Josef Newgarden turned a track-position chess match into his sixth victory at World Wide Technology Raceway on Sunday night, holding off Marcus Ericsson to win the Bommarito 500 and deny championship leader Alex Palou on a night the Spaniard would rather forget.
It was Newgarden's second win of 2026 after his earlier triumph at Phoenix, and the 34th of his career, moving the two-time Indianapolis 500 winner level with Al Unser Jr. for ninth on IndyCar's all-time list. Six of those wins have now come at the St. Louis-area oval, where the Team Penske driver has long been the man to beat.
"We had everything we needed tonight with Team Penske, so great job to the group," Newgarden said.
The race turned on the pit lane rather than on track. Ericsson led a race-high 115 laps in the Andretti entry but lost the lead during a green-flag stop and could never claw it back.
"It was a track position day. You have to give a lot of credit to Marcus. I thought he was incredibly strong," Newgarden said. "It was a matter of who's going to get positioning on each other, and that's going to seal the deal. So he drove a great race and certainly could have won this as well."
Ericsson, who settled for second, did not hide his disappointment. "Josef is good around these tracks. He got track position on us at one of the stops," he said. "Yeah, it's just hard to get around him." He added that "it's tough to lead 115 laps and miss out."
The night belonged to Newgarden, but the championship story was Palou. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver started from pole and led early before fading to 17th, a result that trimmed his points lead. Palou now sits on 342 points to Kyle Kirkwood's 293, the gap cut to 49 after entering the weekend further ahead.
"This is probably my worst place. I've always struggled here personally," Palou admitted of the Gateway oval.
For all Palou's dominance in 2026, Gateway remains a blind spot, and a rare off night has handed his rivals a sliver of hope. For Newgarden, it was confirmation that the high-banked oval is still his backyard.
---
*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/newgarden-wins-sixth-at-gateway-as-palous-lead-shrinks). Visit for full coverage.*
