IndyCar star claims FIRST oval win in Iowa Hy-Vee Homefront 250

Scott McLaughlin won his first IndyCar Series oval race on Saturday at the Iowa Speedway, kicking off this weekend's Hy-Vee doubleheader in style.

The New Zealand-born racer held off a hard challenge from Pato O'Ward and Team Penske team-mate Josef Newgarden, who has historically dominated the Iowa track and has been on a fantastic oval run.

READ MORE: IndyCar Race Today: Hy-Vee One Step 250 start times, schedule and how to watch

Championship leader Alex Palou, on the other hand, crashed on the main straight having already dropped more than a dozen places thanks to a stall in the pits -finishing 23rd and cutting his series lead down to just 37 points to O'Ward.

A strong fourth place finish from Scott Dixon also helped bunch up the top of the standings, while only a hard race for Will Power, including a penalty for pit road speeding, stopped things from being even worse for Palou.

READ MORE: Newgarden issues DAMNING IndyCar title verdict

McLaughlin: I'm an IndyCar driver now

“I didn’t want to call myself an INDYCAR driver until I won on an oval,” he said after winning the Hy-Vee Homefront 250 presented by Instacart. “So, I’m going to call myself an INDYCAR driver now.”

“That’s a big deal today,” the New Zealand-born Team Penske driver said. “I’ve been working for that for a couple of years. It takes a lot of hard work.”

Meanwhile, Palou blamed nobody but himself for the 'unacceptable' mistake which saw his car parked on the home straight, saying: "I just lost it out of [Turn] 4

“Driver mistake; there's no reason why I had to push there. Just trying to recover from another driver mistake I had in the pits. So yeah, unacceptable. I'm very sorry for the #10 car. The car was good, [but] it wasn't our day."

READ MORE: IndyCar chief hints at INTERNATIONAL expansion

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