O’Ward storms to victory in Detroit Race 2

“This is for you, buddy!” was Pato O’Ward’s message to injured teammate Felix Rosenqvist after putting in one of his patented storming drives to earn a second victory of the NTT IndyCar Series season for Arrow McLaren SP.

O’Ward’s No. 5 Chevy gave the race’s title sponsor at the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix something to celebrate after completing a wild march through the field from P16 to P1 by Lap 68 of the 70-lap contest. The win vaulted O’Ward to the lead in the championship standings as AMSP’s race strategy trumped a gamble taken by Team Penske with polesitter Josef Newgarden, who dominated the first 67 laps.

Starting on Firestone’s more durable primary tires, Newgarden had copious amounts of speed as most of his challengers suffered with decreased pace on the peakier red-banded tires during their opening stints. With Newgarden’s rivals switching to primaries at the first stop, his team elected to keep the two-time series champion on primaries for the second stint, meaning he would be exposed during the third and final stint when, by rule, he’d have to run on Firestone reds.

It’s here where the race -- coupled with a late caution on Lap 54 for Jimmie Johnson’s solo spin and stall -- turned AMSP’s decision to start O’Ward on new reds, install used primaries in the middle of the race, and close on new primaries, was weaponized. Struggling on used reds, Newgarden initially built a cushion to Colton Herta and Alex Palou on the Lap 58 restart, but O’Ward was charging.

The 22-year-old Mexican would take P5 from Scott Dixon on the restart, but another caution would pause the race on Lap 59 as Romain Grosjean ground to a halt and had his front brakes catch on fire. With his car extinguished and removed, the action resumed on Lap 63, and it was the same routine as Newgarden pulled away and O’Ward ripped P4 from Graham Rahal into Turn 1 and P3 from Palou at Turn 3.

Herta would fall to O’Ward on Lap 65 and a gripless Newgarden was powerless to stop O’Ward’s mercurial charge to P1 on Lap 68 on the way to 6.7s victory.

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“I had such a great car all weekend,” O’Ward said. “This is a Team Chevy territory. I texted Felix this morning and told him that I’m going to win it for him.”

Asked if he could believe he was leading the championship, O’Ward said, “Yes, I can. The guys have been doing a great job. There’s still so much to go. We need to stay on it and keep pushing.”

A crestfallen Newgarden took little solace in leaving Detroit Round 2 with a P2 as Team Penske’s winless streak for the season extends to eight races.

“Sad. Just pretty sad,” he said of the No. 2 Chevy’s outcome. “It’s hard not to be disappointed. I think we had the car to beat. Cautions when we didn’t need 'em. Wrong tires when we didn’t need 'em. It was a fun strategy. We were doing well; the caution killed us. We tried.”

Newgarden appeared to have the race under control until the closing stages. Barry Cantrell/Motorsport Images

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou surrendered the championship lead to O’Ward after coming into the event with a 36-point advantage over teammate Scott Dixon and the AMSP driver. A bad race on Saturday was resolved on Sunday, however, as he took the No. 10 Honda home for his fourth podium of the year.

“Felt really good, had a really good battle with Colton and Josef there,” he said. “Really happy with another podium.”

Herta looked like he might be able to overtake Newgarden on the two late restarts. On the last attempt, a loss of speed in Turn 3 allowed Palou to get a run and take P3, which added to an unsatisfying finish of P3.

“It’s pretty disappointing,” he admitted. "I just didn’t get it done.”

It’s a quick turnaround for teams with practice for the next round at Road America just days away. IndyCar has its first repeat winner of the season in O’Ward, who owns victories on an oval and on a street course. With the beloved natural terrain road course on the horizon, can O’Ward add a third win to his collection on a third and different style of track?

RESULTS

AS IT HAPPENED

Lap 1 opened with a knockaround between Turns 1 and 2 with Scott Dixon turning into Romain Grosjean, and with Alexander Rossi going down the inside of Grosjean, a spinning Dixon made contact with Rossi’s left-front tire, which straightened his car and prevented a spin. The only penalty was dropping two spots from P6 to P8 for Dixon; Rossi was dealt left-front wing damage.

The race added more contact moments later as Sebastien Bourdais flew over the inside curb at Turn 3, landed, and took a moment to regain momentum. The ensuing accordion effect slowed James Hinchcliffe, and the third driver in the train, Max Chilton, struggled to slow his car in time to avoid a rear collision. Riding up the back of Hinchcliffe’s car, Chilton broke his front wing assembly and nosed into the tire barrier, which brought out a caution.

