O’Ward Wins Second Race at Belle Isle; Newgarden slips late

A chaotic and eventful weekend in Detroit came to a close as Pato O’Ward took his second win of the season, beating the driver who led all but the last three laps, Josef Newgarden. O’Ward took full advantage of a late caution brought out for the second day in a row by Romain Grosjean. Restarting from 5th with only 8 laps to go, the young Mexican driver flew past Palou and Rahal in the first lap, before dispatching Herta and Newgarden in short order, then running away to win his first road/street course race. It was an emotional victory, as his teammate Felix Rosenqvist had been hospitalized overnight following a massive shunt the previous day. O’Ward assumes the championship lead by just one point, as three of the top six drivers in the standings are under the age of 24. 

Josef Newgarden started from pole and points leader Palou started from fourth, after starting from last yesterday. The race started out with a bang, as Max Chilton ran into the back of James Hinchcliffe on the first lap and destroyed his wing, causing a caution. The race restarted on lap 5, as Newgarden jumped out to a 3 second in 4 laps. Alexander Rossi suffered front wing damage, and began to stack up the field, and later into the stint he was passed by Dixon, Ferrucci, and O’Ward. A collision between Saturday’s winner Marcus Ericsson and Rinus Veekay forced Veekay to short pit with a flat left front tire. The strategy game was different from Saturday’s race, as the track had more rubber and was cooler, so teams were able to run the alternate red tires nearly 20 laps on the opening stint, as opposed to four or five on Saturday. Race leader Josef Newgarden started on the black primary tires, and as the stint ran on, he stretched out a massive lead on Colton Herta. At the end of the stint he had stretched it to nearly 13 seconds, but as stops cycled through on lap 21, Dalton Kellett had a wheel improperly attached, forcing Newgarden and others to pit early, in case of a caution. No caution came, but Newgarden’s strategy took a massive hit, as he was forced to run scuffed alternate tires for his last stint.

On lap 29, Romain Grosjean dove underneath Jack Harvey, making contact with his right rear tire and causing a spin and flat tire, in what Indycar deemed avoidable contact. Both Grosjean and Harvey were forced to come down pit road, putting an effective end to both of their races. As the middle stint wore on, the strategy game became clear, as Herta began to run down Newgarden, aware that his sticker primary tires would age better than the scuffed red tires of Newgarden. They maintained position coming out of the pits, and on lap 52 with warmer tires, Herta caught Newgarden and he began his attempt to pass him. Johnson spun and stalled at lap 54, and as he was unable to restart, the full course caution came out. This changed the entire race, as Herta’s gap over the other drivers on primary tires was erased. Newgarden also benefited from the yellow, as the longer the caution the less wear he would have on his older red tires. With only 11 laps to go, another yellow caused by Romain Grosjean at the end of the race came out, and the race restarted on lap 8. Pato O’Ward shot up two positions after the restart, and began working over Colton Herta. It only took O’Ward 2 laps to go by Herta and he immediately caught Newgarden in one lap. As he worked over the back of Newgarden, the Penske driver got extremely loose and the young Mexican flew by him down the back stretch. Palou took advantage of Herta’s lockup into turn 1 to take P3.

O’Ward takes the championship lead by one point over third-place finisher Alex Palou, with a quiet race from Scott Dixon putting 36 points back of O’Ward in third, with Newgarden 15 points of Dixon after his podium. The fifth spot is a toss up 5 points back of Newgarden with Veekay and Pagenaud tied 56 points behind O’Ward.