Josef Newgarden dominated by leading 170 of the 248 laps and won the race after a daring pass with 30 laps to go in the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 Presented By Valvoline at Gateway Motorsports Park.
Click here for race action photos
Scott Dixon came in second and Simon Pagenaud came in third.
“Awesome race,” exclaimed Newgarden after jumping out of his car.
It was Newgarden’s 7th career win and 4th of 2017 who races for Roger Penske racing. The win was the 5th in a row for Penske drivers in 2017.
The race had an ominous start after Tony Kanaan spun at hit the wall during a pace lap. Then after that wreck was cleared a horrific crash took place in the same spot on lap 2. Josef Newgarden, starting second, seemed to shot out of a cannon and quickly took the lead. Will Power seemingly trying to catch Newgarden, spun and then causing Ed Carpenter and Takuma Sato to come together which lead to Carpenter to get airborne nearly on top of Power. Fortunately no-one was injured. See the sequence of photos below.
After this wreck, it was a relatively clean race.
Race Results:
1. (2) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 248, Running
2. (7) Scott Dixon, Honda, 248, Running
3. (4) Simon Pagenaud, Chevrolet, 248, Running
4. (3) Helio Castroneves, Chevrolet, 248, Running
5. (11) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 248, Running
6. (9) Alexander Rossi, Honda, 248, Running
7. (18) Charlie Kimball, Honda, 248, Running
8. (10) James Hinchcliffe, Honda, 248, Running
9. (8) Carlos Munoz, Chevrolet, 248, Running
10. (19) Sebastien Bourdais, Honda, 248, Running
11. (21) Sebastian Saavedra, Honda, 248, Running
12. (13) Graham Rahal, Honda, 248, Running
13. (12) Ed Jones, Honda, 248, Running
14. (20) Marco Andretti, Honda, 248, Running
15. (14) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Honda, 205, Contact
16. (17) Tony Kanaan, Honda, 168, Mechanical
17. (16) Max Chilton, Honda, 164, Contact
18. (15) JR Hildebrand, Chevrolet, 100, Contact
19. (6) Takuma Sato, Honda, 6, Contact
20. (1) Will Power, Chevrolet, 5, Contact
21. (5) Ed Carpenter, Chevrolet, 5, Contact
Race Statistics:
Winner’s average speed: 139.465 mph
Time of Race:Â 2:13:22.0358
Margin of victory: 0.6850 of a second
Cautions: 5 for 43 laps
Lead changes: 11 among 6 drivers
Lap Leaders:
Power 1-5
Newgarden 6-60
Bourdais 61-65
Chilton 66
Newgarden 67-193
Pagenaud 104
Castroneves 105-156
Newgarden 157-158
Chilton 159-160
Newgarden 161-205
Pagenaud 206-217
Newgarden 218-248
Verizon IndyCar Series point standings: Newgarden 547, Dixon 516, Castroneves 505, Pagenaud 504, Power 464, Rahal 436, Rossi 422, Sato 410, Kanaan 365, Hinchcliffe 351.
Photos by: Kyle Dearing / www.stlracing.com
Story by: Kevin Proot / www.stlracing.com