After a four-hour delay, the 108th Indy 500 started under sunny skies. Josef Newgarden outdueled Pato Oward by .3417 seconds to become the first back-to-back Indy 500 winner in twenty-two years. Newgarden, in the #2 Shell Powering Progress Team Penske Chevrolet, made an emphatic pass on O’Ward behind the wheel of the #5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet on the last lap to claim the win.
Newgarden’s victory gives Roger Penske twenty Indy 500 wins as a team owner. The win was Newgarden’s 30th career win.
In a race that saw seven cautions in the first 117 laps, Will Power brought out the final caution of the day with 53 laps to go. The race stayed green for the final 46 laps and saw ten drivers take turns at the front. Newgarden and O’Ward’s battle was one for one the ages. The two drivers swapped the lead four times over the last eight laps.
O’Ward passed Newgarden going into Turn 1 on the final lap and looked to be in position to claim his first Indy 500 victory. However, Newgarden’s Penske Chevy showed the power it had displayed all month and ran O’Ward down on the backstretch. Newgarden made the daring pass outside of O’Ward in Turn 3 and held on for the win.
The Newgarden pass was reminiscent of his move on Marcus Ericsson last year for the win.
2008 Indy 500 champion Scott Dixon finished third in the #9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. O’Ward’s teammate, Alexander Rossi, finished fourth in the #7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. Alex Palou finished fifth in the #10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
The top five were separated by just 1.5079 seconds.
Finishing in the 12th position, Christian Rasmussen was the top-finishing rookie in the #33 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet.
Much attention had been given to 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion, and current points leader, Kyle Larson. Larson finished 18th in the #17 Hendrickcars.com Arrow McLaren Chevrolet in his first Indy 500. A pit road speeding penalty late in the race ruined an otherwise exceptional performance. Larson left immediately after the race in an attempt to compete in the NASCAR race in Charlotte, North Carolina.
O’Ward was aggressive most of the race. “I came up two corners too short,” O’Ward said. “This place owes me nothing.”
“I knew we could win this race again,” Newgarden said. “There’s just no better way to win this race than that. I’ve got to give it up to Pato, as well. He’s an incredibly clean driver. It takes two people to make that work.”
It was an exceptionally emotional win for Newgarden who was without without the services of Team Penske President and his strategist Tim Cindric and engineer Luke Mason. The pair were suspended by Roger Penske for the month after Penske cars were found to have violated NTT INDYCAR Push-to-Pass rules in the season-opener. Jonathan Diuguid and Raul Prados were brought in from Penske’s IMSA sportscar program to work with Newgarden this month.
Newgarden’s emotions were on full display as he parked his car on the yard of bricks after the finish, as he did last year, and dove into the crowd to celebrate.
“They can say whatever they want after this point; I don’t care anymore,” said Newgarden.“I’m just so proud of this team. They crushed it. Crushed it. Luke, Tim – they’re not here today, but they’re a huge part of this. I’m just so proud for everybody at Team Penske. That’s the way I wanted to win the thing, right there.”
O’Ward was in a less than celebratory mood after his runner-up finish. “So close again. I put that car through things I never thought it was going to be able to do. Sometimes I said, ‘Aw, that’s it,’ and somehow I came out of the other side of the corner’,” he said. “Oh, man: It’s just so painful when you put so much into it, and then two corners short.”
Pole sitter Scott McLaughlin controlled much of the race early, leading a race high 64 laps, before finishing sixth.
Newgarden led 26 laps, Sting Ray Robb led 23 laps and Conor Daly led 22. Daly was the biggest mover in the race. He started 29th and finished in the tenth spot.
The crowd of 330,000 that waited out the weather witnessed numerous records:
It was the fourth time in Indy 500 history that the race was won with a last-lap pass.
18 of the 33 starters leading at least one lap.
There were 649 on-track passes, the most in since the 2017 race.
The 49 lead changes were the fourth-highest in Indy 500 history.
Newgarden earned a $440,000 bonus from BorgWarner, the sponsor of the winner’s Borg-Warner Trophy, for winning the 500 back to back.
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