Oilpressure

Those of us who stayed up for the conclusion to last night’s Bommarito 500 were rewarded with one heck of a race. Two red-flags for intermittent rain may have deterred some who needed to get to bed on a Sunday night, but for those who stayed with it – it was worth it – as the race ended at 12:23 am EDT.

To no one’s surprise, Josef Newgarden did what Josef Newgarden does on short ovals – he won. He especially seems to like World Wide Technology Raceway. Newgarden has won six of the eleven races held there since the NTT IndyCar Series returned there in 2017. In case you’re thinking the math doesn’t add up, remember that in the COVID year of 2020 – Gateway became a double-header to add some weight to the thin schedule that year.

But Newgarden did not simply run away with last night’s win as he has done on other short ovals. He was outqualified by his two Team Penske teammates. David Malukas qualified second and Scott McLaughlin started fifth, while Newgarden was only good enough in qualifying to earn an eighth starting spot. But it was what he did after the green-flag waved that proved to be pure magic.

Newgarden joined a long list of drivers who quickly moved up from poor to mediocre starting spots. In fact, the Top-Four finishers all overcame low starting spots early on and quickly found themselves at or near the front.

Second-place finisher, Marcus Ericsson, started twelfth but was leading the race legitimately by Lap 47. He dominated the race and led 114 laps, more than double what anyone else did. He drove a near-perfect race, but had a pit stop that was just a tad slower on his final stop. That was all it took, as Ericsson finished only 0.6613 seconds behind Newgarden.

Christian Rasmussen took the last step on the podium, after a terrible qualifying run on Saturday had him start nineteenth last night. He ended up leading five laps in a spirited late race battle with Josef Newgarden, before settling for third. Rinus VeeKay finished fourth, after starting thirteenth, giving viewers lots of thrills in the process.

One big mover that will not show up in the final results was AJ Foyt driver Caio Collet, who started twentieth and finished twentieth. What that does not tell you is that Collet moved toward the front early on and ran with the leaders most of the night. He didn’t get thee on strategy. He got there on pure speed. On Lap 109 Collet took the lead for the first time. He led a total of seven laps, all by Lap 180. But on Lap 226, his Chevy engine went “boom” (to quote FOX’s Will Buxton), ending what had been a brilliant drive through no fault of his own.

There was also drama with the points leader. Chip Ganassi Racing gambled just after the second red-flag; by not bringing Alex Palou into the closed pits for emergency service, as they had done with Scott Dixon. Consequently, Palou ran out of fuel just after entering the pits and causing something of a rolling road block. By the time he coasted to his pit and got refueled, he suffered the dreaded vapor lock and it took seemingly forever to refire the car. Palou was the race leader as he entered the pits. When he left the pits, he was nineteenth with 47 laps to go. There were no Palou miracles this time, as Palou only made up two positions and finished seventeenth. As a result, his points lead dropped from 63 points heading into the race, down to only 49 points over Kyle Kirkwood.

For all of the craziness that Sunday night’s race brought, it was an exceptionally clean race. There were only two cautions for incidents/ One came on Lap 55, when Nolan Siegel and Alex Palou got together in Turn One, sending Siegel into the wall. Some, including Siegel, seemed to think that Palou came up and gave Siegel a nudge as Palou was passing him. To me, it looked like Siegel started coming down on Palou before Palou had completed the pass. The stewards chose not to penalize Palou, and I think that was the right call. The second incident saw Graham Rahal lose it when he got into the marbles at the apex between Turns Three & Four. Rahal spun around quickly and he backed it into the wall, ending his night on Lap 114. The other two cautions were either for rain or Collets blown engine.

Although the two red flags that totaled close to an hour, put the end of the race way past my bedtime – it was well worth it. It was a very entertaining race. There was also the added suspense that the race might be called for rain at any time past lap 131, that put a sense of urgency into the drivers and made things even more interesting. The outside line was working for those courageous enough to try it, and it was a very good race. I’m glad I stayed up for it.

