IndyCar: 2018 Desert Diamond West Valley Casino Phoenix Grand Prix results – Josef Newgarden wins
By Asher Fair
Josef Newgarden took the checkered flag ahead of the rest of the field in the second IndyCar race of the 2018 season in Phoenix.
Through two races in the 2018 IndyCar season, Honda drivers have racked up 11 of the 12 positions in the top 6, while Chevrolet drivers have totaled just one. That one top 6 finish, however, is a win for Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden in his #2 Chevrolet in the Desert Diamond West Valley Casino Phoenix Grand Prix.
Newgarden led just 30 of the race’s 250 laps around the four-turn, 1.022-mile dogleg ISM Raceway oval in Avondale, Arizona, but a decision to make a late pit stop for new tires paid off for him.
Newgarden relinquished the lead to make the pit stop, fell back to 4th place, and then blew by the top 3 drivers in the race’s final eight laps following the race’s final restart. He held off rookie Robert Wickens of Schmidt Peterson Motorsports by 2.9946 seconds to take the win.
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Wickens, the top finishing Honda drivers of the race, had never driven an IndyCar oval race before, yet he was just a handful of laps away from winning it after leading the field to the green flag on the final restart. In fact, he has been a handful of laps away from winning both races to start the 2018 IndyCar season.
The race featured a total of 12 lead changes among nine different drivers, and it also featured a total of two caution periods for 24 laps. Aside of Newgarden and Wickens, the race’s other leaders were Will Power, who actually led the most laps with 80 laps led, polesitter Sebastien Bourdais, James Hinchcliffe, Graham Rahal, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Simon Pagenaud and Alexander Rossi.
The first caution flag of the race came out on lap 41 when Pietro Fittipaldi hit the wall in turn 4 in his #19 Dale Coyne Racing Honda, and the second and final caution flag of the race came out on lap 229 when Ed Jones hit the wall in turn 4 in his #10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
Here are the full race results from the 2018 Desert Diamond West Valley Casino Phoenix Grand Prix at ISM Raceway.
| Rank | Driver | Car, Team, Engine |
| 1 | Josef Newgarden | #1, Team Penske, Chevrolet |
| 2 | Robert Wickens | #6, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, Honda |
| 3 | Alexander Rossi | #27, Andretti Autosport, Honda |
| 4 | Scott Dixon | #9, Chip Ganassi Racing, Honda |
| 5 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | #28, Andretti Autosport, Honda |
| 6 | James Hinchcliffe | #5, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, Honda |
| 7 | Ed Carpenter | #20, Ed Carpenter Racing, Chevrolet |
| 8 | Tony Kanaan | #14, A.J. Foyt Enterprises, Chevrolet |
| 9 | Graham Rahal | #15, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Honda |
| 10 | Simon Pagenaud | #22, Team Penske, Chevrolet |
| 11 | Takuma Sato | #30, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Honda |
| 12 | Marco Andretti | #98, Andretti Herta Autosport, Honda |
| 13 | Sebastien Bourdais | #18, Dale Coyne Racing, Honda |
| 14 | Spencer Pigot | #21, Ed Carpenter Racing, Chevrolet |
| 15 | Gabby Chaves | #88, Harding Racing, Chevrolet |
| 16 | Zach Veach | #26, Andretti Autosport, Honda |
| 17 | Charlie Kimball | #23, Carlin Motorsport, Chevrolet |
| 18 | Max Chilton | #59, Carlin Motorsport, Chevrolet |
| 19 | Matheus Leist | #4, A.J. Foyt Enterprises, Chevrolet |
| 20 | Ed Jones | #10, Chip Ganassi Racing, Honda |
| 21 | Kyle Kaiser | #32, Juncos Racing, Chevrolet |
| 22 | Will Power | #12, Team Penske, Chevrolet |
| 23 | Pietro Fittipaldi | #19, Dale Coyne Racing, Honda |
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Be sure to tune in to the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, which is the next race on the IndyCar schedule. That race is set to be broadcast live from the streets of Long Beach, California next Sunday, April 15th starting at 4:00 pm ET.