Josef Newgarden’s Indianapolis 500 win long overdue

The 2023 Indianapolis 500 took place in Speedway, Indiana on Sunday. The 107th running of the biggest open wheel race in the world once again had its share of spectacular crashes and dramatic passes. In the end, Josef Newgarden of Nashville, Tennessee was the champion. Newgarden actually passed 2022 Indianapolis 500 champion Marcus Ericsson of Sweden on the final lap for the biggest victory of his career.

Five laps led

Newgarden actually led only five of the 200 total laps at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, but he led the right lap to win the race. Of the drivers in the field, Newgarden’s five led laps were the eighth most in the entire field behind Mexico’s Pato O’Ward (39), Spain’s Alex Palou (36), Sweden’s Felix Rosenqvist (33), Sweden’s Marcus Ericsson (30), the Netherlands’s Rinus Veekay (24), American Santino Ferrucci (11), and American Ryan Hunter-Reay (eight). Newgarden’s overall time was two hours, 58 minutes, 21.9611 seconds. He was .0974 seconds faster than Ericsson.

First Indianapolis 500 win

The reason why this victory for Newgarden on Sunday was long overdue is because he had won 26 IndyCar races, but never the Indianapolis 500 until yesterday. He also won the 2017 and 2019 Indycar Series events, and had one top three Indianapolis 500 finish. That was a third place for Ed Carpenter Racing in 2016. Newgarden finished behind champion Alexander Rossi of Nevada City, California, and Colombian runner-up Carlos Munoz.

19th Penske Win

This was the 19th time Team Penske has won the Indianapolis 500. The prior winners have been Mark Donohue of Haddon Township, New Jersey (1972), Rick Mears of Wichita, Kansas (1979, 1984, 1988, 1991), Bobby Unser of Colorado Springs, Colorado (1981), Danny Sullivan of Louisville, Kentucky (1985), Al Unser of Albuquerque, New Mexico (1987, 1994), Emerson Fiitipaldi of Brazil (1993), Helio Castroneves of Brazil (2001, 2002, 2009), Gil de Ferran of Brazil (2003), Sam Hornish Jr. of Archbold, Ohio (2006), Juan Pablo Montoya of Colombia (2015), Will Power of Australia (2018), and Sam Pagenaud of France (2019).

Second Win of 2023

This was Newgarden’s second win of 2023 as he also won in Texas on April 2. He is fourth in the IndyCar standings behind Palou, Ericsson and O’Ward.