After starting the 2025 IndyCar season 0-for-10, and with plenty of memorable errors, miscues, and scandal-related firings that contributed to that agonizing winless streak, Iowa Speedway was supposed to mark a Team Penske resurgence.
They entered the four-turn, 0.894-mile (1.439-kilometer) Newton, Iowa oval having won eight of the last nine races there, and that number would have easily been nine in a row if not for Newgarden's late shock failure in 2022, which ended up costing him the series championship, when he was pulling away from the field in race two.
Newgarden dominated the first race, but a strong final pit stop from Arrow McLaren's Pato O'Ward gave him the lead, and he hung on for not only his and his team's but Chevrolet's first win since last September. Penske secured a 2-3-4 finish, the best possible non-winning result a team can have.
In race two, Newgarden was not as dominant, but he still clearly had the best car. However, Honda's superior fuel mileage resulted in not one but two instances of Newgarden pitting early, losing a lap, and a yellow flag coming out to send him to the back of the field for the ensuing restart.
After rallying from the back once, the six-time Iowa winner could not do it again.
A slow pit stop from a Penske team that has been anything but Penske Perfect, plus a comedy of errors after the restart, left Newgarden several spots behind a couple other drivers, including David Malukas and O'Ward, whose Chevrolet fuel mileage deficiency also led to them being bitten by the timing of the caution.
On a day when McLaughlin was taken out on the first lap by Devlin DeFrancesco and Power was knocked out with his third mechanical issue in four weeks, Newgarden could only finish in 10th place.
Alex Palou, the guy who supposedly can't win on ovals, collected his seventh win of the year (and second in four oval races), to extend his championship lead to 129 points over O'Ward, one day after he led Honda in fifth place. And yes, despite Newgarden's misfortune, Palou earned it, as he was the driver who led 194 of 275 laps from pole.
Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon was second, followed by pseudo teammate Marcus Armstrong of Meyer Shank Racing in a career-high-tying third.
Honda hadn't won at Iowa since 2018, when current IndyCar on Fox announcer James Hinchcliffe passed a dominant Newgarden for the lead late in the race, and they hadn't swept the podium since 2011, which was the year before Chevrolet re-entered the series. Marco Andretti won that race and hasn't won since.
We all know Chevrolet's 2025 season has been a disaster, even if O'Ward is second in points. Team Penske doing everything they can possibly do to lose races has certainly contributed to Honda's dominance, but a podium sweep at Iowa, a track that has basically been a write-off for the last six or seven years?
The good thing for Chevrolet is that they did won Saturday's race. The bad thing is that Team Penske, at the one track where they were perceived to be guaranteed to win at least one race, left Iowa with a season record of 0-for-12. Just like they've done all year when they've actually had race-winning pace, they found a way to lose both races.
And even more shockingly, the team considered IndyCar's best on ovals currently have zero drivers in the top 10 in the oval standings.
Here's another "fun" fact: Newgarden is 14th in total points, but he's second in laps led this year behind only Palou (who has seven wins, most in the modern era, through just 12 races). In fact, he was leading Palou in that category before the second Iowa race.
That just about puts into perspective how Penske's season has gone.