Josef Newgarden has won six of 12 IndyCar races at Iowa Speedway since 2016.
NEWTON—The King of Iowa Speedway added another trophy to his collection July 12.
Josef "Ovals" Newgarden has won six of the 12 IndyCar races at Iowa Speedway since 2016. On July 12 he won the pole for the first race at Iowa Speedway. Newgarden, the 2023 and 2024 Indianapolis 500 winner, said in a news conference that due to a partial repave, Iowa is a different track than it was 24 months ago before the repave. Newgarden finished third and seventh, respectively, in last year's two IndyCar races in Iowa.
"It's a totally different race," Newgarden said. "Last year no one could really do anything, and the one time you needed to qualify well was here last year and we had a disastrous qualifying. So I don't know how to analyze what the race will be."
Team Penske — owned by IndyCar owner Roger Penske — has dominated both IndyCar and NASCAR at Iowa Speedway. In June 2024 Penske driver Ryan Blaney won the first NASCAR Cup Series race at Iowa Speedway. IndyCar teammates Scott McLaughlin and Will Power followed that up by winning the two IndyCar races here last year.
But this year Team Penske has not won a race and has been plagued by scandal for the second straight year. Newgarden won the 2023 and 2024 Indianapolis 500 races. In May Newgarden and Power's cars failed technical inspections before the second round of qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 when IndyCar officials found unapproved adjustments to the rear attenuator of both cars.
Newgarden and Power were moved to starting spots No. 32 and 33 and finished 22nd and 16th, respectively. Team Penske fired three executives in the wake of the violations. McLaughlin crashed on a pace lap of the Indy 500 and never took the green flag.
Each week seems to bring new struggles for Team Penske. On June 15 Newgarden appeared to be cruising to a win near St. Louis when he was T-boned by Louis Foster's car after Foster clipped the Turn 4 wall, causing Newgarden's car to flip on the front stretch. On July 6 at Mid-Ohio, an engine fire forced Power out in 26th place. Newgarden spun on Lap 1 and finished last in 27th.
"I think we've had a lot of speed all year at different times and at different places," Newgarden said. "Not every time, but there's a lot of times when we have had speed and it's just not materialized. So I don't think today is necessarily a surprise for us, but it's always good to get a little win on the board."
Philip Joens covers retail, real estate and motorsports for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached at 515-284-8184 or [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Josef Newgarden wins pole for first race at Iowa Speedway
Category: General Sports
