IndyCar News: Newgarden out duels O’Ward to win Indy 500

Penske Chevy driver Josef Newgarden blew past Pato O’Ward on the last lap to win the 108th Indy 500, the record 20th Indy 500 for team owner Roger Penske.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

O’Ward took the lead with one lap to go in his Arrow McLaren Chevy but Newgarden’s Chevy engine was extra special and O’Ward had no chance, coming up 0.3417s short.

The Mexican went to the outside of Newgarden coming out of Turn 4 and took the lead into Turn 1.  Using his more powerful Chevy engine, Newgarden then made a strong run off of Turn 2 as the two went wheel-to-wheel and completed an outside pass into Turn 3 to charge to the win.

WHAT A FINAL LAP!

Josef Newgarden and Pato O’Ward battled to the end in the 108th running of the #Indy500. pic.twitter.com/0QqbcbnfYl

— INDYCAR on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) May 26, 2024

Newgarden was the first driver to win back-to-back Indy 500s, the first time in 22 years when Helio Castroneves did it for Team Penske.

The victory delivered a $440,000 bonus to Newgarden from BorgWarner, the sponsor of the winner’s Borg-Warner Trophy, for his repeat victory.

Josef Newgarden reacts to becoming a back-to-back #Indy500 champion. pic.twitter.com/e2YuVHQnbL

— INDYCAR on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) May 27, 2024

“I knew we could win this race again; it was just a matter of getting it right,” said Newgarden. “There’s no better way to win a race than that. I got to give it up to Pato (O’Ward) as well. He’s an incredibly clean driver. It takes two people to make that work. It’s not just a good pass, it’s also someone that you’re working with that’s incredibly clean.

“I have to give hat’s off to Pato (O’Ward). He could have easily won this race, too, but it just fell our way. I’m just so proud of everybody. I’m proud of this Shell Powering Progress team. Everyone that partners with us, Team Chevy. Just a great day.”

The race start was delayed by 4 hours due to heavy rain, but the sun eventually came out and the race ran to conclusion.

Scott Dixon passed Alexander Rossi on the final lap to take third while his Ganassi Honda teammate Alex Palou rounded out the top-5.

NASCAR driver ran well but a speeding penalty on pit lane derailed his day after a drive-thru penalty.

The 200-lap race featured 16 different leaders, with polesitter Scott McLaughlin leading a race-high 66 before finishing sixth.

“I am happy to be frustrated with a sixth-place finish in the biggest race in the world. This Pennzoil Chevrolet was definitely good enough to win the race. I think we showed that to everyone, but you need a bit of good fortune to win the Indianapolis 500. To run up front and lead the most laps was a big step in my Indianapolis 500 career.

“Everyone at Team Penske and Chevrolet worked tirelessly to make sure we were in the game this month, and I can’t thank them enough. Congratulations to Josef and the No. 2 team. To do something that hasn’t been done since 2002 is unbelievable.”

Despite a promising charge from 13th to second, Colton Herta’s sixth Indy 500 bid came to an abrupt end after running out of talent and crashing in Turn 1 on lap 88.

Will Power’s charge ended on lap 147 when he too ran out of talent and crashed in Turn 2. His #12 Team Penske Chevrolet back end snapped, and he collided into the wall.

“Not the day we had in mind for the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet team. We just could never get the car to where it was comfortable. Not sure if that had to do with all of the rain we had earlier in the day that washed the rubber off the track, but we’ll go back and look at it at the shop.

“We definitely wanted to capitalize on our strong qualifying position, but we were fortunate that there was a lot of attrition so we didn’t take a big hit in points. Josef and the No. 2 team deserve a big congratulations for winning back-to-back Indy 500s. That is quite an accomplishment.”

2024 Indy 500 Race Results

Race Statistics
Winner’s average speed: 167.763 mph
Time of Race: 2:58:49.4079
Margin of victory: 0.3417 of a second
Cautions: 8 for 46 laps
Lead changes: 49 among 18 drivers

Lap Leaders:
McLaughlin, Scott 1 – 23
Robb, Sting Ray 24 – 26
Daly, Conor 27 – 31
Robb, Sting Ray 32
McLaughlin, Scott 33 – 34
O’Ward, Pato 35
Daly, Conor 36 – 42
McLaughlin, Scott 43 – 48
Rasmussen, Christian 49
McLaughlin, Scott 50 – 57
Daly, Conor 58 – 64
Robb, Sting Ray 65 – 76
McLaughlin, Scott 77 – 87
VeeKay, Rinus 88 – 91
Rahal, Graham 92
Lundgaard, Christian 93
VeeKay, Rinus 94 – 96
Lundgaard, Christian 97 – 99
Newgarden, Josef 100 – 112
McLaughlin, Scott 113 – 125
Newgarden, Josef 126 – 129
McLaughlin, Scott 130
Rossi, Alexander 131
Ferrucci, Santino 132
Dixon, Scott 133 – 134
O’Ward, Pato 135 – 136
Dixon, Scott 137 – 140
Daly, Conor 141 – 143
Robb, Sting Ray 144 – 150
Dixon, Scott 151 – 154
O’Ward, Pato 155
Rossi, Alexander 156 – 159
O’Ward, Pato 160
Rossi, Alexander 161 – 163
O’Ward, Pato 164
Rossi, Alexander 165
O’Ward, Pato 166 – 169
Dixon, Scott 170 – 171
Palou, Alex 172
VeeKay, Rinus 173
Kirkwood, Kyle 174 – 175
Ilott, Callum 176
Carpenter, Ed 177 – 179
Larson, Kyle 180 – 183
Simpson, Kyffin 184 – 186
Rossi, Alexander 187
Newgarden, Josef 188 – 190
Rossi, Alexander 191 – 192
Newgarden, Josef 193 – 194
O’Ward, Pato 195
Newgarden, Josef 196 – 198
O’Ward, Pato 199
Newgarden, Josef 200

NTT INDYCAR SERIES Point Standings:
Palou 183, Dixon 163, Power 157, O’Ward 134, Herta 134, McLaughlin 131, Newgarden 122, Rossi 120, Rosenqvist 116, Kirkwood 115, Lundgaard 102, Ferrucci 95, Rahal 87, VeeKay 87, Armstrong 81, Grosjean 79, Lundqvist 73, Simpson 70, Ericsson 68, Canapino 56, Rasmussen 51, Fittipaldi 50, Harvey 47, Blomqvist 46, Robb 46,  Ilott 39, Theo Pourchaire 38, Daly 21, Larson 21, Sato 19, Carpenter 14, Luca Ghiotto 14,  Castroneves 10, Colin Braun 10, Nolan Siegel 10, Hunter-Reay 6, Andretti 5, Legge 5