line on the single file restart and fell to 19th, one lap down.
Herta maintained a half-second to three-quarters-of-a-second lead over McLaughlin until the yellow flag waived again on lap 84.
Graham Rahal’s #15 Honda suffered a broken wheel spoke that brought out the night’s second caution.
McLaughlin barely beat Herta, who led the opening 84 laps, off pit road as Scott Dixon, Pato O’Ward, and Alexander Rossi rounded out the top five.
Points leader Alex Palou’s #10 Ganassi Honda stalled on pit road and dropped the Spaniard to the 19th position.
Herta made a charge at McLaughlin on the restart on lap 93 but could not get around the Kiwi.
Team Penske’s Will Power was penalized for speeding on pit lane and had to make a drive-thru penalty shortly after the restart and went a lap down.
At the halfway point, McLaughlin held a one-second lead over Herta. Dixon trailed Herta by 1.6 seconds, while O’Ward was 2.1 seconds adrift of Dixon and 2.6 seconds ahead of Rossi.
McLaughlin pulled out a four-second lead on Herta at lap 166 due to Herta’s Honda developing a severe vibration.
Herta headed to the pits on lap 175 as Palou suffered an uncharacteristic spin as he crossed the start finish line and hit the wall. The accident was only the seventh DNF in 74 starts for the two-time champion.
”I think I just lost it out of [turn] four,” Palou said. “There was no reason to push there. I was just trying to recover from a mistake in the pits. Unacceptable.”
All cars headed to the pits on lap 181, and McLaughlin’s Penske crew delivered a 6.4-second pitstop to keep McLaughlin in front of the field.
McLaughlin led O’Ward and Dixon out of the pits as Josef Newgarden moved to fourth from eight after a lightning-fast pit stop. Armstrong rejoined in the fifth position as the field took the green flag on lap 199.
Yet another caution flag came out on lap 210 when Linus Lundqvist’s #8 Ganassi Honda lost power on the track.
The field took the green flag and ran for three laps for another caution came out after Herta nearly spun while attempting to make a pass.
McLaughlin led the field to the green flag on lap 21. At the back of the field Power made contact with Pietro Fittipaldi, who then made contact with Ed Carpenter. Fittipaldi and Carpenter were unable to continue, but Power resumed four laps down but was later penalized for unnecessary contact.
The final green flag of the night fell with 13 laps remaining, and McLaughlin cruised to his first oval win.
“What got it done tonight was the team,” McLaughlin said. “I was never going to call myself an IndyCar driver until I won on an oval. I am going to call myself an IndyCar driver now if you don’t mind.”
O’Ward finished second. “My car had more,” said O’Ward. “I was super, super happy with it.”
“The whole race, you just, you can’t freaking do anything with it,” he said. “No two lanes, like it’s just a one lane racetrack and if you try anything, you’re probably gonna end up in a wall, so not worth the risk it.”
Newgarden rounded out the podium with a masterful drive from his 22nd-place starting position.
“It was mostly the team you know i, mean we had a great start and made a big difference and then it was,” Newgarden said. “And I’m disappointed for us you know obviously we wanna come here and win but we secured the third. It’s a good night. It’s a great team day,” he said. “So we’ll come to tomorrow and, and we just gotta be two better.”
