Josef Newgarden wins Indy 500 for second straight 12 months
INDIANAPOLIS — Josef Newgarden put his dishonest scandal behind him to develop into 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 develop into the primary driver to win consecutive 500s since Castroneves did it for Penske in 2001 and 2002. And similar to final 12 months, Newgarden stopped his Chevrolet-powered automotive on the monitor and climbed via a gap within the fence to have fun with followers within the grandstands.
“I really like this crowd. I’ve obtained 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 making an attempt to develop into the primary Mexican in 108 runnings to win the Indy 500.
It was an unimaginable bounceback for Newgarden, who final month had his March season-opening victory disqualified as a result of Workforce Penske had unlawful push-to-pass software program on its vehicles. Newgarden used the extra horsepower 3 times within the win and it took IndyCar almost six weeks to find the Penske manipulation.
Roger Penske, who owns the race workforce, IndyCar, the Indy 500 and the speedway, suspended 4 crew members, together with Workforce President Tim Cindric. The Cindric suspension was a large blow for Newgarden as Cindric is taken into account the perfect strategist within the sequence.
Newgarden was thrilled to have the win and put the push-to-pass scandal behind him.
“Completely, they will say what they need, I do not even care anymore,” he mentioned.
The beginning of the race was delayed 4 hours by rain and it ruined NASCAR star Kyle Larson’s likelihood 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 first rate 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.
