By Austin Lawton, Staff Writer

Josef Newgarden once again has conquered Phoenix Raceway. 

Newgarden, the reigning IndyCar winner at Phoenix Raceway (2018), passed Kyle Kirkwood with six laps to go in Saturday’s Good Ranchers 250 at Phoenix.Newgarden claims his 33rd career win, moving him closer to Al Unser Jr’s win tally of 34, good for ninth on the all-time win list. 

In a race where Newgarden led only eight laps, the two-time IndyCar champion was proud of the No.2 XPEL Team Penske crew for executing to get the job done, while still unknown about how the race was going to play out. 

“I didn’t know how today was going to go,” Newgarden said.” I don’t think any of us did. We were trying to make our best guess as to how do we build a new car, approach this. I think we came in with a good mentality. At the end of the day I think the team just executed. They executed at a super high level. That is what it takes to win these races. I am not going to sit here and say we were the best today. I don’t think we were. We have work to do leaving here. We’re never shy to admit that when we’re somewhere. I think we try and be realistic about where we’re at. We executed at a super high level. Everyone was on it. The timing stand did a great job, made the right calls, great pit stops. 

When we needed to be fast, we were fast. Really proud of the execution. Just like St. Petersburg, we had a really tough start there. We executed on race day. We’ve been talking about this, this is what we need to do, we need to be better every time we show up, do our jobs to the best of our ability, I think the pieces will fall into place. So far it’s definitely been a decent start. We got to keep it up.”

Newgarden made his drive up to the lead after being able to save his tires after pitting under the last caution on Lap 207. Newgarden’s Lap 212 stop made it easier to catch up to the leaders of Kirkwood and Christian Rasmussen, who made their last stop on Lap 193. 

Kirkwood would pedal his No.27 Andretti Global Honda to second, after a tense battle with  Rasmussen. Kirkwood passed Rasmussen with nine laps to go. When the pair got to Turn 2, Rasmussen’s No.21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet washed up the track and hit the outside wall. Newgarden would also get around Rasmussen, as the Dane fell to 14th when the checkered flag flew. 

“I loved the race,” Kirkwood said.”I thought it was a lot of fun and our car was really good, which I guess there’s a common denominator there. When your cars are good at short ovals, it tends to be a lot of fun. So that was our day.”

Rasmussen would lead 69 laps on the day, showing more of his prowess on short ovals since his win at Milwaukee in 2025. The contact with nine laps to go was the second time Rasmussen hit the wall in the race. 

On Lap 209, while battling Will Power, Rasmussen made contact with the Turn 2 wall after being ran up the track by the new Andretti Global driver. The contact would give Power a flat tire, along with damage to Rasmussen. 

“I think it’s clear what happened, right?,” Rasmussen said to Georgia Henneberry of FOX post-race. “ We were the class of the field today, the best car out there. I was so happy with the car and you can’t just run people into the wall, which is what happened today. He [Power] ran me straight into the wall and after that I had damage and I think the upper-lower wishbone on the rear and a towlink. Obviously, some of that was probably from after, but that car was just impossible to drive after that. I just did what I could to salvage the day and not crash the car, but just frustrating. So frustrating because we should have won the race today and obviously didn’t.”

Contact between Will Power and Christian Rasmussen! Power has a flat. pic.twitter.com/O5z7XfC3m8

— INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) March 7, 2026

David Malukas finished third after starting on the pole and led the first 73 laps of the race. Malukas was also fastest in a practice session on Friday, in the No.12 Verizon Chevrolet for Team Penske, as he continued his good form on short ovals. 

“I mean, I was really happy,” Malukas said. “That race, like Kyle said, it was awesome. There were so many different strategies, so much going on. In the middle of that race, I thought, ‘All right, here we go, hopefully we can stay in the top 10’. Things really played out. Another yellow came out. We still had an opportunity at the end. Big congrats to Josef for getting the win there. New tires, hard work to get through everybody. Last stint, I don’t know what Kyle thought, but that’s the hardest I pushed a tire before. That was drifting. I never drifted in an INDYCAR that much before.

Through one and two, the first turn is actually left, then when you’re in the corner, the rest of it you’re turning right. Some big moments. I’m very excited to go back and clip all the videos of almost spinning out in one and two.”

Pato O’Ward and Marucs Armstrong completed the top five. Armstrong completes another strong run on a short oval after a podium at Iowa last year. O’Ward gets another top five after a fifth place finish at St. Petersburg, just a week ago. 

Even with another good points day and 10 laps led, O’Ward’s No.5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet was struggling at both ends of the car. 

“I was struggling quite a bit there with the rear of the car, actually, all race with the rear of the car,” O’Ward said post-race. “Then I started struggling with the front as well. Once it turns into a two-problem car, you can’t really get it out with the tools. Just bummed because we had a great strategy call and we were running a great race. We just started the race a little bit too far to one side balance wise and we ran out of room to help put myself in there.”

SEE: Good Ranchers 250 Results

Newgarden leaves Phoenix with the points lead after St. Petersburg winner Alex Palou crashed on Lap 21. Palou was side-by-side with Rinus Veekay exiting Turn 4. Palou would not see Veekay in his mirror’s and come in contact with the Dutchman’s left-front tire. 

Alex Palou collided with the outside wall on Lap 21 of the Good Ranchers 250 on Saturday. Photo Credit: Austin Lawton- KickinTheTires.net

With Palou recording a DNF, lots of drivers made ground in the points standings. Palou moves down to fifth, while Kirkwood is now second, just five points behind Newgarden. The top five are separated by just 19 points, heading into the Inaugural Java House Grand Prix of Arlington, next Sunday.