LEBANON, Tenn. (AP) — Josef Newgarden salvaged his miserable year by winning his first race of the season Sunday at Nashville Superspeedway — his home track — in the IndyCar finale.
He celebrated the recovery the exact same way he did after his two Indianapolis 500 victories — Newgarden climbed through a hole in the fence and entered the grandstands, where he triumphantly raised his arms in the air in front of a gaggle of friends and family.
“I am just glad we got one without anything going wrong,”
Newgarden said. “It's rewarding for our team. It's great for our team. Been a tough, tough year year and good to get a win here at the end.”
His Team Penske crew sprinted from pit lane to celebrate with him on track. They had to pass Alex Palou, who clinched his fourth IndyCar title with two races remaining, as he did celebratory doughnuts in the infield grass following his second-place finish.
It was just the second win of the season for Team Penske, which along with Newgarden has had a horrific year, and it prevented Newgarden from going winless for the first time since 2014.
Newgarden benefited from issues to a multitude of drivers and took the lead for good with 21 laps remaining when teammate Scott McLaughlin slid up the track and brushed the wall as Newgarden sailed past him. IndyCar immediately threw the caution and McLaughlin didn’t seem to have any damage to his car, but he wasn't even able to challenge Newgarden on the restart with 11 laps to go.
Newgarden came into the race 16th in the standings, lowest of the Team Penske trio of drivers, and had only two podium finishes through 16 races. He ended the season with four total top-five finishes, one upside-down flip and — despite his win Sunday — what will likely go down as the worst of his 14 years in IndyCar.
The last nine wins of Newgarden's career are all on ovals.
McLaughlin finished third.
Pato O'Ward started from the pole and seemed headed toward a third victory until a tire failure caused him to crash while leading.
O'Ward had already locked up second in the championship standings and wanted to give McLaren Racing a sweep of the day after Oscar Piastri won the Dutch Grand Prix. It would have been the first time in 49 years that McLaren won the IndyCar and Formula 1 races on the same day.
He said he'd had a previous tire failure at Nashville during a test and had concerns about the durability of the Firestones all weekend. Earlier in the race, Palou had a tire failure not long after a breathtaking wheel-to-wheel fight with O'Ward for the lead.
“Hopefully Firestone can help us out for next year, because it sucks kind of knowing that (a tire failure) can be a possibility and multiple cars having that issue and then the guys hitting the wall at 200 mph are us,” O'Ward said. “I can tell you, you can really feel those hits, so I really hope that they can somewhat fix that and for that not to be a concern because we don't like to go racing with that in the back of our heads.”
David Malukas has been widely rumored since the start of the season to be headed to Team Penske to replace Will Power, and if Nashville was his last race with A.J. Foyt Racing, it was rough.
Malukas crashed 83 laps into the race and was helicoptered out of the track for further medical evaluation. IndyCar and his race team said he was awake and alert and being transported to another facility for further evaluation.
Malukas was racing Louis Foster, who was one lap down, and refused to give Malukas any room. The contact between the cars sent Malukas spinning into the wall.
The medical crew had to help Malukas from the car and he sat outside it, head down, as he was surrounded by personnel. Track workers also had to do repair work to the barrier that Malukas hit.
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