Alex Palou Wins IndyCar Iowa Race From Pole

Iowa Speedway was the pits again for Josef Newgarden on Sunday.

The Team Penske driver dominated most of Saturday’s installment in the twin race weekend before getting passed in the pits by eventual winner Pato O’Ward.

He was putting in another stellar performance on Sunday and committed to the pits on lap 129 as Marcus Ericsson hit the wall and brought out the yellow flag, which dropped Newgarden to 13th on the restart.

Pole-sitter Alex Palou took the lead, but Newgarden drove his way back to the front again by lap 241 and battled Palou until lap 254 when he pulled into the pits only to see the yellow flag fly again as Colton Herta hit the wall.

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That was the end of his challenge as Palou took the green flag with 10 to go and held off a late charge by Scott Dixon to pick up his seventh win of the season and the first short oval track victory of his career.

“Speechless, honestly speechless,” Palou said during his victory lane interview on Fox. “It’s been an unbelievable day, an unbelievable weekend. More than anything, what an incredible year for us.

“I really cannot believe it, honestly.”

Palou’s closest rival in the series standings, Pato O’Ward finished fifth to remain in second with five races to go.

Full Results:

1. (1) Alex Palou, Honda, 275, Running
2. (8) Scott Dixon, Honda, 275, Running
3. (12) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 275, Running
4. (3) David Malukas, Chevrolet, 275, Running
5. (9) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 275, Running
6. (22) Christian Lundgaard, Chevrolet, 275, Running
7. (2) Felix Rosenqvist, Honda, 275, Running
8. (17) Christian Rasmussen, Chevrolet, 275, Running
9. (11) Robert Shwartzman, Chevrolet, 275, Running
10. (4) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 275, Running
11. (25) Jacob Abel, Honda, 275, Running
12. (26) Rinus VeeKay, Honda, 275, Running
13. (18) Kyffin Simpson, Honda, 275, Running
14. (16) Louis Foster, Honda, 275, Running
15. (20) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 274, Running
16. (7) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 274, Running
17. (15) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 274, Running
18. (21) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 274, Running
19. (10) Graham Rahal, Honda, 272, Running
20. (19) Colton Herta, Honda, 252, Contact
21. (13) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 173, Contact
22. (14) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 127, Contact
23. (24) Sting Ray Robb, Chevrolet, 48, Contact
24. (6) Will Power, Chevrolet, 21, Mechanical
25. (23) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 0, Contact
26. (27) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 0, Contact
27. (5) Nolan Siegel, Chevrolet, 0, Did Not Start