Newgarden denies O’Ward with last-lap pass to take second Indianapolis 500 win · RaceFans

Josef Newgarden has gained the Indianapolis 500 for the second yr in a row after beating Pato O’Ward in an exhilarating duel to the end.

The pair traded locations repeatedly after bursting previous O’Ward’s staff mate Alexander Rossi with seven laps to go.

O’Ward appeared to have tempo in hand to assault Newgarden. He backed out of a run on the Penske driver on the penultimate lap, then made his transfer as the ultimate lap started. However Newgarden struck again, diving across the exterior of O’Ward as they sprinted into flip three.

It was a dramatic finish to an eventful race which was delayed by hours as a result of heavy rain early within the day.

Newgarden was within the thick of the battle from the beginning together with staff mate Scott McLaughlin, who led the sphere away from pole place. After his last pit cease he scrapped first with Rossi after which Scott Dixon, swapping locations with the Ganassi driver for a number of laps earlier than he slipped again.

The win will come as an unlimited aid to Newgarden, who was stripped of his victory within the season-opening race at St Petersburg when he was discovered to have used his push-to-pass system exterior of permitted instances. After the race he paid tribute to staff president Tim Cindric and his race engineer Luke Mason who had been amongst these suspended by Penske because of the infringement.

Dixon got here in third forward of Rossi and Alex Palou. McLaughlin led a lot of the early levels earlier than falling again to sixth place. Kyle Kirkwood, Santino Ferrucci, Rinus Veekay and Conor Daly accomplished the highest 10.

Marcus Ericsson, the 2022 race winner who Newgarden handed on the ultimate lap to win final yr’s race, didn’t make it so far as lap two this yr. Tom Blomqvist spun in entrance of him on the first nook and Ericsson was unable to keep away from being claimed by a crash which additionally eradicated Pietro Fittipaldi.

Dixon was concerned in a hair-raising mid-race incident which eradicated Ryan Hunter-Reay. The 2 earlier winners made contact on the again straight when Dixon moved to the as Hunter-Reay made to cross him there. Hunter-Reay spun by way of 360 levels on the grass at high pace and recovered to the pits the place he was compelled to retire, fuming at his Ganassi rival.

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Race end result

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