Josef Newgarden Breaks Track Win Record at St. Louis

Josef Newgarden and the No. 2 Chevrolet team for Team Penske scored the victory at World Wide Technology Raceway in the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 in the NTT IndyCar Series for the record sixth time in track history. It is Newgarden’s 34th career win, winning by a 0.673-second margin over the Andretti Global No. 28 of Marcus Ericsson.

“We had everything we needed with Team Penske, so a great job to the group,” Newgarden said. “We had a good car to start, and it just came to us when we needed it.”

The race began with defending series champion Alex Palou navigating the egg-shaped oval early after sitting on the pole. The most laps led on the night came from Ericsson, who led a race high 114 out of 260 laps after starting 12th. The race came down to Newgarden and Ericsson swapping the top spot in the final 36 laps after a late caution for rookie Caio Collet’s engine expiring.

“I felt we had it at some point, but Newgarden is the best in the business on these ovals,” Ericsson said. “I thought I had something for him, but he was just too strong, I wanted that win.”

Ed Carpenter Racing also had their name in the ring with the likes of the No. 21 of Christian Rasmussen, who battled inside the top three in the final 50 laps and gained 16 spots during the night, earning his first podium finish of the season.

“I was ripping the top the whole race, my car did not work super-well at the bottom, so I was like, ‘well, you’ve got to rip the top.’ Rasmussen said. “We didn’t really have the ultimate pace like those guys did.”

Drivers such as Rinus VeeKay of Juncos Hollinger Racing and Newgarden’s teammate David Malukas rounded out the top five.

Sunday also marked the first night since Phoenix earlier this season that Palou was uncharacteristically not in the late-race battle, as he ran out of fuel with 56 laps to go resulting in a 17th place finish. He had a disappointing night, but Palou refuses to let his head hang low.

“The engine just suddenly shut down,” Palou said. “You go from knowing that you’re going to be P1 to suddenly being two laps down, but it is what it is, we risked it.”

Race Results: