SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Penske Racing’s Josef Newgarden made a thrilling lap pass with only two corners remaining to claim his second consecutive Indianapolis 500 victory Sunday afternoon.
Newgarden won by a slight .3417-second margin over Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward — the two exchanging the lead repeatedly in the final five laps in one of the most dramatic finishes in recent race history.
Newgarden, 33, of Henderson, Tenn., is the first driver to earn back-to-back wins in the Indy 500 since Helio Castroneves in 2001-02 — earning a $440,000 bonus for the feat and giving his legendary team owner Penske a record 20th victory in the sport’s most celebrated event.
“Just so proud of this team. They crushed it, crushed it,” an elated Newgarden said.
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon finished third, with Arrow McLaren’s Alexander Rossi and Ganassi’s Alex Palou rounding out the top five.
O’Ward, a popular driver in the series, was understandably upset at his narrow defeat.
“Proud of the work we did today,” O’Ward said. “We had so many near race-enders and were so close again. So (expletive) close.
“It’s so painful when you put so much into it and come up two corners short,” he added. “… It’s always a heartbreak when you come so close to winning it. You just don’t know how many opportunities you’ll have.”
NASCAR champion Kyle Larson finished 18th in his Indianapolis 500 debut, running top-10 for much of the day only to get flagged for speeding on pit road with 67 laps remaining, putting him well back in the field. A strategy move to pit during a caution flag with 44 laps remaining moved him forward and he took the lead with 20 laps to go before pitting for fuel with 16 laps remaining.
The race started four hours late — at 4:45 p.m. ET — as rain came through the area and the massive 2.5-mile track had to be dried.
The delay forced a big decision for Larson, the NASCAR star who was due to race in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, which had a 6:28 p.m. ET green flag. His NASCAR team owner Rick Hendrick was trackside at Indianapolis and issued a social media post saying that Larson would stay and race the 500. NASCAR Xfinity Series veteran Justin Allgaier started his No. 5 Chevrolet instead.
Larson left Indianapolis immediately to fly to Charlotte, where he planned to get in his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to complete the longest event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule.
“I would love to come back next year,” Larson said of his day. “I feel like I learned a lot during the race. … Proud to finish, but mad at myself. Just could have executed a better race.
“We’ll go hop on the jet and see if I can get into the 600,” he added.
–Holly Cain, Field Level Media
