Newgarden eats the competition alive in Iowa Corn 300 - MotorSportsTalk

NEWTON, Iowa – Josef Newgarden led 282 of 300 laps en route to his first win of the Verizon IndyCar Series season and third of his career in Sunday’s Iowa Corn 300 in a thoroughly dominant and unbelievable performance.

The win comes not even a full month after his accident at Texas Motor Speedway on June 12, when he sustained a fractured right clavicle and a small fracture on his right hand after contact with Conor Daly.

But Newgarden, who pressed through at Road America to finish eighth after starting 20th, looked fully back on form today in what was easily the greatest of his three career wins – and now sits second in the championship standings.

“I think we had a car like that last year. Man, it’s hard to not get emotional after these things! What a great car! ” Newgarden said in victory lane.

“Fuzzy’s Vodka…they enable us to do what we are doing here. Have a great team with Ed Carpenter Racing. Great team owner in Ed Carpenter. It is great, man. Best car I’ve ever had. Happy for my team. For my owner – he is a good dude. He takes good care of me. Just happy. This is so cool.

“Thanks to everyone in Iowa. I love this place. Love coming to Iowa. Love the fans here. Love running Indy cars around this place. I hope we come back here for many, many years.”

“That guy’s awesome, and makes me look good,” added engineer Jeremy Milless, who engineers the No. 21 Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevrolet.

Milless played a big part in the victory, as did JR Hildebrand, who tested the Ed Carpenter Racing entry last week while Newgarden opted to rest his right hand.

Newgarden had most – if not all – to do with it today in a beatdown reminiscent of days of old in North American open-wheel racing.

Newgarden started second and made it past polesitter Simon Pagenaud on the first lap.

He then led all but 18 of the remaining laps – losing the lead only on pit stop sequences – in a flawless effort from both him and the Carpenter pit crew the rest of the race to win by 4.2828 seconds.

Victory lane! @ECRIndy @josefnewgarden #IowaCorn300 🌽 pic.twitter.com/LdGkrTANNz

— INDYCAR on NBCSN (@IndyCaronNBCSN) July 10, 2016

He’d lapped up to Pagenaud in second place at one point, and by the end of the race, only the top five stayed on the lead lap.

Will Power, Scott Dixon, Pagenaud, Mikhail Aleshin and Alexander Rossi completed the top six.

Power’s run toward the front came late after the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet crew was fighting the setup on his car all day.

He made it past Dixon and Pagenaud in the waning stages and adds the runner-up finish to his back-to-back wins at Detroit race two and Road America.

Dixon got on the podium after a tough final practice, the team reverting back to its 2015 setup on the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet and sorting out his issues.

Pagenaud drove smartly for points while Aleshin banked his second top-five finish of the season, top Honda driver of the day in the No. 7 SMP Racing Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda.

Rossi was sixth after another impressive drive in the No. 98 Castrol Edge/Curb Honda, although he had one moment where he ran wide off Turn 2 and nearly collected Tony Kanaan in the process.

Kanaan, who didn’t lead a lap despite leading both practice sessions, ended seventh after being caught out on a caution in the No. 10 NTT Data Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet, losing two laps.

Sebastien Bourdais and James Hinchcliffe drove from 16th and 22nd to eighth and ninth with Charlie Kimball recovering for a top-10 finish after dropping out of the top-15 early.

Helio Castroneves, who entered second in points, was another caught out on a caution and ended 13th. The same story was true for Graham Rahal who never had much luck and ended 16th. Newgarden’s teammate and team owner Carpenter had a gearbox issue on a pit stop and ended 18th with Max Chilton, Juan Pablo Montoya, Conor Daly and Ryan Hunter-Reay rounding out the field.

Chilton spun but resumed, a tough ending after qualifying fourth, with Montoya and Hunter-Reay having engine issues (one Chevrolet, one Honda respectively) and Daly retiring due to handling.

Results are below:

Pagenaud holds an unofficial 73-point lead, a net loss of one coming into the day, over Newgarden with this result.

