An outstanding race full of strategy and passing saw Josef Newgarden hold off a fast-charging Graham Rahal to take his maiden Verizon IndyCar Series win. "This is the way I wanted to do it," said Newgarden, who led the most laps on his way to victory. "I didn't want to win on some crazy incident or on luck. This team deserves it. They gave me an incredible car and let me get out there and rip with the thing and pass people on pure merit. And that's due to CFH Racing - they were just incredible today." Newgarden, saving fuel in his last stint, held off a fast-closing Graham Rahal, who passed Ryan Hunter-Reay, Helio Castroneves, and Scott Dixon in the final ten laps to ultimately finish second. Dixon finished third, while Will Power rebounded from a drive-through penalty after contact with Takuma Sato to ultimately finish fourth. Ryan Hunter-Reay hung on for fifth after Castroneves ran out of fuel on the final lap and dropped to 15th.

A clean start saw Castroneves lead, but Newgarden immediately made his presence known by jumping from fifth to third in the first corner. He then dove inside Power in turn 14 to run second by the end of lap one. The order then remained stable until pit stops started on lap 12. Hunter-Reay, languishing in 17th at the time, was the first driver to peel off. A number of Chevrolet drivers peeled off soon after as they struggled with tire wear. Castroneves and Newgarden pitted together on lap 19, but when the right-front tire changer lost the wheel nut, it forced the three-time Indy 500 winner to hold in his pit stall a few extra seconds, allowing Newgarden to beat him.

While the two leaders were in the pits, a caution flew for debris of Takuma Sato's car. One lap prior, Sato spun battling Will Power as the Penske driver exited the pits. Power sliced across the track to the take the inside line entering turn two, but did not see that Sato was already alongside. Contact was made, sending Sato into a spin, spreading some debris, and forcing Power off the track and through the gravel. A full course caution was thrown and Power was issued a drive-through penalty when racing resumed. A confused Power admitted he was unaware of Sato's presence. "I didn't even see what happened on that penalty because I just felt a hit from behind," Power said of the incident. "I thought I was clear. I looked in the mirror, it was hard to see, but that's racing."

The caution flew before stops completed, and the likes of Simon Pagenaud and Sebastien Bourdais, top five runners in the first stint, pitted under caution, and fell back. When racing resumed on lap 24, Newgarden assumed the lead ahead of Castroneves. Graham Rahal cycled into third followed by James Hinchcliffe and Scott Dixon. Marco Andretti wound up in sixth with Hunter-Reay in seventh. Montoya, who struggled all weekend, found himself briefly in the top ten as he ran ninth, but had to make an unscheduled stop for a front wing change on lap 28.

Once again, the order stabilized after the restart with Newgarden comfortably in the lead until a lap 33 caution for the spinning Stefano Coletti and James Jakes. The second and final caution set up one of the most intriguing strategic races in recent memory. Newgarden, Castroneves, Dixon, Hunter-Reay, and Andretti highlighted drivers who pitted, thinking the caution put them in position go to the end of the race on only one more stop. But, they had to conserve fuel to do so. Rahal, Hinchcliffe, Kanaan, and Bourdais were among a contingent that stayed out, believing that running full-rich would cancel out their extra stop.

A lap 39 restart saw Rahal hold the lead from Hinchcliffe. It appeared a caution may fly when Montoya dove inside Charlie Kimball entering turn eight and a piece of a wing flew off, but the debris landed off track and both cars continued on. Newgarden and Castroneves began working their way back through the field and they ran ninth and tenth before settling in.

Between laps 46 and 51, the drivers who stayed out under the previous yellow pitted. For a brief moment, Hinchcliffe appeared to beat Rahal out, but the American made an aggressive outside pass on the Canadian entering turn five. Their stops cycled Newgarden back into the lead, but now ahead of Dixon, who made a pass on Castroneves. They held position until lap 63, when Castroneves became the first to make his final stop. Newgarden followed suit on lap 64, with Dixon doing the same on lap 65.

Rahal reassumed the lead over Newgarden, who built up enough of a gap to only fall to second, until lap 71 when he pitted with Hinchcliffe for the final time. They emerged in sixth and seventh, but Rahal put on a charge for the ages in the final laps.

As the final stint began, Newgarden led Dixon and Castroneves. Hunter-Reay managed to work his way up to fourth while Power came out of nowhere to emerge in fifth after his early penalty. However, they all needed to save fuel, and the sixth-place Rahal could run flat out to the end.

Rahal made the most of fuel and tires in the final laps, quickly passing Power before going to working on Hunter-Reay. After several laps, he made his around the 2014 Indy 500 winner with an outside pass entering turn five. He then made the same move on Castroneves one lap later.

Up front, Newgarden was showing his maturity, saving fuel and maintaining a seven-second gap to Dixon. With Rahal 20 seconds back in third, it seemed like the CFH driver could cruise home. But, when Rahal cleared traffic, he turned laps more than two seconds quicker than leaders and very quickly reeled in Dixon. On the final lap, managed an over-under move heading onto the backstretch and cleared Dixon, again from the outside, entering the first chicane.

Newgarden, however, had just enough of a lead to keep Rahal and at bay and secure his first career Verizon IndyCar win. It also the first win the newly unified CFH Racing, which is the combined entity from Ed Carpenter Racing and Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing. "We're going up against the giants, but I think this team can be a giant one day," Newgarden asserted in victory lane. "We've got great partners in Chevrolet and Firestone - they deserve it and today they made it easy on me. Today was a good day and we need to have more of these."

Rahal followed Newgarden home. While disappointed to narrowly miss victory, he and the Rahal Letterman Lanigan team showed great speed. "I'm really proud of these Steak 'n Shake guys. They've worked extremely hard and today I drove that race 110 percent, every single lap," Rahal detailed. "We knew when we made the strategy call to stay out (that) we had to go fast in order to make up the gap. I've got to say Honda did a great job for me today. It's still tough to follow, but obviously I passed a lot of guys. This team has come a long way and I think we have proven that. Eventually one of these days we'll win one of these things. I hope everybody enjoyed the race because we were pushing there until the last second.

DIxon's third place is his sixth podium at Barber, the other five being second-place finishes. He explained that tire wear made the opening stint extremely difficult, but graciously offered congratulations to Newgarden. "We dropped like a rock," Dixon said the first stint. "We bled the rear tires off on the first set and I think we were the first to stop in that situation. It kind of altered the day and how we could kind of deal with tires and fuel and all that kind of stuff. We knew the alternate strategy was going to come late and it came strong. All in all, congratulations to Josef (Newgarden) - he's a hell of a driver, with a small team, and for them to get a victory is really cool to see."

Juan Montoya finished 14th and Helio Castroneves finished 15th, meaning they played to a draw in the championship. Montoya still leads Castroneves by three points, while Dixon vaulted up to third, 13 points out of the lead. Newgarden's win rockets him up to fourth in the standings, 17 points behind Montoya.

The Verizon IndyCar Series now takes a week off before heading to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course for the Angie's List Grand Prix of Indianapolis.

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