NEWTON, Ia. — Simon Pagenaud went from last to first at Iowa Speedway on Friday.
And fans were on hand to see it.
Pagenaud won the first race of the Iowa IndyCar 250 here at The Fastest Short Track on the Planet. After starting 23rd, the 36-year-old claimed the lead on Lap 178 and held off Scott Dixon and Oliver Askew down the stretch for his first win of the season.
"Wow, this place is tough," Pagenaud told NBCSports afterward. He added: "I can’t believe it. I have to rewatch the race. How did I get there? I don’t know.
"The last 50 laps were lots of tension. When Dixon is chasing you, you better hit your marks."
Only five drivers have started farther back and managed to win in IndyCar since 1946. Helio Castroneves owns the largest jump to win, going from 28th to first in 2008 at Chicagoland.
After a clean first half of the race, back-to-back yellow flags slowed the race midway through thanks to a couple of crashes. Pagenaud seized on the opportunity by overtaking Pato O'Ward and Askew to lead for the final 72 laps.
It marks Pagenaud's first win since July 14, 2019, at the Honda Indy Toronto. The win also pushes Pagenaud into second place in the 2020 IndyCar Series standings with 160 points. He is the only driver within 70 points from Dixon, who leads with 213, with nine races left.
"I certainly didn't expect to win the race today, but I put everything I could into it," said Pagenaud, who now owns 15 career wins and has three top-5 finishes this season. "We had nothing to lose. We started from last. We have a really good car. Let's go for it.
"I kept my head down, I kept pushing, kept attacking, and we didn't have to make too many changes at the end."
Dixon finished second after starting 17th, followed by Askew, who took third for his first-career podium finish after starting 14th. O'Ward and Josef Newgarden rounded out the top five.
And for the first time this season, fans were in the stands to watch. An official attendance was not made available, but as many as 6,000 tickets were available for the first race of an IndyCar doubleheader/ARCA race weekend.
Saturday's second race is set for 8:30 p.m.
Kanaan's night ends early
Tony Kanaan opened Friday night as the grand marshal, calling for the 23 drivers to start their engine before starting from the 19th spot.
His night ended on lap 95, when he brushed the wall and damaged his right rear suspension.
"It's bent," he reported to his team.
It was a sour ending for Kanaan, who previously won at Iowa in 2010 and owns five podium finishes on the 7/8th-mile track. His IndyCar farewell tour continues Saturday night, where he'll start eighth.
Power loses wheel on Lap 144
Will Power spent much of the first half of Friday night's race near the front.
Then he lost his front left tire on lap 144.
Seriously.
After a miscue in the pits, Power's front left tire popped clean off as he collided with the wall. The wheel then bounced off the wall and nearly hit the cockpit. It rolled down the track while Power spun out, spurring the race's first yellow flag.
"Something broke," he reported.
Add this to the list of Power's frustrating performances at Iowa.
Aerial crash on restart
Pato O'Ward claimed the lead on the restart on Lap 157, but a scary collision between Colton Herta and Rinus Veekay quickly brought out the race's second yellow flag.
Herta bumped the back of Veekay and ultimately drove over the Chevy No. 21, into the air and the top of the wall. Both drivers walked off the track and were later released from the infield care center.
"It happened so fast that I wasn't really sure what was going on," Herta told NBCSports during the race. "… I'd been told 'green'. I wasn't going to go by the lights."
"It really sucks," Veekay said in a separate interview with NBCSports. "We were having an amazing race. I felt like we could've been on the podium if it continued to go our way. It was a bummer."
Dixon finishes second
Scott Dixon nearly made it four wins in five races.
Much like Pagenaud, Dixon emerged from the back to finish near the front, starting 17th and ending up second. Even with the second-place finish, Dixon retains sizable lead in the IndyCar Series standings, up to 213 points.
"We had made some adjustments from qualifying," Dixon said. "… we got lucky from some of those cautions to move up.
"Huge credit to the team. They did a great job with strategy. They did a tremendous job tonight."
Daly goes from pole to fifth
Conor Daly secured his first IndyCar pole ahead of Friday's race. Driving the No. 59 Carlin Chevy, he was quickly usurped on lap 14 by Josef Newgarden, and ultimately finished eighth.
Cody Goodwin covers wrestling and high school sports for the Des Moines Register. Follow him on Twitter at @codygoodwin.
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