Indy 500: Newgarden beats Ericsson in crash-marred 107th edition

The race was red flagged for the first time with 14 laps remaining when Felix Rosenqvist (Arrow McLaren) crashed out of fourth place at Turn 1, clipping Kyle Kirkwood’s Andretti Autosport car which slammed into the wall and flipped over at Turn 2.

That setup an eight-lap sprint to the finish, but another red flag was required as Pato O’Ward (Arrow McLaren) clashed with Marcus Ericsson (Ganassi) and slammed the wall. A third attempt brought out a yellow almost immediately with a multi-car tailender crash.

Newgarden then triumphed in a final-lap shootout, passing Ericsson at Turn 3 to score his first Indy 500 win.

Poleman Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing led the 32-car field to the green flag (as Graham Rahal was stranded in the pits with a battery failure) leading Rinus VeeKey (Ed Carpenter Racing) and Rosenqvist. Ganassi’s Scott Dixon jumped up to fourth, swooping ahead of Santino Ferrucci (AJ Foyt Racing) and the McLarens of Alexander Rossi and Pato O’Ward. Rahal rejoined the race two laps down.

VeeKay passed Palou for the lead at the start of lap 3, with Team Penske’s Will Power an early mover, up to eighth from 12^th. Palou repaid the favor on VeeKay a lap later at Turn 1, and they would trade the top spot across the first stint.

Dixon plummeted down the order due to a left-side tyre vibration 20 laps into the opening run. By lap 25, Dixon had fallen from fourth to 14^th and he pitted on lap 27, rejoining 32^nd. Romain Grosjean was another early stopper for Andretti Autosport due to handling issues.

Palou was the first of the leaders to pit at lap 30, along with Ferrucci, while VeeKay stayed out until lap 32, a lap before Rosenqvist, while Rossi, O’Ward and Power ran longer than all their rivals.

Palou cycled back to the lead, ahead of VeeKay and Ferrucci, with Rosenqvist – who suffered a blistered tire – dropping back to fourth, ahead of Rossi, O’Ward and Power, the latter struggling with no weightjacker tool. Defending race winner Marcus Ericsson rose to eighth by one-quarter distance, ahead of Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden.

Palou made his second stop on lap 62, with VeeKay going two laps longer as before, braving out a tire vibration on that stint. The McLarens ran longer again, with Power going furthest of all on fuel.

Rosenqvist overcut the top two at this point, with O’Ward moving up to make it a McLaren 1-2, and then the Mexican hit the front for himself on lap 70. Ferrucci stormed up to third, sweeping past Palou, who appeared to be struggling with his balance on this stint, and then VeeKay.

The first yellow flew on lap 92 when Sting Ray Robb hit the wall at Turn 1, having gone side by side with Rahal and getting up high into the marbles.

Rosenqvist led the field to the pits, ahead of O’Ward, Ferrucci, VeeKay, Rossi and Palou. But drama soon followed, as VeeKay lit up his rears and half spun as he left the pits and pushed Palou into the pit exit wall. Palou needed to pit again for a new front wing.

Rossi nearly spun in similar fashion further back, almost hitting Power, who was just missed by VeeKay moments later.

Callum Ilott, who started 27^th in his Juncos Hollinger Racing entry, had pitted on lap 91 and fortuitously found himself leading the field back to green on lap 100 – the halfway point of the race.

Rosenqvist immediately retook the lead, with O’Ward quickly following suit past Ilott. Ericsson leapt up to fourth with an incredibly forceful restart around the outside of Turn 4, before Ferrucci repassed him for third a lap later. Power almost wrecked at Turn 1 and tumbled to 16^th.

VeeKay was given a drive-through penalty for his pitstop faux pas, while Dixon was back up to 14^th at this point, and Palou was 18^th.

With 90 laps to go, O’Ward led Rosenqvist – the McLarens swapping the lead every three laps to help their fuel mileage – ahead of Ferrucci, Newgarden, Ericsson and Colton Herta, the latter up 15 places from the start in his Andretti Autosport machine.

The race pace dropped to a shockingly low 207mph with 75 laps remaining, as strategists began to back-time their final two pitstops. Worryingly for him, O’Ward was the first leader to stop on lap 130, due to his crew being unable to fill-up his fuel tank properly, a couple of laps before Rosenqvist.

Ericsson and Rossi went longest of the frontrunners on fuel, while Herta’s chances were blown right here when he was released straight into the side of team-mate Grosjean.

In shaken-up order, Rosenqvist now led Ericsson, Newgarden, Ferrucci, Rossi and O’Ward. Ed Carpenter and team-mate Conor Daly were next up, ahead of Andretti’s best bet Kirkwood and Takuma Sato (CGR). Palou was 11^th, and on a massive charge, with Dixon 13^th.

Ericsson hit the front on lap 139, leading Newgarden, Rosenqvist and Rossi with 50 laps to go, when the caution flew for a second time as Grosjean crashed hard exiting Turn 2.

O’Ward led the pitters – needing to get as much gas as possible due to his refill issue – which included Sato, Carpenter, Power and Ilott. That elevated Palou into seventh, putting him back into the frame.