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Among the front-runners, Rinus VeeKay (P3) and Romain Grosjean (P5) pitted to get off of Firestone’s red-banded tires. The Lap 5 restart saw Pato O’Ward take P10 from Simon Pagenaud.

By the start of Lap 7, Newgarden -- the only driver in the top 12 to start on Firestone’s primary tires -- held a 2.2s advantage over Colton Herta in P2 and 3.3s over Alex Palou in P3.

Lapping nearly a half-second faster than those immediately behind him, Newgarden stretched his lead over Herta to 3.9s by Lap 10. It was out to 6.4s by Lap 12 as the Penske driver was doing amazing things. Dixon got past Jones for P6, and then he’d take P5 from Rossi on Lap 14 as Santino Ferrucci claimed P7 as Jones fell back to P10 as a few more drivers got by.

By Lap 15, Newgarden was 10.8s clear of Herta as Ferrucci dispatched Rossi from P6. A premature effort to pass and clear Marcus Ericsson saw Rinus VeeKay hit the Race 1 winner, push Ericsson into the wall, and cut down VeeKay’s left-rear tire; the Ed Carpenter Racing driver pitted to have it replaced.

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Rossi pitted on Lap 17 and lost a lot of time while the front wing was changed. Lap 19 had Newgarden holding 13.4s over Herta as Jones pitted. Dixon was in on Lap 20 and passed Dalton Kellett -- who stopped on the exit of pit lane and waited for the A.J. Foyt Racing team to run down and install the missing wheel nut on the right-rear wheel. Newgarden pitted from the lead with a 14.4s margin over Herta as most of his pursuers stopped as well and took a second set of primaries.

Will Power pitted from second on Lap 27 as did Takuma Sato. Pitting on Lap 29, Jack Harvey emerged and had contact with Grosjean, who looked inside at Turn 6, spun Harvey, and cut Harvey’s right-rear tire. Harvey kept the engine running and got going without the need for a caution.

Lap 30 had Newgarden 9.8s up on Herta, 14.6s on Palou, and repeating what was seen during his first stint. Lap 40 showed Herta’s efforts to draw down the gap were successful as Newgarden’s lead was 7.9s; Palou wasn’t as fortunate, down 15.6s. The rest of the top 10 was completed by Graham Rahal, Dixon, O’Ward, Power, Ferrucci, Ryan Hunter-Reay, and Pagenaud.

Lap 46 was the time to pit for Herta, Palou, Rahal, Dixon, O’Ward, and more. Newgarden followed at the end of the lap. Herta was 4.6s arrears and on hotter primary tires as Newgarden emerged on the less favorable reds.

The gap was down to 3.0s by Lap 48. Ferrucci defended against a pass by Pagenaud at Turn 3 and made contact. Oliver Askew pitted with a problem that ended his chances of a decent finish.

By Lap 51, Herta had the lead cut to 0.7s to Newgarden who was lapping 1.0s slower on used reds. Power pitted from P4 on Lap 52. Herta was 0.3s arrears as Lap 53 started. Palou was 10,1s adrift in P3. Jimmie Johnson spun in Turn 1 to start Lap 54 and stalled his undamaged car. A caution followed.

Jones and VeeKay pitted under the yellow.

The Lap 59 restart saw O’Ward take P5 from Dixon and Newgarden pull away by 1.1s over Herta. Grosjean spun and stalled; with his front brakes on fire, he ran to get a fire extinguisher to put out the fires, but was stopped by the AMR Safety Team which took care of it on their own.

The Lap 64 restart was a repeat for O’Ward who took P4 from Rahal into Turn 1 and P3 from Palou into Turn 3. Power took P6 from Dixon. Newgarden pushed out to 1.4s over Herta by Lap 65 as O’Ward took P2 from him halfway through the lap. It was down to 0.2s on Lap 67.

Lap 68 saw O’Ward and Herta try to pass Newgarden and each other, which left Herta running long and falling back. O’Ward finally got by Newgarden and took off into an easy lead of 2.5s. Palou also got by Herta for P3 and set after Newgarden. O’Ward was 5.0s up on the start of the final lap as Newgarden was trailed by Palou, Herta, and Rahal. The top five stayed the same at the checkered flag -- second win of the year for O’Ward.