Pato O’Ward wins Race 1 at Iowa in his 100th IndyCar start
- therookiereporters
- Jul 17
- 2 min read
Summary: Pato O’Ward won race 1 at Iowa Speedway in his 100th career start. O’Ward passed Josef Newgarden during the final pit stop and managed to hold him off for the remainder of the race. This marks O’Ward’s first victory of the 2025 season.
In his 100th IndyCar race start, Mexican driver Pato O’Ward claimed victory during the first race of the doubleheader at Iowa Speedway. With this win, the Arrow McLaren driver secured the team’s first victory of 2025.
Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden looked untouchable as he was leading the race’s first 232 out of 275 laps. But O’Ward had a quicker final pit stop, a move that landed him ahead of Newgarden.
O’Ward was leading the race when his teammate, Nolan Siegel, crashed into the barrier on lap 245. Due to damage to the barrier, a red flag was issued to repair the track’s Turn 4 wall. O’Ward managed to keep Newgarden behind him on the restart with 14 laps to go.
It was only a few moments later before another Caution was brought out as Callum Ilott hit the wall. His rear wing came loose but he managed to get his car back into the pitlane without much trouble.
The race restarted with only nine laps remaining. Newgarden continued to put pressure on O’Ward for the final laps of the race. But the 26-year-old withstood the pressure and secured the win.
O’Ward crossed the finish line with a margin of victory that was .2352 of a second. This marks the closest Iowa finish since 2007 when Dario Franchitto narrowly beat Marco Andretti by .0861 of a second.
“Josef is the master at these races — he rules around here, so I knew that we had to be spot-on. I was so precise on the in lap to beat him at his own game,” O’Ward said to the reporters at Indycar. “We’ve had so many duels, Josef and I, but he has a percentage that comes out on top more. Today is the day that changes.”
This win marks O’Ward’s eighth career win. Coincidentally, O’Ward also won the race at Iowa Speedway in 2022, which was his 50th race start.
This time around, O’Ward had to hold off Team Penske as the team’s three drivers finished in the top four. Crossing the finish line, he was followed by Josef Newgarden and his teammate Will Power.
The other Team Penske driver, Scott McLaughlin, finished the race in fourth. He crashed in qualifying, placing him in the last starting position for the race. But McLaughlin was quick to make his way through the grid, securing a fourth place finish.
Article written by Jana Van Nieuwenborgh
