Josef Newgarden put on a driving clinic on Sunday's Iowa Corn Indy 300. The Ed Carpenter Racing driver passed polesitter Simon Pagenaud on the outside as they completed lap one and never looked back. He briefly surrendered the lead during the opening round of pit stops, which took place under green, but he reassumed his place at the front once the cycle completed. In fact, as they closed in on lap 100, he actually lapped all the way through third place.

A couple caution periods in the second half of the race allowed brief challenges from Simon Pagenaud and Scott Dixon during restarts on laps 189 and 260, but he was never truly under threat at any point during the day and set an IndyCar record by leading 282 laps, the most anyone has ever lead in an IndyCar race. "I'm just so happy for Iowa," said an elated Newgarden, who won on an oval for the first time in his career. "I love coming here and happy we'll be here for the next two years. We've got great support from all these people. I love staying in Des Moines and getting to race at this awesome racetrack. It's one of the best for INDYCAR. I'm just so elated that we were able to get that oval win. We've been so close finishing second here twice the last couple of years and second at other ovals but this team, they got it done. They gave me an amazing car and made it easy on me."

Behind Newgarden, Dixon, Pagenaud, and Will Power fought hard for second, particularly in the second half of the race. Dixon held second for much of the final stint, but Power put on a charge in the final laps, passing both Pagenaud and Dixon late in the race to finish second, continuing his championship push in the process. "It was a really good run," said Power, who last finished in the top 10 at Iowa in 2010. "I think we had a very good long run car. We had people come back to us at the end of the stint so I was very happy that it went full green there at the end. That allowed us to get up to second. I'm just stoked to finish well at Iowa."

Dixon held on for third while Pagenaud finished fourth. Mikhail Aleshin quietly drove a great race to finish fifth, the best of the Honda teams, while Alexander Rossi hung on for sixth after battling an ill-handling car all race long. However, outside of Aleshin and Rossi, many of the Honda teams struggled, with Andretti Autosport having the most difficulties. The team that had won all but two of the races previously held at Iowa Speedway had problems all weekend. Ryan Hunter-Reay, who won three of the last four races at the 7/8-mile oval, fell out early after an engine failure, while Carlos Munoz and Marco Andretti were outside the top much of the day, finishing 12th and 14th respectively. Hunter-Reay vocalized the team's frustrations following his engine failure. "It just goes to show you that you can never get ahead of yourself," he explained. "You always have to keep working. You always have to find a way to be faster. We came here for a test and it was a pretty productive test and had some hard times there but wow this was really bad today. It was something I just couldn't find a solution to."

The championship battle took a twist as well, as Helio Castroneves was trapped off the lead lap when a caution flew for a spinning Max Chilton on lap 246, just after Castroneves pitted. The Penske driver languished back in 13th at the checkered flag. Teammate Juan Pablo Montoya had a tough day as well, as an engine failure knocked him out of the race on lap 180 when he was running third.

Simon Pagenaud continues to lead the championship, but Newgarden vaulted up to second, 73 points behind the Penske driver. But, the field tightened up from second on back. Power sits third, only two points behind Newgarden, with Dixon 15 behind the Ed Carpenter Racing driver and Castroneves 18 behind.

The Verizon IndyCar Series heads to Toronto next week for the Honda Indy Toronto.

Iowa Speedway