Josef Newgarden scored his sixth victory at the World Wide Technology Raceway oval and the 34th of his IndyCar career by winning the Bommarito Automotive Group 500, the ninth round of the season. With his left leg still sore from the Indianapolis crash two weeks ago, Newgarden beat Marcus Ericsson by 0.6613 seconds in a race interrupted twice by rain, with stoppages totalling 50 minutes. Christian Rasmussen finished third in the ECR Chevrolet.

Photo By Penske Entertainment

Alex Palou arrived at Gateway with his 17th career pole and a streak of four consecutive top qualifying spots. His Saturday performance had been so dominant that he outpaced the rest of the field by more than a mile per hour. On Sunday, Chip Ganassi Racing gambled on a fuel strategy that failed at the critical moment, leaving the championship leader empty on pit lane. Palou finished 17th, and his advantage shrank from 62 to 49 points over Kyle Kirkwood, who finished sixth.

Ganassi's strategy was to refuel as soon as the pits opened after the first rain‑induced red flag, which lasted 38 minutes. The reasoning was to gain a pit stop over the rest if more yellows appeared or if rain ended the race early. Scott Dixon, Palou's teammate, was the first to pay for the miscalculation: he made an emergency pit stop on lap 201 because his engine had cut out due to lack of fuel. Two laps later, Palou repeated the scene, and his Honda lost power right on pit lane; the engine did not restart immediately, and the delay dropped him to the back of the field.

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Starting from eighth, Newgarden built his victory patiently and struck when Rasmussen tried to snatch the lead on lap 215. The Dane went inside at Turn 1 and took the top spot, but Newgarden returned the favour at Turn 3 two laps later. The move repeated on lap 219, and again Newgarden answered immediately, retook the lead and never let it go. Rasmussen, who made the most passes of the night with 38, ran out of steam, and Ericsson passed him in the fight for second.

A plume of smoke from Caio Collet's car — who was having the best race of his year — brought out the final caution and added an extra variable. The cars behind pitted for fresh tyres, while the top eight stayed out. Scott McLaughlin used the new rubber to climb from ninth to fifth in four laps, though he did not manage to join the fight for the podium. Rinus VeeKay led Juncos Hollinger Racing to fourth place, his best result of the season.

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The next race is the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America, where Palou will try to stop the points bleed. His lead over Kirkwood now stands at 49 points, the smallest in several races. Newgarden, with the Gateway win, stays in contention in a championship that is tightening as the season progresses.

Bommarito Automotive Group 500 

Pos.	No.	driver	team	time
1	#2	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	-
2	#28	Marcus Ericsson	Andretti Global	+0.661s
3	#21	Christian Rasmussen	ECR	+1.852s
4	#76	Rinus VeeKay	Juncos Hollinger Racing	+3.435s
5	#3	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	+7.223s
6	#27	Kyle Kirkwood	Andretti Global w/ Curb-Agajanian	+7.948s
7	#12	David Malukas	Team Penske	+8.368s
8	#26	Will Power	Andretti Global	+9.337s
9	#66	Marcus Armstrong	Meyer Shank w/ Curb-Agajanian	+9.725s
10	#7	Christian Lundgaard	Arrow McLaren	+10.040s
11	#5	Pato O'Ward	Arrow McLaren	+10.869s
12	#9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	+11.528s
13	#14	Santino Ferrucci	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	+15.413s
14	#60	Felix Rosenqvist	Meyer Shank w/ Curb-Agajanian	+18.833s
15	#18	Romain Grosjean	Dale Coyne Racing	+1 LAP
16	#47	Mick Schumacher	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	+1 LAP
17	#10	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	+2 LAPS
18	#20	Alexander Rossi	ECR	+2 LAPS
19	#77	Sting Ray Robb	Juncos Hollinger Racing	+3 LAPS
20	#45	Louis Foster	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	+10 LAPS
21	#8	Kyffin Simpson	Chip Ganassi Racing	+24 LAPS
22	#4	Caio Collet	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	+34 LAPS
23	#15	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	+148 LAPS
24	#6	Nolan Siegel	Arrow McLaren	+207 LAPS
25	#19	Dennis Hauger	Dale Coyne Racing	+260 LAPS