Updated #IndyCar Championship Points pic.twitter.com/1OM5qQemWU

— Matt Archuleta (@indy44) July 11, 2016

The series heads to Toronto next week for the Honda Indy Toronto.

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For the fifth time in 10 rounds of the 2023 Monster Energy Supercross season, the three riders at the top of the championship standings shared a podium and while those points tell one story, the NBC SuperMotocross Power Rankings after Detroit tell a slightly different tale.

SuperMotocross Power Rankings Detroit — *Cooper Webb is peaking at the right time. – Feld Motor Sports*

Chase Sexton has been all but perfect during the past 45 days with podium finishes in each of his heats and Triple Crown features. His only stumble during this period was a 10th-place finish in the Indianapolis Main. Last week, Sexton was perfect with wins in both his heat and the feature, although he needed a little help from an Aaron Plessinger mistake to take the top spot on the podium at the end of the night.

Cooper Webb finished fifth at Houston and was beginning to worry ever so slightly about his position in the points. Prior to the race in Tampa, he told NBC Sports that it was time to win and like Babe Ruth pointing to the outfield fence, Webb went out and captured it. Following that race, Webb has swept the podium and earned the red plate two weeks ago in Indianapolis. At Detroit, he added two more points on Eli Tomac as the season begins to wind down.

Tomac struggled with a stiff neck at Indianapolis and after a modest third-place showing in Detroit, he revealed he was still suffering a little. Webb and Sexton have been able to close the gap on Tomac in the past 45 days, but one of the main reasons he is so close in the points was a pair of wins that started the year. Seattle is going to be important for the defending champion because Tomac cannot afford to lose any more momentum with seven rounds remaining.

MORE: Chase Sexton inherits the win in Detroit

It appeared Jason Anderson was turning things around. He earned his fifth heat win at Detroit, which was also his sixth consecutive race (including features) in which he scored a top-five. A fall in the Detroit Main dropped him a lap off the pace and sent him home with a season-worst finish of ninth, causing a ripple effect in the SuperMotocross Power Rankings.

Justin Barcia was a huge part of the show last week in Detroit. He swapped positions with both Webb and Tomac in the middle stage of the race, which allowed Sexton to close the gap. Barcia finished fourth in that race to earn his third consecutive top-five. He’s been outside the top 10 only once in the first 10 rounds.

Adam Cianciarulo had a great start to the Main. He led a couple of laps before losing a lap and slipping back to eighth in the final rundown. That run was strong enough to elevate him three positions in the SuperMotocross Power Rankings after Detroit.

450 Rankings

This Week	Driver	Percentage Points	Last Week	Diff.
1.	Chase Sexton [2 Main, 6 Heat wins]	87.00	1	0
2.	Cooper Webb [2 Main, 1 Heat win]	86.71	2	0
3.	Eli Tomac [5 Main, 6 Heat wins]	84.57	3	0
4.	Jason Anderson [5 Heat wins]	80.71	4	0
5.	Ken Roczen [1 Main, 1 Heat win]	80.50	5	0
6.	Justin Barcia [1 Heat win]	79.07	7	1
7.	Aaron Plessinger	77.14	6	-1
8.	Adam Cianciarulo	69.75	11	3
9.	Christian Craig	68.86	10	1
10.	Justin Cooper	63.90	9	-1
11.	Justin Hill	58.57	15	4
12.	Dean Wilson	51.50	12	0
13.	Colt Nichols	51.25	13	0
14.	Shane McElrath	46.86	17	3
15.	Josh Hill	46.79	16	1
16.	Benny Bloss	45.31	18	2
17.	Jared Lesher	39.00		NA
18.	Joey Savatgy	38.63	14	-4
19.	Cade Clason	37.50	21	2
20.	Grant Harlan	35.54	23	3

Supercross 450 Points

The NBC SuperMotocross Power Rankings look at the past 90 days in the 250 class in order to have a balanced comparison between the East and West divisions and Hunter Lawrence has been all but perfect this year. At Detroit, he earned his fifth win of the season and kept alive a streak of podium finishes in six rounds. He tied his brother Jett Lawrence with 10 250 wins one week before the West riders take to the track for back-to-back races at Seattle, Washington and Glendale, Arizona.

