Pato O’Ward Kicks Off Iowa Doubleheader with Win

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

NEWTON, Iowa – Chevrolet and Pato O’Ward are finally on the board in 2025.

Cycling to the front of the field over rival Josef Newgarden during the final round of green flag pit stops, O’Ward stood his ground late in the race, holding off Newgarden on two late restarts – one of which came after a red flag – to score his first win of the season and second career win at Iowa Speedway.

The win also came at a pivotal moment in O’Ward’s NTT IndyCar Series career with Saturday’s race marking his 100^th career start in the series.

“First time I do a repeat at a track, so that’s a cool milestone for myself,” said O’Ward. “Super happy for, first of all, 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.

“Also very happy for Team Chevy. This was important and very deserving for Team Chevy. I’m glad it was an all-Chevy podium.

“Yeah, for my race, I started getting creative. They’re just such long races. There’s time to get your car in the window, start getting creative on 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.

“We capitalized on that in lap. I think I went a little bit over the limit and risked a bit more than I was planning to, but all in all, it actually worked out because he was right on our gearbox on that 3 and 4 when we came out. Yeah, great pit stop, and did my job to secure us that overcut, and that’s pretty much what gave us the win today.”

With the win, O’Ward was able to take a bite – albeit a small bite – out of Alex Palou’s points lead, which is now down to 105 points with six races remaining in 2025.

“Let me guess, still over 100 points,” O’Ward joked.

“In racing, anything is possible. There’s been some weird, weird stuff that happens. I think if weird stuff happens even more in INDYCAR, that makes sense.

“But the guy just doesn’t have any bad races, and a bad race for him is like fifth. Otherwise he’s on the podium.

“We’ve just got to keep chipping away at it. I’ve been as consistent as I’ve ever been. I feel like I’ve been laying low, and that usually means you’re staying out of trouble. But it’s tough to be podium contention and qualifying, top 3 every single weekend.”

Runner-up finisher Newgarden looked to be unstoppable through the first three-quarters of Saturday’s race, leading the first 232 laps of the 275-lap race before ducking off onto pit road for his final green flag stop.

A bobble on pit road from his normally flawless pit crew allowed O’Ward to cycle out ahead of him, but he wasn’t going to give up without a fight, taking a number of shots at O’Ward over the course of the final laps, but just didn’t have quite enough to overtake O’Ward to reclaim the lead, having to instead settle for second place.

Though it was not a win, the finish marked the best result of the year for the No. 2 team in what has been a season of discontent.

“Our car was really good. Team did an amazing job,” said Newgarden. “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.”

Will Power would round out the podium finishers in another Team Penske Chevrolet, followed by the third Penske entry in Scott McLaughlin, who charged from dead last at the start of the race to finish in fourth.

“Oh, man, I was stoked to get a podium. I really was,” said Power. “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.”

Defending series champion and current points leader Alex Palou continued his consistent run through the 2025 season, finishing the day in fifth place, followed by Christian Rasmussen, Conor Daly, Santino Ferrucci, Marcus Armstrong, and Scott Dixon.

Kirkwood’s Tough Day, Siegel’s Red Flag

The race was slowed for caution on five different occasions, with the two biggest hits of the day going to Kyle Kirkwood and Nolan Siegel.

Kirkwood’s crash came on Lap 153 when his No. 27 Andretti Global Honda slammed the wall in Turn 2 after a mechanical failure on his car. The crash was the second of the day for Kirkwood, who also crashed in practice to start the day.

After his practice crash, Kirkwood’s Andretti crew thrashed to get his car back out on track for qualifying and now will have a long night ahead to get his car back together for the second race of the Iowa doubleheader at 1:00 pm ET on Sunday.

“I’m fine. I feel good. Just unfortunate,” Kirkwood said. “You know, this Sukup Honda, I thought we were making big improvements in the race and we were starting to get into the groove of things and setting up our strategy quite well. And something out of our control just ruined it for us today.

“Right front just goes away. Can’t do anything about it. Unfortunate. Not much else to say.”

Siegel’s crash came on Lap 248 when his Arrow McLaren Chevrolet whipped around and tagged the outside wall in Turn 2. The impact caused damage to the SAFER barrier, which necessitated a red flag for the wall to be repaired, setting up the final charge to the finish.

The youngest member of the Arrow McLaren stable would be checked and released from the IndyCar Medical Unit a short time later.

:It was a little weird from the time I left pit lane and had a lot of oversteer up until then and then I don’t know I just lost it in the middle of (Turn) ¾. I was pushing hard. There’s not much more to it. It was a big hit. I’m fine,” Siegel said afterwards.