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 .3417 seconds 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.
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 instead 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.
–Holly Cain, Field Level Media