Indy 500: Newgarden beats O’Ward for back-to-back wins

Despite a four-hour rain delay, the clouds diminished and an intense battle finished as the sun set on more than 300,000 fans at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Newgarden, who started third, was forced to pull off a stirring last-lap pass, delivering a thrilling outside move around Arrow McLaren’s O’Ward into Turn 3 to win by 0.3417s. He becomes the first driver to go back-to-back since Helio Castroneves did so with Team Penske in 2001 and 2002.

O’Ward, who held off multiple late runs before delivering his own effort for the lead at Turn 1 on the last lap, could only sit with his helmet in his hands after finishing runner-up.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon, the 2008 Indy 500 winner, managed to climb from 20th to finish third, ahead of Arrow McLaren’s Alexander Rossi in fourth, with reigning and two-time IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou in fifth.

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

The battle for victory ignited when Newgarden caught Dixon with 24 laps to go, who cycled to the front of the group as both were positioned ahead of Rossi and O’Ward.

Dixon showed signs of struggle as O’Ward passed him for third with 13 laps to go entering Turn 1, trailing Newgarden and Rossi. Newgarden held the lead with 10 to go, with Rossi, O’Ward, Dixon and Kyle Kirkwood in the top five.

Patricio O'Ward, Arrow McLaren Chevrolet (Photo by: Phillip Abbott / Motorsport Images)

O’Ward made a late move on Rossi entering Turn 1 for second with seven laps left and then caught and went by Newgarden with five laps to go, only for Newgarden to fire back to retake the lead.

O’Ward backed off multiple times despite getting runs on Newgarden, sitting in second coming to the white flag.

The Mexican went to the outside of Newgarden coming out of Turn 4 and took the lead into Turn 1. 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.

In a race of high attrition, Tom Blomqvist ignited a multi-car crash on the opening lap that collected 2022 Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson and with Pietro Fittipaldi.

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

Although the incident was similar to Blomqvist’s, Herta, who was behind leader McLaughlin, never touched the inside curb before losing his #26 Andretti Global Honda. Although he was pushed back to the garage, Herta returned just past the halfway point several laps down.

Will Power’s charge ended on lap 147 with a hard crash in Turn 2. His #12 Team Penske Chevrolet was running on the outside of Ed Carpenter Racing rookie Christian Rasmussen in Turn 1 when the back end snapped and he collided into the wall.

Kyle Larson finished 18th, but had to miss the NASCAR Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 due to the Indy 500 start delays - denying him a proper attempt at 'The Double'.

Indy 500 - Race results

1 - 2
Cla	Driver	#	Laps	Time	Interval	Mph	Pits	Points	Retirement
1	J. Newgarden Team Penske	2	200	2:58'49.4079		219.653	5
2	P. O'Ward Arrow McLaren	5	200	+0.3417 2:58'49.7496	0.3417	217.645	6
3	S. Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing	9	200	+0.9097 2:58'50.3176	0.5680	219.384	6
4	A. Rossi Arrow McLaren	7	200	+1.1691 2:58'50.5770	0.2594	215.314	5
5	A. Palou Chip Ganassi Racing	10	200	+1.5079 2:58'50.9158	0.3388	217.852	5
6	S. McLaughlin Team Penske	3	200	+2.0593 2:58'51.4672	0.5514	218.745	5
7	K. Kirkwood Andretti Global	27	200	+2.5379 2:58'51.9458	0.4786	218.540	7
8	S. Ferrucci A.J. Foyt Enterprises	14	200	+3.6143 2:58'53.0222	1.0764	219.165	5
9	R. van Kalmthout Ed Carpenter Racing	21	200	+3.9560 2:58'53.3639	0.3417	220.004	5
10	C. Daly Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports	24	200	+4.6071 2:58'54.0150	0.6511	219.519	6
11	C. Ilott Arrow McLaren	6	200	+4.9652 2:58'54.3731	0.3581	221.337	7
12	C. Rasmussen Ed Carpenter Racing	33	200	+5.3234 2:58'54.7313	0.3582	220.537	6
13	C. Lundgaard Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	45	200	+6.1824 2:58'55.5903	0.8590	220.885	7
14	T. Sato Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	75	199	+1 Lap 2:58'15.1734	1 Lap	220.020	6
15	G. Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	15	199	+1 Lap 2:58'15.6707	0.4973	218.989	8
16	R. Robb A.J. Foyt Enterprises	41	199	+1 Lap 2:58'16.5231	0.8524	217.420	5
17	E. Carpenter Ed Carpenter Racing	20	199	+1 Lap 2:58'17.1512	0.6281	218.633	6
18	K. Larson Arrow McLaren/Rick Hendrick	17	200	+9.4846 2:58'58.8925	41.7413	217.717	7
19	R. Grosjean Juncos Hollinger Racing	77	200	+9.8312 2:58'59.2391	0.3466	217.677	7
20	H. Castroneves Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian	06	200	+10.3602 2:58'59.7681	0.5290	216.532	5
21	K. Simpson Chip Ganassi Racing	4	200	+11.0931 2:59'00.5010	0.7329	215.168	8
22	A. Canapino Juncos Hollinger Racing	78	199	+1 Lap 2:58'52.6079	1 Lap	219.132	6
23	C. Herta Andretti Global with Curb-Agajanian	26	170	+30 Laps 2:50'29.6118	29 Laps	156.862	5		Accident
24	W. Power Team Penske	12	145	+55 Laps 2:13'37.2524	25 Laps	217.285	4		Accident
25	M. Andretti Andretti Herta Autosport with Marco & Curb-Agajani	98	113	+87 Laps 1:47'32.7638	32 Laps	128.333	5		Accident
26	R. Hunter-Reay Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports	23	107	+93 Laps 1:39'56.0999	6 Laps	74.605	5		Accident
27	F. Rosenqvist Meyer Shank Racing	60	55	+145 Laps 51'59.8657	52 Laps	213.777	1		Mechanical
28	L. Lundqvist Chip Ganassi Racing	8	27	+173 Laps 29'29.7195	28 Laps	201.200	2		Accident
29	K. Legge Dale Coyne Racing	51	22	+178 Laps 30'52.8001	5 Laps	19.155	2		Mechanical
30	M. Armstrong Chip Ganassi Racing	11	6	+194 Laps 10'27.1741	16 Laps	87.433	1		Mechanical
31	T. Blomqvist Meyer Shank Racing	66	0	+200 Laps 5.4517	6 Laps	111.075			Accident
32	P. Fittipaldi Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	30	0	+200 Laps 5.6941	0.2424	117.457			Accident
33	M. Ericsson Andretti Global	28	0	+200 Laps 5.9281	0.2340	119.273			Accident
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