Josef Newgarden has won the Indianapolis 500. After leading a total of five of the 200-lap race, the driver of the No. 2 Shell Powering Progress Team Penske Chevrolet drove into the most coveted Victory Lane in motorsports.
After qualifying 17th, Newgarden methodically worked his way to the top-five the majority of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.
It was a one lap shoot-out after two consecutive red flags after incidents on restarts with Newgarden second at the green for the final lap. With an incredible run out of turn two to take the lead down the backstretch and hold off defending champion Marcus Ericsson for his first Indianapolis 500 win.
Today’s victory is second win of the season for Newgarden and the 27th of his career.
It is the 19th Indy 500 win for team owner Roger Penske, and the ninth for team president and strategist for the No. 2 team – Tim Cindric
Today’s victory is the third of the year for Chevrolet in the NTT INDYCAR Series. The BowTie brand’s fifth Indy 500 win in the V-6 era and 12th historic on the famed 2.5-mile oval. It is the 109th V-6 era victory for Team Chevy
JOSEF NEWGARDEN POST RACE QUOTES:
“This is just amazing. Regardless of where you’re sitting in America, driving a car, you’re working on it, or you’re out here in the crowd, you’re part of this event and the energy. And so thank you to Indianapolis. I love this city. I grew up racing cars here when I was a kid. And I’m just so thankful for Roger (Penske) and him and everybody has been a part of this. You know, I just felt like everyone kept asking me why I haven’t won this race. And, you know, they look at you like you’re a failure. If you don’t win it, and I wanted to win. It’s so bad. I knew. I knew we were capable. And I’m so thankful the shell. Team Chevy, everybody is a huge team effort, as everybody knows. So just so glad to be here.
“You know, I always tried to stay locked in, buy I was emotional, the whole last 10 laps because we were I knew we were in a position to fight for this win at the end. And I knew it wasn’t gonna be easy. We’re gonna come to some last laps here now, like it always is these days, which is exciting, but stressful. But just been thinking about all the work. You know, I can’t talk highly enough about the team. You know, they’ve worked so hard all month. It’s so long to get to this point. We’re here for weeks. We’re gonna grinded on this thing just for this one moment. And that’s what makes it so demoralizing when it doesn’t work out. But I can tell you, we’re gonna enjoy it tonight. It’s gonna be amazing when we get to celebrate.
“Second is where you want to go you want to be dedicated and you know it actually worked out great that I got to run on the back stretch. I knew if I could just get him and clear him in the three then maybe we could hold onto the line but he was so quick on the straight that it wasn’t guaranteed. I was just trying to do everything I could to keep it back and then it was a fight. It was just a big fight is is not easy to win. This race has been so difficult right in the world to win.”
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