It was a repeat win eight years in the making.
Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden won the IndyCar Good Ranchers 250 on Saturday with a late surge to go back to back at the track that the series last visited in 2018.
Newgarden started in second next to David Malukas, his teammate, on pole, but sat back for much of the race, lurking among the frontrunners.
He was among a group that took advantage of a late caution to grab fresh tires for a restart on lap 218 of 250 and put them for good use, taking the green flag in 10th and quickly knocking off cars on older rubber. He passed leader Kyle Kirkwood like he was standing still with seven laps left and never looked back.
“I’m very surprised,” Newgarden said. “In the middle of the race, I don’t know that I was fully believing that we had the capability to win. We just kept working through it, and I’m like, ‘Look, if we get another opportunity, we’re going to be aggressive, we’re going to be on the offense.” Kirkwood held on for second and Malukas rounded out the podium in third.
The win moved Newgarden into first in the season standings after two races, followed by Kirkwood, Scott McLaughlin, Pato O’Ward and St. Petersburg winner Alex Palou, who crashed out of the race early on lap 22 when he came into contact with Rinus VeeKay.
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