The 107th Indy 500: Newgarden Perseveres Final Lap Chaos to Bring Home His First Win
While walking on IMS grounds yesterday morning, one thing was undeniable: the electricity of anticipation. It was as if there was one, silent understanding among all of us. We weren’t sure how we knew, but we knew that we were in for something special.
After the echoes of the F-16 afterburners blazing over the track faded away and 33 engines came to life on the front stretch we were finally done with our last 364 days of waiting since Ericsson drank the milk last year.
A Late First Caution
After Kylo Ren waved the green flag, we watched 33 modern day knights wrestle their machines 220 mph around the corners. Each driver refusing to blink or waver while always driving on that knife’s edge. Drivers will be the first to tell you: There is close to zero room for error when driving around Indy’s 2.5 miles. If you don’t respect the track, she will bite you. This is why it was surprising that it took 227 miles for someone to make a mistake.
Coming out of Turn 1, Sting Ray Robb (Yes. That is his real name) made contact with the outside retaining wall. During his post-race interview, Sting Ray had strong words for a driver that he wouldn’t name, but a replay would show the only driver he could be talking about was Graham Rahal.
Replays didn’t capture the move itself, but Sting Ray would say that Graham made a late move into Turn 1 and caused him to wash up out of the groove. Once a car ends up out there after a long green flag run, they simply become a passenger. Once Sting Ray slid out of the groove, his only possible destination was the outside retention wall.
Cautions Breed Cautions
The adage goes, cautions breed cautions. The 107th running of the Indy 500 was no different. After a clean first 250 miles, the race began to descend into chaos.
Race favorite Alex Palou found Reinus Veekay sliding across his nose on pit lane and making contact. Palou’s car would be the only one to take damage in the incident with Veekay being served a penalty for avoidable contact. Both drivers’ days would effectively end there, although Palou made a valiant effort to finish fourth.
Grosjean and Herta were also involved on a pit road incident, where Herta released from his pit box too soon and hit Grosjean, who was trying to enter his own pit box just ahead of Herta. Both drivers would continue.
Grosjean would not continue for long, however. Fifteen laps later, Grosjean would find himself in an awkward meeting with the wall as he lost control of his car exiting turn two on lap 150.
With 17 laps to go the race would begin the final descent into mayhem. Felix Rosenqvist would make contact with the outside wall coming out of turn 1 and, while trying to wrestle his car safely to the bottom of the track with broken suspension, spun out into traffic collecting, and flipping Kyle Kirkwood.
In what could’ve been a massive tragedy, Kirkwood’s left rear tire detached from the car and hurdled over the catch fence at an unsettling rate of speed. Luckily the tire cleared the grandstand without bringing harm to any spectators. Unlucky though for an owner of a Chevy Cruz parked outside of turn 2, the tire landed on the left front fender of her car and totaled it. Don’t worry though, track president Doug Boles would invite her on the track after victory celebrations and give her a ride home.
How Newgarden Fought for First
Through all this chaos, Newgarden quietly picked his way through the field. Over the course of 185 laps he moved his way up to third from his starting position of 17th. After the Rosenqvist incident, the race was red-flagged to help ensure we finish this 500 miles under green.
When the cars got re-fired, the fans were treated to what we thought was going to be a full nine-lap shootout to decide the winner. Newgarden would get a great restart and make a breathtaking move around Ericsson and O’Ward to take the lead from third. In a matter of feet, O’Ward found himself behind Ericsson in third. This would mean disaster for O’Ward as both cars hurdled into turn 3 with 8 laps to go.
For those that can remember a year ago, we knew this was a familiar sight. In the 106th running last year, O’Ward looked to the outside of Ericsson on the final lap, but backed out. Ericsson would go on to win the race. Last year had to be on O’Ward’s mind as he refused to back out of his move this time going into Turn 3.
Ericsson then pinched O’Ward onto the grass, causing O’Ward to spin and slam into the outside wall. Pagenaud would also get collected after checking up and being tagged from behind by Scott McLaughlin. Pagenaud would have strong words for Scott in his post-crash interview, chastising Scott for not checking up with the rest of the field. This incident would produce the 2nd red flag.
On the restart, Carpenter and Pederson came together and collected Graham Rahal before they even got to the yard of bricks to take the green flag. This would bring out the 3rd red flag.
Though half the field didn’t reach the start/finish line to take the green flag, Indycar race control would decide that racing had taken place in the front half of the field and Ericsson overtook Newgarden to take the lead.
The intention of Indycar was clear when they threw the third red flag. To bring about a one-lap, winner-take-all shootout.
With one lap to go Ericsson led the field to green and got a good jump on the field. But it felt like nothing was going to stop Newgarden from taking this one home as he closed in Ericsson’s slipstream down the front stretch, stayed close to him as they thundered through turns 1 and 2, then beckoned all the fans to the edges of their seats as he looked to Ericsson’s outside on the backstretch.
Last year, Ericsson looked in his rearview to see Pato O’Ward back off the throttle. This year he watched out the windscreen as Josef Newgarden went around him, throttle pinned to the floor.
With that move, Newgarden molded his face on a trophy, etched his name in history, and became immortal. Josef Newgarded crossed the line two corners later, the first to complete the 500 miles. The first American to do so since Alexander Rossi won the 100th running back in 2016.
Related: Indy 500 Victory Celebration
