IndyCar News: O'Ward holds off Newgarden to win in Iowa

Pato O’Ward beat Josef Newgarden out of the pits on the final pitstop with 33 laps to go and held off Newgarden the rest of the way to win the first half of the Iowa Speedway IndyCar doubleheader.

The Mexican has finished second to Josef Newgarden three times this season and was able to study his moves when following behind him.

O’Ward’s finish today moves him into second for the championship points, but he is still 105 points behind Alex Palou.

Pato O’Ward makes a pitstop before a sparse crowd. Newton, IA- 2025 SYNK 275 Powered by SUKUP in Newton, IA (Photo by Travis Hinkle | IMS Photo)

“First time I do a repeat at a track, so that’s a cool milestone for myself. I’m super happy for all the guys and gals at Arrow McLaren. We’ve been working really hard. But the guy we’re chasing down keeps winning a bunch of them.”

“As for my race, I started getting creative. They’re just such long races. There’s still time to get your car in the window; now’s the time to get creative about where you want to place it. So yeah, we got moving in that second restart, and as soon as I got to Josef, he’s one of the guys that when you’re behind him, he tries to outsmart you, definitely. He’s been running ovals for more than I’ve been in the series. That experience only comes with laps, and he’s also very strong here, so I knew that we had to be perfect. ”

Josef Newgarden Photo courtesy of Penske Entertainment: Joe Skibinski

Newgarden started from the pole and led almost the entire race. However, during the final pitstop, when the girl changing his left front tire fumbled with the tire, Newgarden lost a second, allowing O’Ward to come out in front of the #2 Penske Chevy and take the lead. From there, O’Ward would retain the lead despite two restarts for crashes, winning by 0.24s.

“Our car was really good. The team did an amazing job. Been good all weekend. Really proud of the Astemo car we put out there. Team Chevy did amazing. It was great to see them get a result. They’ve really deserved one all year. Yeah, that’s that.”

Newgarden’s Penske teammates Will Power and Scott McLaughlin were 3rd and 4th, 0.1.21s and 2.35s behind O’Ward.

Points leader Alex Palou drove a conservative race and rounded out the top 5, 3.00s behind O’Ward.

Will Power Smiling, but the crowd was so sparse that there were more race team members than fans in the grandstands. Photo courtesy of Travis Hinkle | IMS Photo

Will Power was all smiles after finishing on the podium tonight. The Aussie was talking on Friday about the struggle the team has had almost the entire season. This finish was rewarding.

“Oh, man, I was stoked to get a podium. I really was. Wins are nice, but considering what’s been going on, just top 5 would have been good. Just finish the bloody race, get some points. Crying out loud, we have such potential every week. Just to leave so much on the table in the last few races has been really disappointing. Just nice to have a solid result and build on it tomorrow.”

Start of the 2025 SYNK 275 Powered by SUKUP in Newton, IA. The crowd was so sparse it was an embarrassment. (Photo by Travis Hinkle | IMS Photo)

The race had 47 laps of yellow. Colton Herta started off before crossing the start line in the first lap by spinning in Turn 4 but made no contact. After driving through the grass, he continued on the race course. This yellow lasted until Lap 8, when Josef Newgarden led the field to the green flag again.

On Lap 74, Jacob Abel made right-side contact with the SAFER Barrier in Turn 2. He would retire from the race.

On Lap 153, Kyle Kirkwood made contact with the SAFER Barrier in Turn 2. Kirkwood was carrying the Sukup sponsorship for this race but was unable to continue.

On Lap 248, Nolan Seigel made contact with the SAFER Barrier in Turn 4 and damaged the barrier. The race was then red flagged on Lap 258 when the series realized the repair would take a long time.

After the cars sat in pit lane for 12 minutes, the race was restarted and Pato O’Ward kept the lead to win the Synk 275 powered by Sukup.

Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin would finish the race in fourth place after starting 27th due to an incident in qualifying.

