Scott McLaughlin drives during an IndyCar auto race, Saturday, July 13, 2024, at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa.
NEWTON, Iowa (AP) — Scott McLaughlin continued his fast weekend at Iowa Speedway on Saturday night, winning the first race of the IndyCar Series doubleheader for his first victory on an oval track.
McLaughlin led 164 of the 250 laps, winning by nearly a half-second over second-place driver Pato O’Ward at the 0.875-mile oval.
McLaughlin has had the strongest car all weekend. He had the fastest time in Friday’s practice, set the track single-lap record in qualifying Saturday afternoon on his second lap to earn the pole for Sunday’s race, and started on the outside of the first row of this race after posting the second-fastest first lap during qualifying.
And he was the fastest out of the pits when it counted during two caution-flag stops.
Colton Herta, the pole-sitter for the race, led the first 86 laps, but lost the lead by a narrow margin when McLaughlin beat him out of the pits during a caution-flag round of pit stops. Herta tried to get by on the restart, but McLaughlin was able to hold him off.
McLaughlin was leading by more than three seconds when series points leader Alex Palou crashed on Lap 177. Herta, who had just pitted before the Palou crash, went a lap down, and McLaughlin kept his lead after the pit stops during the caution flag.
McLaughlin, with his sixth career win, gave Team Penske its eighth IndyCar win at Iowa Speedway. It was the second win for a Penske car at the track this season — Ryan Blaney won the NASCAR Cup Series race in June.
Josef Newgarden, McLaughlin’s teammate who swept last year’s doubleheader, finished third after starting 22nd. Scott Dixon was fourth, and Rinus VeeKay was fifth.
The concern, after the partial repaving of the track in May, that there would only be one racing groove proved to be true until late in the race. The only change in the top 10 through the first 80 laps of the race came when Santino Ferrucci, running fifth at the time, had to serve a stop-and-go penalty for being out of line on a restart.
Palou finished 23rd. He has a 37-point lead over O’Ward, 43 points over Will Power and 44 over Dixon. McLaughlin moved up to fifth place, 59 points back.
