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| - Defending IndyCar season champion Josef Newgarden won Sunday's second IndyCar Bommarito 500 race of the weekend, slicing into the points lead of New Zealand's Scott Dixon. Newgarden, a 29-year-old American, won his 16th career IndyCar race and second of the season after Iowa with Mexican rookie Pato O'Ward second and Australia's Will Power third on a 1.25-mile oval at Madison, Illinois. Dutch teen rookie Rinus VeeKay was fourth with Dixon fifth, giving him 416 points and a 96-point edge on second-place Newgarden, who entered the day 117 adrift. "We've been bitten by bad luck this year," Newgarden said. "Maybe this will be a little kick starter for the end of the season for us." Newgarden, chasing his third points crown in four seasons, edged O'Ward out of the pits in a drag race after their final stops and held on to grab the victory under caution after a late wreck. "This was all a pit stop victory for me," Newgarden said. "We got pretty dicey with Pato and Will there on the track. That race out of the pits was for the win. "It was all down to my team. The team did an amazing job. My team won the race. I didn't win it. They won it." IndyCar has another weekend double on October 2-3 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and a season finale October 25 at St. Petersburg, Florida. The series hopes to stage two races next month at the Mid-Ohio road course. js/gph
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