The green flag flew with 43 laps to go, with Ericsson leading Newgarden, Rosenqvist, Rossi, Ferrucci and Kirkwood. Ferrucci swept around the outside of Turn 1 to grab third, as Ericsson and Newgarden swapped the lead ahead of him. Ferrucci stormed down the inside of Newgarden at Turn 1 and chased down Ericsson, who he passed in similar fashion with 40 to go. Power clipped the wall at Turn 2, breaking his rear suspension, but the race stayed green.

Ferrucci pitted from the lead with 31 laps to go but suffered a slow stop and his tire changer allowed his right-front wheel to cross the white line – but he got away without a drive-through penalty. Ericsson, Kirkwood, Newgarden and Rosenqvist all hit pit lane for the final time a lap later.

As Ericsson and Rosenqvist duelled out front, O’Ward slotted into behind them after making his extra pitstop, with Newgarden and Rossi battling hard for fifth.

O’Ward passed Rosenqvist for second with 18 to go and then outdragged Ericsson for the lead in Turn 3 a lap later, just before the third caution of the race for Rosenqvist hitting the wall in Turn 1.

As he lost control, due to bent suspension and steering, the Swede spun back across the track he clipped Kirkwood, whose left-rear wheel flew over the catchfence, before he slammed into the wall and flipped over. Fortunately, Kirkwood’s wheel missed the crowded grandstand and hit a parked car, with no injuries reported.

The race was red flagged to clean up the mess, with O’Ward leading Ericsson, Newgarden, Rossi, Ferrucci and Palou to the green.

The first restart was waved off, but at the second attempt O’Ward had Ericsson right on his tail and as he popped out to the outside, but Newgarden swept around both of them to lead.

O’Ward attacked Ericsson with a very late move into Turn 3, where they touched and O’Ward went spinning into the fence, where he rode around the top of the wall. Further back Simon Pagenaud (Meyer Shank Racing) and McLaughlin clashed, with Pagenaud hitting the wall. To add insult to injury, Agustin Canapino (JHR) also spun out trying to avoid the incident and his brake-less car then slammed into the back of O’Ward’s stationary machine.

That set up the field for a four-lap restart with Newgarden leading Ericsson, Ferrucci, Rossi, Palou and Dixon, but a wreck off Turn 4 – involving Carpenter, Rahal, Christian Lundgaard, Marco Andretti and Benjamin Pedersen – brought out the caution again. Ericsson was scored as the leader as he crossed the line, ahead of Newgarden, Ferrucci, Rossi and Palou.

It meant a one-lap shootout for Indy 500 glory, and Ericsson took an early restart, leading by a big margin into Turn 1, as Palou grabbed fourth from Rossi.

But Newgarden got a huge run off Turn 2 and passed Ericsson into Turn 3, and held him off to the finish line by 0.0974s – the fourth-closest finish in Indy 500 history.

Ferrucci finished third, ahead of Palou, Rossi, Dixon, Sato, Daly, Herta and VeeKay.

Cla	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	2:58'21.9611
2	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	2:58'22.0585	0.0974
3	Santino Ferrucci	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	2:58'22.4884	0.5273
4	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	2:58'22.7249	0.7638
5	Alexander Rossi	Arrow McLaren	2:58'22.9545	0.9934
6	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	2:58'23.3927	1.4316
7	Takuma Sato	Chip Ganassi Racing	2:58'23.5381	1.5770
8	Conor Daly	Ed Carpenter Racing	2:58'23.8466	1.8855
9	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport	2:58'24.1859	2.2248
10	Rinus van Kalmthout	Ed Carpenter Racing	2:58'25.2259	3.2648
11	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	2:58'25.3834	3.4223
12	Callum Ilott	Juncos Hollinger Racing	2:58'26.0081	4.0470
13	Devlin DeFrancesco	Andretti Autosport	2:58'26.7043	4.7432
14	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	2:58'26.9656	5.0045
15	Helio Castroneves	Meyer Shank Racing	2:58'27.4242	5.4631
16	Tony Kanaan	Arrow McLaren	2:58'27.6769	5.7158
17	Marco Andretti	Andretti Herta Autosport with Marco & Curb-Agajani	2:58'30.9411	8.9800
18	Jack Harvey	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	2:58'30.3550	1 Lap
19	Christian Lundgaard	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	2:58'30.7177	2 Laps
20	Ed Carpenter	Ed Carpenter Racing	2:55'00.2474	3 Laps
21	Benjamin Pedersen	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	2:52'20.4559	4 Laps
22	Graham Rahal	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	2:52'16.7176	5 Laps
23	Will Power	Team Penske	2:58'34.1167	5 Laps
24	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren	2:45'31.1750	8 Laps
25	Simon Pagenaud	Meyer Shank Racing	2:45'32.4536	8 Laps
26	Agustin Canapino	Juncos Hollinger Racing	2:45'32.7600	8 Laps
27	Felix Rosenqvist	Arrow McLaren	2:22'00.7768	17 Laps
28	Kyle Kirkwood	Andretti Autosport	2:22'02.4174	17 Laps
29	David Malukas	Dale Coyne Racing	2:10'02.4490	40 Laps
30	Romain Grosjean	Andretti Autosport	1:52'57.3928	51 Laps
31	Ray Robb	Dale Coyne Racing	1:04'01.1077	110 Laps
32	R.C. Enerson	Abel Motorsports	1:00'08.6857	125 Laps
33	Katherine Legge	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	46'34.9554	159 Laps
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