Newgarden rockets into title contention with fifth IndyCar win

MADISON, Ill. (AP) — Josef Newgarden considers teammate Scott McLaughlin one of his closest friends, his “Bus Bro” at the racetrack, and the driver he knows who will race him clean with a win on the line.

That made it a lot easier for Newgarden to chase down McLaughlin on a restart following a rain delay to reclaim the lead at World Wide Technology Raceway, take his IndyCar-best fifth win of the season, and tighten the championship race.

“With Scott, it's a little bittersweet because we just have a great friendship,” Newgarden said. "He's a tremendous competitor. I rank Scott one of the elite drivers in the world, not just here, but in the world. He's top class, very difficult to beat. We get along really great, he's a tremendous teammate, a hard worker and it's not the easiest friendship to have because at the end of the day, we are competing.

“He wanted to win the race and I wanted to win the race. But ultimately we have a tremendous working relationship and nights like this are good. If we're battling together, things are going well and we want to see that pretty often.”

Mired in the middle of the championship picture despite having more than twice the wins of any rival, Newgarden is now in the heart of the title hunt.

He started the race on the short oval outside St. Louis ranked fourth in the standings, 22 points behind leader Will Power, his Penske teammate. Newgarden is now second in the standings and just three points behind Power with two races remaining. Newgarden won for the third consecutive year at WWTR and fourth time in his career.

The rain delay saved the race for Newgarden.

McLaughlin had taken the lead from him on pit strategy shortly before the race was stopped for rain and lightning with 43