The inevitable aura of Alex Palou continued on Sunday (July 13) at Iowa Speedway.
Leading 194 of the 275 laps in the NTT IndyCar Series’ Farm to Finish 275, Palou held off the field on a 15-lap sprint to the finish and bagged his seventh win of the season in just 12 races.
Palou was followed to the checkered flag by Scott Dixon and Marcus Armstrong. David Malukas finished fourth, coming up one spot short of his second podium finish in the past five races.
“Speechless, honestly speechless,” Palou said in victory lane following his win. “It’s been an unbelievable day, an unbelievable weekend. More than anything, what an incredible year for us.
“I really cannot believe it, honestly.”
Palou’s win came at the expense of Josef Newgarden, who left Iowa without a win despite having one of the fastest cars all weekend. Newgarden paced the field for 72 laps on Sunday and fought his way to the lead twice, only for factors outside his control to take him out of contention.
After leading on the race’s 66th lap, Newgarden was among the early drivers to pit. That plan ended up dropping Newgarden back as far as 13th in the field after a Marcus Ericsson crash. Newgarden rallied, steadily moving up to lead again, this time with 33 laps remaining.
Newgarden’s prosperity would again be short-lived as he lost ground in the early cycle of late-race pit stops and got burned by another caution as a result of Colton Herta getting into the outside wall. Newgarden would not challenge for the lead again as he finished tenth, only to wonder what might have been.
That wasn’t the only taste of Sunday’s adversity at Team Penske.
Scott McLaughlin saw his hopes of a repeat top-five finish end early on Sunday, as he was collected by a spinning Devlin DeFrancesco on the first lap. McLaughlin, who entered the weekend with just one finish at the track outside the top five, scored the worst Iowa finish of his career in 26th.
Will Power, another Team Penske driver, also saw his day end early, retiring within the race’s first 50 laps with an apparent mechanical issue.
Newgarden wasn’t the only driver bitten by the late caution. Conor Daly was in position for a finish near the front, only to have the pit sequence relegate him all the way back to 16th place.
IndyCar returns next Sunday (July 20) on the streets of Toronto for the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto with coverage at Noon EST on FOX.
2025 IndyCar Farm to Finish 275 Results
Brad joined Frontstretch.com in 2020 and contributes to the site's 5 Points To Ponder column and other roles as needed. A graduate of the University of Georgia's Henry W. Grady School of Journalism and Mass Communication, he has covered sports in some capacity for more than 20 years with coverage including local high school sports, college athletics and minor league hockey. Brad has received multiple awards for his work from the Georgia Press Association.