Josef Newgarden in the No.2 Shell Team Penske Chevrolet started Sunday’s 108th running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge from third place. On the final lap of the Greatest Spectacle In Racing, he took the lead from Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward to claim his second consecutive Indianapolis 500 title, having come from 17th place last season to win the race.
Sunday’s race was delayed by four hours due to thunderstorms and severe rain. The Team Penske trio of Scott McLaughlin, Will Power, and Josef Newgarden made a great start to the race. Negarden’s win was his first victory of the 2024 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season, and he went into the race without his strategist and Team Penske President Tim Cindric and his chief race engineer Luke Mason following their suspensions from the team due to cheating at the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St Petersburg presented by RP Funding.
“They can say whatever they want after this point; I don’t care anymore. “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.”
Pole-sitter Scott McLaughlin in the No.3 Pennzoil Team Penske Chevrolet came home in sixth place and speaking following the race he commented saying:
“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.”
Will Power, in the No.12 Verizon Business Team Penske Chevrolet, started the race in second place but was forced to retire from the Greatest Spectacle in Racing after hitting the wall at turn 1.
Speaking following the action, Power said:
“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.”
The next race on the NTT INDYCAR SERIES schedule is the Detroit Grand Prix which takes place this weekend.