SPEEDWAY, Ind. — A year ago, he jumped, climbed and screamed.
It was an emotional outburst after winning his first Indianapolis 500 in 12 tries: Josef Newgarden parked his No. 2 Penske Chevrolet in the brick yard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, climbed out of the cockpit, climbed through the netting and turned the bleachers lining the front of the track into a mosh pit.
This scene shows just how much this race means to the winner.
“I don’t know if I can win here,” he admitted. “Of course, you can dream. Who can not dream?”
And he did, for years, maybe decades. Then Newgarden finished in the top 10 five times in his first 11 starts, but the accompanying feeling of so close yet so far left him, like so many others, wondering if he’d ever get there, and feeling anxious.
“Whether you’re close or far away, you’re leaving with a broken heart,” he said.
That’s why when he finally made it and finally finished his milk, he let it all out.
Climbing. Screaming. Confusion.
On Sunday, Newgarden jumped, climbed and screamed again just as he had 12 months ago, because the sequel was just as sweet: Coming into the penultimate corner of the final lap of the 108th Indianapolis 500, Newgarden took a big leap and slipped past Pato O’Ward to take the lead at the start of Lap 200, desperate to end the heartache he’d felt so many times here.
This is and will continue to be the greatest spectacle in racing. pic.twitter.com/NA0PxYhm5t
— NTT IndyCar Series (@IndyCar) May 26, 2024
Newgarden knows that heartache all too well.
“I really want to win this race,” a devastated O’Ward said afterwards.
But this is Indy, and the difference between agony and ecstasy is three-tenths of a second. Newgarden sprinted through the final quarter of the race, then edged out O’Ward down the final straight for a flawless finish to become the first driver in 22 years to win consecutive 500-mile races.
“It was flat out,” Newgarden said of the final straight. “Nobody eased off or gave up on anything. Half the time I felt like I was breaking.”
“The last 60 laps we went on the offensive,” added Jonathan Diuguido, Newgarden’s stand-in race strategist.
O’Ward admitted as much: he drove with all his might and had no intention of finishing second.
The final 10-lap battle was spectacular theatre and a well-deserved showcase for the 300,000 fans who overcame a four-hour weather delay to watch the race finish in twilight. O’Ward passed Newgarden with five laps to go. Newgarden responded two laps later, and the pair pulled away from rivals Scott Dixon and Alexander Rossi. Then, when the white flag waved, O’Ward took the lead. He looked faster than any car on the track.
Was this his moment?
Newgarden waited, with four turns to go.
He waited. There were two turns left.
Former champion Dixon sat in third place hoping the two would clash.
When will Newgarden make his move?
And will it work?
Then, just as they were entering the third corner, he pounced. It was a bold acceleration into the short chute, a gamble that could have either earned him the Borg-Warner Trophy or led to an embarrassing crash on the final lap. He could have lost it all.
“We were willing to put it all on the line,” Newgarden said. “And you have to if you want to win at Indy.”
He was right.
The move worked: he fended off O’Ward and made history.
Newgarden then jumped out of his car and sprinted toward the stands, recreating the same scene from last May on the home straight at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“There was nothing to regret when I got home,” he said with a smile a few hours later.
The win capped a tumultuous month for Newgarden and the Penske team. His season-opening victory at St. Petersburg was stripped after he was found to have engaged in an illegal push-to-pass maneuver during the race. The further punishment handed down by Newgarden’s boss, speedway owner and NTT IndyCar Series chairman Roger Penske, was severe: Four crew members, including Newgarden’s chief race strategist Tim Cindric, were suspended.
Newgarden has denied intentionally violating any rules, but it’s been a rocky start to May for the defending champion, who was met with some booing at IMS this week.
Newgarden unflinchingly ignored it.
He drove the same way.
The second-place team ran a text chain throughout the week titled “Winning the Indy 500.”
Without two engineers and with Diguid filling in for Cindric on Sunday, Newgarden became the first driver since Helio Castroneves in 2002 to successfully defend his title.
Newgarden is quickly becoming part of Indy legend.
“I don’t think I made a single mistake today,” Diguid, who until Sunday had never been involved in an Indianapolis 500 victory, told his colleagues.
It certainly didn’t seem that way. There were mistakes and caution flags early in the race, chaos in the second half, and then Newgarden and O’Ward eventually broke away from the pack, swapping the lead four times in the final 10 laps.
“Hats off to Pato,” Newgarden said, “He could have easily won this race, but we won it.”
The final-lap pass gave Penske his record-tying 20th Indianapolis 500 victory as an owner, and Newgarden earned a $440,000 bonus from Borg-Warner for his back-to-back victories.
Make no mistake, he earned it all.
“It was dizzying,” Newgarden said of the heart-stopping finish. “Those last 30 laps were really nerve-wracking.”
It was the same as a year ago when they thwarted Marcus Ericsson’s attempt to win back-to-back titles.
The same winners. The same spectacle. The same celebration.
But that’s going to change in 2025, because next year the stakes will be even higher.
Twelve months from now, Newgarden will have the chance to accomplish something never before accomplished by any driver in the 113-year history of the world’s most revered auto race.
This is our third consecutive win.
Going deeper
Pat O’Ward falls short again in Indy 500 heartbreak
(Photo of Josef Newgarden celebrating his win on Sunday: Brian Spurlock/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
