Josef Newgarden wins Indianapolis 500, first driver to take consecutive wins in 22 years

INDIANAPOLIS — Josef Newgarden put his dishonest scandal behind him to grow to be the primary back-to-back winner of the Indianapolis 500 since Helio Castroneves 22 years in the past and provides Roger Penske a record-extending twentieth win in “The Biggest Spectacle in Racing.”

The Tennessean handed Pato O’Ward on the ultimate lap of Sunday’s rain-delayed race to grow to be the primary driver to win consecutive 500s since Castroneves did it for Penske in 2001 and 2002. And identical to final yr, Newgarden stopped his Chevrolet-powered automotive on the monitor and climbed by a gap within the fence to have fun with followers within the grandstands.

“I like this crowd. I’ve bought to all the time go within the crowd if we win right here, I’m all the time doing that,” Newgarden mentioned.

O’Ward slumped his head over his steering wheel in bitter disappointment. He was attempting to grow to be the primary Mexican in 108 runnings to win the Indy 500.

It was an unbelievable bounceback for Newgarden, who final month had his March season-opening victory disqualified as a result of Staff Penske had unlawful push-to-pass software program on its automobiles. Newgarden used the extra horsepower thrice within the win and it took IndyCar practically six weeks to find the Penske manipulation.

Roger Penske, who owns the race crew, IndyCar, the Indy 500 and the speedway, suspended 4 crew members, together with Staff President Tim Cindric. The Cindric suspension was a large blow for Newgarden as Cindric is taken into account the perfect strategist within the collection.

Newgarden was thrilled to have the win and put the push-to-pass scandal behind him.

“Completely, they’ll say what they need, I don’t even care anymore,” he mentioned.

The beginning of the race was delayed 4 hours by rain and it ruined NASCAR star Kyle Larson’s probability to run “The Double.” The delay in Indy made him miss the beginning of the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Though Larson was respectable many of the day, two rookie errors led to an 18th-place end.

Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing completed third because the highest-finishing Honda driver and was adopted by Alexander Rossi, O’Ward’s teammate at Arrow McLaren Racing. Chevrolet took three of the highest 4 spots.