Josef Newgarden wins Indy 500 for second straight year after epic duel: Full highlights

Josef Newgarden wins Indy 500 for second straight year after epic duel: Full highlights

 Josef Newgarden battled Pato O'Ward Sunday in the closing laps of the 2024 Indy 500 as the Team Penske and Arrow McLaren drivers traded the lead in the closing laps of the 108th running of the legendary race.

But with one final pass on the white flag lap, Newgarden became the sixth driver to win back-to-back Indianapolis 500s, giving team owner and Indianapolis Motor Speedway chairman Roger Penske his 20th win in the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing."

Newgarden is the first driver since four-time winner Helio Castroneves in 2001 and 2002 to win the Indy 500 in consecutive years.

He bounded into the stands after climbing from his car to salute the fans in Indianapolis who endured a four-hour delay for rain before embracing his wife Ashley.

"Unbelievable. I love this crowd," an exhausted but ecstatic Newgarden said. "Honestly, that wore me out more than the race.

I'm just proud of this team. They crushed it. I mean crushed it. They came here with the fastest cars. We worked our tails off. Team Chevy brought it.

"That's the way I wanted to win that."

Newgarden scored his 30th career IndyCar Series win after starting third in the race alongside two of his Penske teammates.

But it was heartbreak for Pato O'Ward, the popular Mexican driver who was seeking his first Indy 500 win after finishing second in the 2022 race behind Marcus Ericsson.

O'Ward had taken the lead back from Newgarden as the white flag waved for the final lap and held off the 33-year-old Tennessee native through the first two turns and down the backstretch. But Newgarden had one more move left, and he used it in Turn 3, speeding past the Arrow McLaren driver and holding him off to take the checkered flag.

O'Ward, who turned 25 earlier in May, struggled to put the emotions of coming up one position short for the second time in three years into words.

"I put that car through things I never thought it was gonna be able to do," O'Ward said. "Oh man, it’s just so painful when you put so much into it and then two laps short I guess. Or two corners short.

"We had so many near race enders, so close again. So (expletive) close."

Scott Dixon, the 2008 Indy 500 winner and a six-time IndyCar Series champion finished third, followed by 2016 winner Alexander Rossi, O'Ward's teammate at Arrow McLaren in fourth. Two-time IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou, Dixon's teammate at Chip Ganassi Racing, came home fifth, while Penske's Scott McLaughlin, the pole sitter, finished sixth.

"It’s always a heartbreak whenever you’re so close especially when it’s not the first time," O'Ward said. "You just don’t know how many opportunities like that you have."

Newgarden got redemption in IndyCar's biggest race following a month when virtually the entire paddock questioned the integrity of he and Team Penske for the team’s push-to-pass scandal that cost Newgarden his season-opening win in St. Petersburg.

IndyCar officials leveled a massive penalty to the No. 2 team following an investigation of Team Penske for manipulating the overtake system at St. Petersburg, and Newgarden raced Sunday at Indianapolis without his strategist and lead engineer.

So, the celebratory milk was even more enjoyable for Newgarden, who celebrated with his crew in victory lane for the second consecutive year.