Scott McLaughlin grabbed his first IndyCar oval track victory on Saturday, leading most of the way to triumph at Iowa Speedway in the first race of a weekend double-header.
The Penske driver from New Zealand kept his cool during a series of late restarts leading 164 laps of the 250-lap race to finish .4814sec ahead of Mexico’s Pato O’Ward.
Penske’s Josef Newgarden — winner of four of the past five races at Iowa — was third, climbing through the field to round out the podium after starting 22nd.
“I never was going to call myself an IndyCar driver until I won one on an oval,” McLaughlin told broadcaster NBC. “I’m going to call myself an IndyCar driver now.”
McLaughlin posted his second victory of the season and the sixth of his career.
He started alongside pole-sitter Colton Herta in a race that saw the caution flag come out almost immediately thanks to a first-lap crash involving David Malukas, Agustin Canapino and Romain Grosjean.
McLaughlin was trailing race leader Herta when the leaders made for the pits for the first time.
He edged Herta coming out of the pit lane and held off an aggressive move by Herta on a lap 94 restart from caution, staying in front the rest of the way.
Series points leader Alex Palou crashed out, spinning coming out of turn four and hitting the wall.
His mishap proved disastrous for Herta, who had pitted for fuel and tires while running second but with the caution flag out had to rejoin well down the field.
Palou remained atop the standings with 336 points, O’Ward moved into second place on 299 points as Australian Will Power dropped from second to third on 293.
McLaughlin will get a chance to double his tally of oval victories on Sunday, when he starts from pole in the second race of the weekend.
“That’s a big deal today,” said McLaughlin, who moved up three places in the standings into fifth. “I’ve been working for that for a couple of years.”
