NEWTON, Iowa — Josef Newgarden prolonged the Crew Penske dominance at Iowa Speedway, profitable the primary race of a weekend doubleheader Saturday for his fourth victory on the shortest monitor on the IndyCar schedule.

Newgarden raced to his series-best fourth victory of the season and moved from fourth to second within the tight IndyCar championship battle. Indianapolis 500 winner Marcus Ericsson completed eighth and had his lead within the standings sliced to fifteen factors over Newgarden.

Newgarden had been 44 factors out of the championship lead going into the race on the 0.894-mile oval and may make up much more floor when IndyCar completes its doubleheader Sunday.

Crew Penske drivers have received six of the final seven races at Iowa, which landed native grocer Hy-Vee as title sponsor of the doubleheader leisure extravaganza that features a pair of races and musical performances by Tim McGraw, Florida Georgia Line, Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton.

Pato O’Ward completed second for Arrow McLaren SP and was adopted by pole-sitter Will Energy of Penske and Rinus VeeKay of Ed Carpenter Racing as Chevrolet took the highest 4 spots. Earlier Saturday, Energy received the pole for each races to maneuver him one away from Mario Andretti’s file of 67.

Scott Dixon, who final week tied Andretti for second on the IndyCar win checklist with 52, completed fifth for Chip Ganassi Racing. Dixon was adopted by six extra Honda drivers, together with Ganassi teammate Alex Palou and Romain Grosjean of Andretti Autosport.

Seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson overcame an early spin to weave his method into first the lead, after which a constant spot inside the highest 5. He made a number of daring passes within the excessive lane, together with a nail-biting three-wide cross to select off two different drivers.

Earl Barban, Johnson’s longtime spotter, radioed that cross “goes to make a spotlight reel” and the Ganassi crew requested Johnson if he was having fun with the 250 laps round Iowa in 100-degree temperatures.

“Yeah, this can be a blast,” Johnson replied.

Alas, he light to eleventh within the closing sequence as solely 5 drivers completed on the lead lap.

Newgarden, in the meantime, has led 1,358 of two,250 laps in his final eight visits to Iowa. However even along with his fourth win of the yr, the championship battle nonetheless contains 5 drivers separated by 59 factors with six races remaining.