IndyCar: Newgarden dominates Hy-Vee Homefront 250

It was like taking candy from a baby. Josef Newgarden drove his #2 Penske Chevy to a dominate victory in the Hy-Vee Homefront 250 at Iowa Speedway.

Scott McLaughlin in the 2nd superior Penske Chevy finished 2nd, 3.375s behind, but it was not really that close as Newgarden was just playing with him.

Newgarden led 129 of 251 laps. His teammate Will Power led 119 of 251. Except for 2 laps, a Penske Chevy with their special shock package led every lap.

It was Newgarden’s  5th win at Iowa.

Pato O’Ward was third from Arrow McLaren, 9.6s behind

Marcus Ericsson and Will Power rounded out the top-5.

Josef Newgarden

This was Newgarden’s  5th win at Iowa.  The American has won all the oval races this season, including the Indy 500.

Newgarden was not happy with his qualifying position for today’s race.  It is hard to believe that he could not be happy with starting third behind his teammates.

“It was just unfortunate that we came off the truck so good — Luke Mason did such a great job with this car. I was so happy yesterday, pretty immediately, and then to qualify as disappointingly as we did, I think for us, for our expectation, if you will — it wasn’t
a disaster, but it wasn’t where we thought we should be.”

“I know it’s not where the car should be. I was really — I’ve done that a lot here. I’ve not qualified where I think we should. That exact problem was sort of the same in the beginning of the race. We were trying to counteract it and didn’t quite get there. It took about a stint, stint and a half, to really get the car where it needed to be.”

“Then it was great. It was back to sort of the beginning of yesterday. It was just a nice car. Team did a great job as always. They always give me a fantastic car here. You can’t win a race around this place without having the best car in the field, and I feel like we’ve always got that when we show up.”

The American also had some criticism about the way the lapped cars were driving this afternoon.

“If you’re leading the race, you’re really within your right. If you’re fighting with people around you, seventh, eighth, ninth place, you’re all fighting. You’re within your right to
fight as hard as possible.”

“I think, the way the rule was written, it’s also legal for them to fight to the death to stay on the lead lap in front of the leader. It is legal. I’m just telling you you’re not making
any friends when you do it. There are 20 laps to go in the race, and I was getting driven like it was literally to the death for the end of the Indy 500. It was just crazy. ”

“I couldn’t believe the way people were mirror driving. I’ve never seen it that bad here.”

“Normally, if you’re the leader, you’re not getting a handout, but you’re at least getting the courtesy that you are the leader, and you’re about to get lapped. You don’t have to pull over, but just don’t be aggressive and weave in front of the leader, block the leader, chop the leader.”

“Like there’s just a point where you’ve got to understand that that comes back around. If you do that to someone, I’m going to fence you the next time I see you. If you’re the leader the next time, I am going to do you so dirty if you did to me.”

Scott McLaughlin

The Team Penske driver was complimentary of his teammate you won the pole  earlier today.

“The hard thing with the race impound is you have to figure out where you are gear wise.  Sometimes you have to figure it out on the fly.  And that is where a guy like Will (Power), who has done a countless amount of qualifying laps around here, is handy. ”

“Yes, he is a genius.  He is the best I will ever come up against.  I am proud to lock the front row with him.”

The Kiwi was still pretty excited when he finished the race second to Newgarden.

“I’m going to get him (Newgarden) at some point. I’m very determined. It was a Helluva race. I think the three of us could have easily swept the top three here.”

“What I learned with Josef during the week, during the last couple of weeks, has been huge. It’s a nice little rabbit to chase when he’s out in front. When you can keep up with
him, that’s a nice feeling. Gives me a lot of confidence.”

“Learned a lot for tomorrow. I think we’ve got a really good race car we can sort of evolve with and just get better.”

Pato O’Ward

The third place finisher was happy to be on the podium but also upset with some of the lapped cars, which was everyone but the first five cars.

“Solid podium for us today. Just didn’t have anything for the Penskes. We need to take a solid step forward if we want to make them sweat tomorrow.”

“I just think they were specifically strong getting through traffic. I would just — I’d get stuck. I wasn’t able to place the car where I needed to in order to get by some slow cars.”

“Obviously happy with my finish, but considering how much pace we had last year, it’s like where is it?”

The Arrow McLaren driver commented on the lapped traffic.  “Sometimes you get to some guys, and they’re just not very gentleman-like, I guess, when you’re falling behind.
Yeah, I had some moments in there where it wasn’t all turning left for sure.”

Race Results