{"id":46376,"date":"2024-05-26T21:20:02","date_gmt":"2024-05-27T02:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=46376"},"modified":"2024-05-27T08:03:34","modified_gmt":"2024-05-27T13:03:34","slug":"newgarden-goes-back-to-back-at-indy-in-thriller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/26\/newgarden-goes-back-to-back-at-indy-in-thriller\/","title":{"rendered":"Newgarden goes back-to-back at Indy in thriller"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Josef Newgarden. Photo courtesy of the NTT IndyCar Series<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Courtesy of the NTT IndyCar Series<\/em><\/p>\n

INDIANAPOLIS \u2013 It was worth the wait, and then some.<\/p>\n

Josef Newgarden joined the immortals Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway by becoming just the sixth driver to win the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge in two consecutive years, edging Pato O\u2019Ward in a scintillating race that included the start delayed four hours by a midday rainstorm.<\/p>\n

SEE:Race Results<\/a><\/p>\n

Two-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Newgarden drove his No. 2 Shell Powering Progress Team Penske Chevrolet to the victory by .3417 of a second over the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet of O\u2019Ward, as they swapped the lead four times over the last eight laps.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew we could win this race again,\u201d Newgarden said. \u201cThere\u2019s just no better way to win this race than that. I\u2019ve got to give it up to Pato, as well. He\u2019s an incredibly clean driver. It takes two people to make that work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newgarden, who started third, became the first repeat winner of \u201cThe Greatest Spectacle in Racing\u201d since Helio Castroneves won in 2001 and 2002 for Team Penske. Newgarden also earned the record-extending 20th victory in \u201cThe Greatest Spectacle in Racing\u201d for Team Penske.<\/p>\n

The repeat victory delivered a $440,000 bonus to Newgarden from BorgWarner, the sponsor of the winner\u2019s Borg-Warner Trophy.<\/p>\n

Six-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Scott Dixon finished third in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, followed by Alexander Rossi in the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet.<\/p>\n

Reigning series champion Alex Palou rounded out the top five in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. Just 1.5079 seconds separated the top five cars despite the last 46 laps running caution-free in a frantic finish.<\/p>\n

Christian Rasmussen was the top-finishing rookie, 12th in the No. 33 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet. 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson finished 18th in the No. 17 Hendrickcars.com Arrow McLaren Chevrolet in his first \u201c500\u201d start, hampered by a pit road speeding penalty.<\/p>\n

Newgarden celebrated in familiar style for the second straight year, climbing into the crowd in the grandstands adjacent to the Yard of Bricks start-finish line, where he was mobbed by fans.<\/p>\n

It was hard to blame his exuberance, as the victory capped a Month of May in which he was without Team Penske President and strategist Tim Cindric and engineer Luke Mason. They were suspended by Team Penske for the two races this month at IMS after the team\u2019s cars were found to have violated INDYCAR Push-to-Pass rules in the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding. Jonathan Diuguid and Raul Prados substituted for Cindric and Mason, respectively, this month.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can say whatever they want after this point; I don\u2019t care anymore,\u201d Newgarden said of critics after the violations were discovered. \u201cI\u2019m just so proud of this team. They crushed it. Crushed it. Luke, Tim \u2013 they\u2019re not here today, but they\u2019re a huge part of this. I\u2019m just so proud for everybody at Team Penske. That\u2019s the way I wanted to win the thing, right there.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were seven caution periods in the first 117 laps, as the race struggled to find a rhythm. But as the intensity ratcheted in the second half of the 200-lap race, the racing was breathtaking \u2013 and clean. There were 32 lead changes alone in the last 70 laps.<\/p>\n

Rookie Kyffin Simpson was the last of the drivers on a different pit sequence to surrender the lead with their final stop, on Lap 184. That set the stage for a phenomenal four-driver scramble for the win between Newgarden, O\u2019Ward, Rossi and Dixon over the closing 15 laps.<\/p>\n

Newgarden took the lead on Lap 193, with O\u2019Ward climbing to second. That set the stage for a series of slingshot passes between the two drivers over the last seven laps.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Ward passed Newgarden on the outside just before the start-finish line as the white flag flew in the air for the final lap. O\u2019Ward stayed out front in Turns 1 and 2 ahead and down the back straightaway, but Newgarden tucked in behind O\u2019Ward\u2019s car and made a daring pass outside of O\u2019Ward in Turn 3 to take the lead for good with the crowd of 330,000 on their feet in rapture.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to put it into words,\u201d said O\u2019Ward, who also finished second in 2022. \u201cSo close again. I put that car through things I never thought it was going to be able to do. Sometimes I said, \u2018Aw, that\u2019s it,\u2019 and somehow I came out of the other side of the corner.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, man: It\u2019s just so painful when you put so much into it, and then two corners short.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was only the fourth time in Indianapolis 500 history that the race was decided by a last-lap pass. Newgarden also achieved that feat last year by passing Marcus Ericsson on Lap 200.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s race was a classic, with an event-record 18 of the 33 starters leading at least one lap. NTT P1 Award winner Scott McLaughlin led the most laps, 64, before finishing sixth in the No. 3 Pennzoil Team Penske Chevrolet.<\/p>\n

There also were 649 on-track passes today, the most in the \u201c500\u201d since 2017.<\/p>\n

The next NTT INDYCAR SERIES race is the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear on Sunday, June 2 on the streets of Detroit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Courtesy of the NTT IndyCar Series INDIANAPOLIS \u2013 It was worth the wait, and then some. Josef Newgarden joined the immortals Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway by becoming just the sixth driver to win the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge in two consecutive years, edging Pato O\u2019Ward in a scintillating race that included the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":46380,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12],"tags":[230,421,125,22,286,672],"class_list":["post-46376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indycar","tag-indianapolis-500","tag-indianapolis-motor-speedway","tag-indy-500","tag-indycar","tag-josef-newgarden","tag-ntt-indycar-series"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/NewgardenIndy500.jpg?fit=640%2C320","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-c40","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46376"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46381,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46376\/revisions\/46381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}