2025 INDYCAR Synk 275 winner Pato O’Ward

Iowa Race 1 Results

Pos	No	Name	Laps	Gap	Led	ST	Engine	Points	Team
1	5	Pato O’Ward	275	0.000s	33	5	Chevy	356	Arrow McLaren
2	2	Josef Newgarden	275	0.2352	232	1	Chevy	186	Team Penske
3	12	Will Power	275	0.9776	3	7	Chevy	238	Team Penske
4	3	Scott McLaughlin	275	1.1448	0	27	Chevy	229	Team Penske
5	10	Alex Palou	275	0.6444	4	4	Honda	461	Chip Ganassi Racing
6	21	Christian Rasmussen	275	0.6198	0	19	Chevy	183	Ed Carpenter Racing
7	76	Conor Daly	275	0.1502	0	2	Chevy	170	Juncos Hollinger Racing
8	14	Santino Ferrucci	275	0.3218	0	9	Chevy	222	AJ Foyt Enterprises
9	66	Marcus Armstrong	275	0.8947	3	11	Honda	232	Meyer Shank Racing
10	9	Scott Dixon	275	0.5378	0	6	Honda	302	Chip Ganassi Racing
11	15	Graham Rahal	275	0.6679	0	14	Honda	158	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
12	4	David Malukas	275	0.1677	0	10	Chevy	205	AJ Foyt Enterprises
13	26	Colton Herta	275	0.8738	0	23	Honda	234	Andretti Global w/Curb‑Agajanian
14	45	Louis Foster	275	0.7385	0	12	Honda	134	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
15	28	Marcus Ericsson	275	0.2768	0	15	Honda	156	Andretti Global
16	18	Rinus Veekay	274	1 LAPS	0	25	Honda	193	Dale Coyne Racing
17	60	Felix Rosenqvist	274	0.3425	0	3	Honda	272	Meyer Shank Racing
18	8	Kyffin Simpson	274	0.3716	0	22	Honda	174	Chip Ganassi Racing
19	30	Devlin DeFrancesco	274	0.5628	0	20	Honda	110	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
20	83	Robert Shwartzman	274	0.9618	0	16	Chevy	123	Prema Racing
21	7	Christian Lundgaard	274	0.7472	0	21	Chevy	272	Arrow McLaren
22	77	Sting Ray Robb	274	0.3458	0	24	Chevy	113	Juncos Hollinger Racing
23	90	Callum Ilott	261	8 LAPS	0	17	Chevy	102	Prema Racing
24	6	Nolan Siegel	246	5.2117	0	8	Chevy	153	Arrow McLaren
25	20	Alexander Rossi	236	5.2114	0	13	Chevy	181	Ed Carpenter Racing
26	27	Kyle Kirkwood	151	2.2200	0	18	Honda	322	Andretti Global
27	51	Jacob Abel	72	6.5308	0	26	Honda	69	Dale Coyne Racing

Race Statistics
Winner’s average speed: 139.146 mph
Time of Race: 01:46:00.6760
Margin of victory: 0.2352 of a second
Cautions: 5 for 47 laps
Lead changes: 5 among 5 drivers

Lap Leaders:
Newgarden, Josef 1 – 232
O’Ward, Pato 233
Power, Will 234 – 236
Palou, Alex 237 – 240
Armstrong, Marcus 241 – 243
O’Ward, Pato 244 – 275

NTT INDYCAR SERIES Point Standings: Palou 461, O’Ward 356, Kirkwood 322, Dixon 302, Lundgaard 272, Rosenqvist 272, Power 238, Herta 234, Armstrong 232, McLaughlin 229, Ferrucci 222, Malukas 205, VeeKay 193, Newgarden 186, Rasmussen 183, Rossi 181, Simpson 174, Daly 170, Rahal 158, Ericsson 156, Siegel 153, Foster 134, Shwartzman 123, Robb 113, DeFrancesco 110, Ilott 102, Abel 69, Takuma Sato 36, Helio Castroneves 20, Ed Carpenter 16, Jack Harvey 12, Ryan Hunter-Reay 10, Kyle Larson 6, Marco Andretti 5

Lucille Dust reporting live from Iowa Speedway