NEWTON, Iowa - Bum hand, repaired clavicle, and nearly a full lapped field - such was the story for Josef Newgarden in the opening 150 laps of the 300-lap Iowa Corn 300 (LIVE, NBCSN).
Newgarden led 134 of the opening 150 laps. Team Penske (Simon Pagenaud, Helio Castroneves, Juan Pablo Montoya) was second through fourth with Scott Dixon in fifth.
The driver of the No. 21 Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevrolet lapped up to second-placed driver Pagenaud, the polesitter, in the No. 22 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet before the first caution just past the 100-lap mark.
Ryan Hunter-Reay lost an engine on his No. 28 DHL Honda in Turn 4, thus capping off a nightmare weekend for him where he had an accident in Saturday practice and qualified 20th. So ended his hopes of a three-peat here.
The ensuing caution meant a wave around occurred and brought nine other cars back on the lead lap.
Now 11 cars on lead lap after this yellow: NEW PAG CAS MON DIX KAN POW RAH ALE CHI and BOU. Wipes out huge lead/advantage for JN.
— INDYCAR on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) July 10, 2016
Meanwhile besides Hunter-Reay’s woes, Ed Carpenter also had woes himself on a pit stop, with the team needing to change the entire gear stack after the car failed to engage.
Carpenter tough luck continues with issues on his pit stop. Neutral when relaunching pic.twitter.com/cZ8WxN89xZ
— INDYCAR on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) July 10, 2016
#20 crew working to change the entire gear stack for EC.
— Ed Carpenter Racing (@ECRIndy) July 10, 2016