The Lawrence brothers are dominating the points in each of their respective divisions, which means the remainder of the field is battling to be best in class.

In the East, that rider is Nate Thrasher, who beat Hunter in a head-to-head matchup in their heat only to finish second in the main when the majority of points were awarded. Thrasher seems to have accepted his position in the championship standings, but that doesn’t mean he won’t keep trying for wins.

Haiden Deegan showed a lot of aggression in his heat last week. He threw a couple of block passes at his teammate Jordon Smith and set up a series of events that kept Smith from making the big show while Deegan settled into second in the preliminary. Deegan was unconcerned about how he raced his teammate and would not let a little controversy keep him from celebrating his second career podium in Detroit.

Supercross 250 Points

Jeremy Martin just keeps clicking off solid results. He won his heat last week by making a pass on Deegan and Smith while they were in the heat of their battle. Martin finished fourth in the Main, which means he continues to have only one finish worse than sixth in any of the features or mains.

Smith fell one position in the points standings, but the damage was even worse in SuperMotocross Power Rankings after Detroit. Crash damage in his heat contributed to a last-place finish in that race, for which he earned minimal points. He was not able to advance from the Last Chance Qualifier after stalling his bike in heavy traffic.

250 Rankings

This Week	Rider	Power Avg.	Last Week	Diff.
1.	Hunter Lawrence – E [5 Main, 5 Heat wins]	90.43	1	0
2.	Jett Lawrence – W [3 Main, 3 Heat wins]	90.30	2	0
3.	Nate Thrasher – E [1 Main, 3 Heat wins]	84.00	5	2
4.	Cameron McAdoo – W [1 Heat win]	79.80	9	5
5.	Haiden Deegan – E [1 Heat win]	78.21	7	2
6.	Jeremy Martin – E [2 Heat wins]	78.00	8	2
7.	Jordon Smith – E [3 Heat Wins]	76.77	4	-3
8.	Levi Kitchen – W [1 Main]	75.30	3	-5
9.	Mitchell Oldenburg – W	75.20	11	2
10.	RJ Hampshire – W [4 Heat wins]	74.50	17	7
11.	Max Anstie – E	74.43	6	-5
12.	Tom Vialle – E	72.07	12	0
13.	Max Vohland – W	71.56	10	-3
14.	Stilez Robertson – W [1 Heat win]	69.22	14	0
15.	Chris Blose – E	67.43	18	3
16.	Chance Hymas – E	67.10	15	-1
17.	Enzo Lopes – W	66.00	20	3
18.	Michael Mosiman – E	65.80	16	-2
19.	Pierce Brown – W	65.78	13	-6
20.	Phil Nicoletti – W	59.25	21	1

* The NBC Power Rankings assign 100 points to a Main event winner and 90 points for each Heat and Triple Crown win, (Triple Crown wins are included with heat wins below the rider’s name). The points decrement by a percentage equal to the number of riders in the field until the last place rider in each event receives five points. The Power Ranking is the average of these percentage points over the past 45 days for the 450 class and last 90 days for 250s (because of the split nature of their season).

POWER RANKINGS AFTER WEEK 8 AT DAYTONA: Chase Sexton unseats Eli Tomac
POWER RANKINGS AFTER WEEK 7 AT ARLINGTON: Jason Anderson narrowly trails Tomac
POWER RANKINGS AFTER WEEK 6 AT OAKLAND: Perfect night keeps Tomac first
POWER RANKINGS AFTER WEEK 5 AT TAMPA: Sexton, Cooper Webb close in
POWER RANKINGS AFTER WEEK 4 AT HOUSTON: Tomac rebounds from A2 crash, retakes lead
POWER RANKINGS AFTER WEEK 3 AT ANAHEIM 2: Consistency makes Ken Roczen king
POWER RANKINGS AFTER WEEK 2 AT SAN DIEGO: Roczen moves up, Sexton falls
POWER RANKINGS AFTER WEEK 1 AT ANAHEIM 1: Tomac, Jett Lawrence gain an early advantage

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