Newgarden breaks his IndyCar duck at Alabama

Josef Newgarden executed the drive of his career by slicing to his maiden IndyCar Series win at the Honda Grand Prix of Alabama.

Newgarden prevailed in the 90-lap affair which saw some established stars slip up as the series served up its fourth different winner in the opening four rounds of the season.

The 24-year-old Carpenter/Fisher/Hartman driver scored a decisive victory over a charging Graham Rahal, who managed a last lap pass to relegate Ganassi’s Scott Dixon to third.

Will Power produced a stunning drive to climb back after falling back through the field following a penalty to finish fourth.

Ryan Hunter-Reay was fifth from Carlos Munoz, James Hinchcliffe, Sebastien Bourdais, Simon Pagenaud and Marco Andretti.

Series front-runner Juan Montoya was on the back foot after his lowly qualifying and finished 14th one place ahead of team-mate and pole sitter Helio Castroneves who ran out of fuel.

Newgarden, the 2011 Indy Lights champion, had earlier pulled a slick overtaking move on Castroneves before tempering his nerves to complete a solid first victory.

“Oh man I’m so nervous. I can’t tell you how nervous I was. I’m normally not in racing but it’s been such a long time coming doing this,” Newgarden said.

“I knew one of these days it was going to happen with this team.

“It’s so hard to become a professional driver nowadays and they (team owners) made me one.

“The Chevrolet was incredible. I could get incredible fuel mileage with fast pace. The Chevys are unbelievable cars and are spanking the Hondas right now.”

The points standings sees a status quo situation at the top with Montoya maintaining a slender three-point buffer over Castroneves with Dixon third while Newgarden has rocketed into fourth.

See below for full results:

1	Josef Newgarden	Dallara/Chevrolet	1:55.53.06
2	Graham Rahal	Dallara/Honda	1:55.55.26	2.20
	Scott Dixon	Dallara/Chevrolet	1:55.57.90	4.83
4	Will Power	Dallara/Chevrolet	1:56.12.55	9.49
5	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Dallara/Honda	1:56.15.12	2.06
6	Carlos Muñoz	Dallara/Honda	1:56.17.12	4.05
7	James Hinchcliffe	Dallara/Honda	1:56.17.71	4.65
8	Sebastien Bourdais	Dallara/Chevrolet	1:56.18.51	5.45
9	Simon Pagenaud	Dallara/Chevrolet	1:56.23.67	0.61
10	Marco Andretti	Dallara/Honda	1:56.26.54	3.47
11	Luca Filippi	Dallara/Chevrolet	1:56.27.22	4.16
12	Charlie Kimball	Dallara/Chevrolet	1:56.27.74	4.67
13	Tony Kanaan	Dallara/Chevrolet	1:56.28.39	5.33
14	Juan Montoya	Dallara/Chevrolet	1:56.29.69	6.63
15	Helio Castroneves	Dallara/Chevrolet	1:56.32.48	9.41
16	Gabby Chaves	Dallara/Honda	1:56.38.95	5.89
17	Takuma Sato	Dallara/Honda	1:56.43.90	0.84
18	Sage Karam	Dallara/Chevrolet	1:56.48.20	5.13
19	Stefano Coletti	Dallara/Chevrolet	1:56.48.47	5.41
20	Rodolfo González	Dallara/Honda	1:57.01.04	7.98
21	Jack Hawksworth	Dallara/Honda	1:57.06.24	3.18
22	James Jakes	Dallara/Honda	1:56.30.25	1lap
23	Francecso Dracone	Dallara/Honda	1:56.50.08	1lap

Points standings

1	Juan Pablo Montoya	136
2	Hélio Castroneves	133
3	Scott Dixon	123
4	Josef Newgarden	119
5	Will Power	112
6	James Hinchcliffe	110
7	Tony Kanaan	110
8	Graham Rahal	103
9	Simon Pagenaud	96
10	Sébastien Bourdais	91
11	Carlos Muñoz	84
12	Ryan Hunter-Reay	81
13	Marco Andretti	81
14	Luca Filippi	69
15	James Jakes	62
16	Charlie Kimball	58
17	Jack Hawksworth	57
18	Gabby Chaves	56
19	Takuma Sato	50
20	Simona de Silvestro	44
21	Stefano Coletti	41
22	Sage Karam	35
23	Francesco Dracone	30
24	Sebastian Saavedra	20
25	Carlos Huertas	20
26	Conor Daly	13
27	Rodolfo González	10

See below video showing the Will Power/Takuma Sato incident