After a four-hour rain delay and numerous yellows, Penske’s Josef Newgarden won his second consecutive Indy 500 outlasting Pato O’Ward on the final lap just before 8 pm ET.
Newgarden also becomes the first driver in 22 years to win back-to-back 500s when Helio Castroneves last did it for Team Penske in 2001-02.
Veteran Scott Dixon finished third while Alexander Rossi and Alex Palou finished fourth and fifth respectively.
With the race being moved from 12:45 pm ET to 4:45 pm ET due to severe weather in the Indianapolis area, the wait seemed to take a toll on the nerves once the green flag finally waved. Marcus Ericsson who won the 2022 500 and finished second to Newgarden in last year’s race didn’t last a single lap this year after Tom Blomqvist took out the Swede on the very first lap. The crash for Ericsson capped off a tough May for the former Champion who barely qualified for this year’s race when he crashed his primary car in practice while also finishing outside the top 15 in three of the season’s first four races.
Colton Herta, who was one of the favorites entering today’s race suffered more bad luck when he lost control of his No. 26 Dallara-Honda in turn one of Lap 86. It also looked like it was going to be a tough day for teams powered by Honda as three different cars succumbed to engine issues including Felix Rosenqvist who had to bow out after 55 laps.
Newgarden’s win comes in the wake of Team Penske cheating scandal
Despite today’s win, it’s going to be hard to look past the cheating scandal that rocked Team Penske earlier on in the season. Newgarden, who won today, had to vacate his opening season victory in Long Beach after it was discovered that the team violated Indy Car’s push-to-pass regulations. In addition to Newgarden, Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin, who finished third, also was disqualified while fourth-place finisher Will Power was docked 10 points, though he wasn’t accused of any wrongdoing.
At the beginning of the month, Team Penske also suspended team president and Newgarden’s chief strategist Tim Cindric for two races — including the Indy 500 — after an internal investigation into the push-to-pass allegations concluded. Penske also suspended team managing director Ron Ruzewski, Newgarden engineer Luke Mason, and senior data engineer Robbie Atkinson.
