Josef Newgarden spoils Marcus Ericsson's dominant day with sixth WWT Raceway win
- Jeffrey Hrunka
- Jun 8
- 4 min read
Jeffrey Hrunka - INDYCAR Contributor
It’s never safe to bet against Josef Newgarden at WWT Raceway. He added a sixth victory to his all-time wins total at the racetrack, taking the lead from Christian Rasmussen with 24 laps to go and holding off a late charge from a dominant Marcus Ericsson. Ericsson and Rasmussen round out the podium positions.
"Everything felt pretty good tonight. The car was fast, felt normal. It was great. I'm just happy for the team,” Newgarden said. “It's been a hard stretch, I think for everybody in the paddock. All of us are working incredibly hard to get to this point.”
The result marked Newgarden’s second win of the season, his 11th straight on a speedway and 34th career victory. For Team Penske, it was another notch to their already stacked resume at the facility with 10 wins.
Weather played a significant role in determining the strategy for the field.
A caution on lap 121, caused by a hard crash by Graham Rahal, split strategy as rain fell during the cleanup period under caution. Several drivers elected to come down the pit lane to attempt the one-stop strategy, forced to make a 60-lap fuel number to go the distance. The 20-lap caution period made the strategy feasible as cars were able to get in the window by parading around the track under caution. The field didn't go back racing until lap 144.
“The biggest thing today was the rain wasn't showing up on the radar,” Team Penske President Jonathan Diuguid said. “[It didn’t show up] on the first one. The second one, there was a blip that came up. It's difficult to predict.”
Regardless, Newgarden and Ericsson led the one-stop strategy, later catching Alex Palou, Scott Dixon and David Maulkas, who led the two-stop. It was evident that saving costs took too much time, with many abandoning the strategy midway through the run.
Yet, more rainfall on lap 200 allowed Dixon and Palou to come down pit road on their fuel number. Luckily for Newgarden and Ericsson, they didn’t have enough gas. Dixon had to pit on a closed pit road once the rain stopped, and Palou ran out of fuel once on pit road. The Chip Ganassi Racing duo finished 12th and 18th, respectively.
The race resumed with 48 laps to go, resulting in a shootout between Newgarden, Rasmussen and Ericsson. After a back-and-forth battle with Rasmussen, Newgarden passed him for the lead late and held off a fast-charging Ericsson for second. Both Ericsson and Rasmussen claimed their first podiums of the season.
"It was crazy. I'm just glad we went the distance, honestly,” Newgarden said. “With the rain, it almost turns it into a casino in some regards. I think the fast cars finished up front going the distance.”
Both drivers entered the weekend looking for good performances. Rasmuseen had three straight DNFs off a disastrous ‘Month of May’ for his Ed Carpenter Racing team. The bad luck left him 24th in the driver standings before this podium catapulted him to 22nd.
“We've had a tough year,” Rasmussen said. “Feeling like we kind of had a win robbed from us back in Phoenix. Coming right back to an oval and kind of starting up where we finished off was a good feeling.”
As for Ericsson, his contract with Andretti Global ends at the end of the season. During his tenure with the team, the 2022 Indianapolis 500 winner had one podium finish, the 2024 Chevrolet Grand Prix, to show for it. A career-high 114 laps led and a runner-up finish on Sunday could be what turns some heads.
“It's definitely bittersweet after leading that many laps, having a great car underneath me,” Ericsson said. “We drove all the way to the front, was feeling really good up front. Josef is good around these tracks. He got track position on us at one of the stops. Yeah, it's just hard to get around him.”
Palou's costly strategy error on lap 205 cost him finishing two laps down. Kyle Kirkwood took full advantage with a sixth-place finish to cut Palou’s championship lead down to 42 points. With his win, Newgarden jumped to sixth in the standings, 104 points back from Palou.
NTT INDYCAR SERIES Bommarito Automotive Group 500 Results:
Josef Newgarden #2 - (WINNER)
Marcus Erisscon #28 -0.661s
Christian Rasmussen #21 -1.852s
Rinus Veekay #76 -3.435s
Scott McLaughlin #3 -7.223s
Kyle Kirkwood #27 -7.948s
David Malukas #12 -8.368s
Will Power #26 -9.337s
Marcus Armstrong #66 -9.725s
Chrsitian Lundgaard #7 -10.04s
Pato O’Ward #5 -10.869s
Scott Dixon #9 -11.529s
Santino Ferrcucci #14 -15.413s
Felix Rosenqvist #60 -18.833s
Romain Grosjean #18 -1 lap down
Mick Schumacher #47 (R) 1 lap down
Alex Palou #10 -2 laps down
Alexander Rossi #20 -2 laps down
Sting Ray Robb #77 -3 laps down
Louis Foster #45 -10 laps down
Kyffin Simpson #8 -24 laps down
Caio Collet #4 (R)- 34 laps down
Graham Rahal #15 -148 laps down
Nolan Siegel #6 -207 laps down
Dennis Hauger #19 (R) -260 laps down
The NTT INDYCAR SERIES returns to action for the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America on June 21. Fans can tune into the action at 2:00 pm EST on FS1 or the FOX One app.
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