Eventual winner Josef Newgarden believes the mid-race Caution period made the Gateway IndyCar race come alive.

The Team Penske driver was one of three on the lead lap who took a third pit stop under the first yellow flag period of the contest, which began on Lap 145.

He took the Lap 158 restart in seventh spot but scythed his way to the lead on Lap 177, while also being in a superior strategic position.

According to Newgarden, the 260-lap race had been a dreary one until then.

“It was a bit processional in the first half,” he said.

“Literally every car just went to fuel save; everyone wanted to try to make the three-stop work.

“I was surprised at how many people committed; seemed like the whole field flipped to it. [There] Wasn’t a lot happening then.

“As soon as that Caution, when it provided that opportunity to pit again, it changed things up, put people on different strategies; that made it really exciting.

“I thought that our car was able to maximise that strategy opportunity, so I’m real thankful to my team for picking that out.

“You can’t win this race without nailing calls like that, being good in the pits.

“There was a moment I thought it was slipping away from us, too.

“Ultimately, they made the right calls and did it right and we were able to close it out.”

As Newgarden noted, that Caution period was crucial in the final outcome.

That was a point admitted by team-mate Will Power, too, who inherited the lead when Takuma Sato joined Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin in taking service, but had slipped to fourth once the next pit cycle was done.

Said cycle wrapped up just before the second and final Caution, called for light rain which progressed to a lightning hold.

Newgarden was second to McLaughlin at the time, and was grateful that the race would finally go green again after a two-hour pause, at which point he passed his Kiwi team-mate on the restart lap.

“I was elated; elated that we were able to get back going and I had the opportunity on the restart,” he remarked.

Power got home in sixth and retains the series lead, but Newgarden is now just three points behind.

The penultimate event of the season, at Portland, takes place on September 2-4 (local time).

Every IndyCar race is streamed live and ad-free on Stan Sport.