O’Ward Wins Salute to Farmers 300, Newgarden Sweep Ends in Heartbreak

Pato O’Ward took advantage of heartbreak for Josef Newgarden to win the Hy-Vee Salute to Farmers 300, capping off an exciting doubleheader weekend at Iowa Speedway.

After dominating Saturday’s race and majority of this race, something broke on Newgarden’s car on the exit of turn four, sending him hard into the outside wall. This set up a 50-lap shootout to the finish between O’Ward and Will Power that wasn’t even close, leading by over four seconds at the drop checkered flag.

Post-race, O’Ward was quick to credit his pit crew for putting him in position to win, successfully undercutting Power on the second to last stop that allowed him to take advantage of Newgarden’s accident.

“The No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP guys in the pits were awesome,” O’Ward said. “…Obviously I did the job in the car to keep her safe and just to maintain there. We knew we had the pace, but it’s just tough when you’re going through the traffic.”

“…the guys did a great job calling when we had to pit, and it was very very enjoyable.”

Power led the field to green just like he did yesterday with his teammate Newgarden beside him, while O’Ward behind them jumped from seventh to third by the third lap. Power dominated the opening stint until the leaders made their first pit stops on lap 65. Power narrowly beat his teammate out of the pits (with a little contact) and kept his lead, but lost it while stuck behind Romain Grosjean on the high side. Using the Frenchman as a pick, Newgarden dove to the inside on turn one and took the lead.

The Penske power was on display throughout the weekend, but most impressively in the first 100 laps of this race. By this time, they had only been racing for 35 minutes, and left only seven cars on the lead lap.

The green flag run didn’t last much longer, as Kyle Kirkwood brought out the first caution of the day on lap 120, running too high up the track in turn one making room for Newgarden. Up in the marbles, Kirkwood scraped the outside wall until in turns one and two before coming to a rest on the backstretch.

Newgarden immediately checked out from the field on the lap 133 restart while Power, O’Ward, and Marcus Ericsson battled behind him. Power came close to making a move on his teammate on lap 183 but couldn’t make the move, allowing Newgarden to keep the lead through the next pit stops on lap 195.

O’Ward pit a lap earlier and successfully undercut Power for second place, taking the lead when Newgarden crashed on lap 235. Newgarden was okay immediately after the incident, but post-race reports from IndyCar’s Dr. Geoffrey Billows states that Newgarden is being airlifted to Des Moines hospital after suffering a head abrasion after fainting in the bus lot.

The caution set up a 50-lap shootout to the finish with the restart on lap 250, and O’Ward cruised comfortably to the win with Power second and Scott McLaughlin rounding out the podium in third. Scott Dixon finished in fourth place just ahead of his teammates Jimmie Johnson and Ericsson, who had the best battle of that final stint as they dueled over fifth place. Utilizing the high line to great effect all weekend Johnson earned his first top five finish in IndyCar, besting the current championship leader Ericsson who finished sixth.

Jimmie Johnson achieved his career best finish (5th) in the Hy-Vee Salute to Farmers 300. (Photo Credit: Joe Skibinski / Penske Entertainment / Courtesy of IndyCar)

Felix Rosenqvist recovered after crashing in Saturday’s race with a very strong seventh place finish, while rookie David Malukas impressed again with an eighth place finish. Grosjean finished ninth, the best finish on the day for Andretti Autosport, while Takuma Sato got his third top-ten finish of the year rounding out the top ten.

Only five races remain in the season, and the series will return home next week to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course once again for the Gallagher Grand Prix on Saturday, 30 July.

Hy-Vee Salute to Farmers 300 Official Results