TV Coverage:  I have to give credit to the entire FOX crew. Faced with almost an hour of air time to fill during the red-flag rain delays, they did so effortlessly to the point that you didn’t really realize what their task was. All three pit reporters, along with the guys in the booth did a great job of keeping the audience entertained. I especially enjoyed Kevin Lee’s interview with Iris, the wife of Marcus Ericsson. She is almost as engaging as Emma Dixon.

I had to laugh when the booth guys were discussing the lack of lightning in the area, and Will Buxton mentioned something about thunder. Townsend Bell chimed in with “I thought you were going to say Thunder Buddies, which was an obvious reference to the Ted movies from a few years ago. You could tell the reference completely flew over Buxton’s head, but I caught it.

Marlboro Car:  I mentioned how excited I was at the announcement that Scott McLaughlin would be driving a DEX Imaging sponsorship throwback to the Marlboro paint scheme that was so prominent from the late 80s to 2009 – not just in IndyCar, but Formula One as well. I was hoping that they would use day-glo, instead of just red. By lunchtime Friday I got a text from a friend of mine who was onsite, telling me that Team Penske had nailed the livery and that they did use day-glo. I was happy.

As we all know after watching practice, qualifying and the race – the car looked phenomenal! DEX Imaging is one of McLaughlin’s regular rotating sponsors, and I’m sure they will be the primary sponsor one or two more times this season. I am hopeful that enough positive buzz was generated through the weekend over that livery, that DEX will decided to adorn that livery anytime they are on the car.

Changing of the Guard?  During a commercial break, I was watching through the small side-by-side box with obviously no commentary. I saw Scott Dixon struggling at the time to hold on to sixth place. He wasn’t trying to hold off Josef Newgarden, Alex Palou or Will Power – it was rookie Caio Collet. On Lap 78, I saw Collet pass the great Scott Dixon with ease. I couldn’t help but wonder if we are seeing the beginning of the end of Scott Dixon’s storied career. Of course, later on, Dixon was leading the race when the second red-flag came out. But the irony wasn’t lost on me when I saw Collet go past Dixon. I’m wondering if it might turn out to be some type of changing of the guard moment.

Nice Rebound:  Not only did Marcus Ericsson have an excellent night in finishing second after leading more laps than anyone, the entire Andretti Global team had a terrific night after a forgettable Month of May. Kyle Kirkwood finish sixth, and Will Power ended his nightmarish streak, with a strong eighth-place finish. 

Drive of the Night:  There were so many drivers that were worthy of this cherished award. This is not necessarily about who made up the most spots or who won. I came close to giving it to Marcus Ericsson, because I felt he drove one heck of a race. Had he won the race, I probably would have. I also strongly considered giving it to Caio Collet. He started twentieth, and went straight to the front. He could have earned a podium, had his Chevy engine not given out on him through no fault of his own. But he didn’t, because it did.

Instead, I’m giving it to Christian Rasmussen. His nineteenth place starting spot pretty well symbolizes how his season has gone. But as he usually does on short ovals, he put on a show once the green-flag fell. His battle with Josef Newgarden between Laps 205 and 220 would have been worth the price of admission alone. He didn’t win, but he still ended up on the podium at Gateway for the second consecutive year. He also earned the Oilpressure.com Drive of the Night award. That’s got to be worth something.

All in All:  To me, the 2026 Bommarito 500 was about as good as it gets. It was an old-school race featuring close racing, but had a disparity in speeds that separated the contenders from the pretenders. Only fourteen cars finished on the lead lap, and that was after several cars getting their lap back during the last round of pit stops.

Not that I wish any ill-will toward our points leader and four-time champion, but it helps so many things when Alex Palou does not have the championship all but wrapped up at the halfway point. Gateway brought enough chaos that Palou was brought back a little closer to the field. That’s not a bad thing.

We are now headed to an off-week, but only for the fans. There is a lot of testing this week. I think the teams head to test at Mid-Ohio early this week, and I believe there is a test that was just announced for Road America later this week. But there is no racing this coming weekend.

The next race will be at one of our favorite places Road America, Susan and I plan to be there for our eleventh consecutive year at the historic and beautiful track in central Wisconsin. Please check back often as I will continue to post sporadically between now and Road America.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on June 8, 2026 at 4:01 am and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.