Insider: How Josef Newgarden won a chaotic Indianapolis 500

INDIANAPOLIS – With a last lap pass in Turn 3 on the defending Indianapolis 500 winner, and after surviving three red flags in a chaotic Sunday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Josef Newgarden broke through for his first win in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing, giving Roger Penske his first win as owner of Team Penske, the IndyCar series and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Newgarden, the first American 500 winner since Alexander Rossi in 2016, won the Indy 500 on his 12th try, tying the record for starts before a first win, originally set by Sam Hanks and tied by Tony Kanaan.

Here’s how he did it:

'It's just pure emotion'

In a move that surprised many, IndyCar race control opted to throw its third red flag -- the first time an Indy 500 had more than one -- with under five laps to go, leading to a restart with one to go and Marcus Ericsson leading Newgarden, Santino Ferrucci, Alexander Rossi and Alex Palou at the green flag. As he did a year ago multiple times, fending off a hard-charging Pato O’Ward, Ericsson dove low on the front-stretch, past the pit lane commit line, and then high, then low and high again, and held onto the lead as the pair tore through Turn 1. But the Swedish driver couldn’t hold it much longer.

Ericsson dove down low entering the backstretch to try and break Newgarden’s tow -- a move known as The Dragon -- but the Chip Ganassi Racing driver didn’t have a shot to weave back up high before Newgarden pulled alongside on the outside and made the pass before Turn 3. Newgarden then mirrored Ericsson’s move headed to the checkered flag and won a drag race to the finish he won by less than one-tenth of a second (0.0974 seconds). Ericsson had used the same move to hold off Pato O'Ward and win the Indianapolis 500 last year.

“I’m just so thankful to be here. This place is amazing,” Newgarden said atop Victory Podium after running through a break in the fence to celebrate with fans following his win. “Thank you, Indy. I love this city. I grew up racing karts here as a kid, and I’m so thankful for Roger (Penske), (strategist) Tim (Cindric) and Team Penske.

“Everyone has been asking me why I hadn’t won this race, and they look at you like you’re a failure when you haven’t. I’m so glad to be here. It’s just pure emotion.”

Santino Ferrucci finished 3^rd for A.J. Foyt Racing, the team’s best finish in the 500 in more than two decades. After falling to the back of the field from pitlane contact just ahead of the halfway point from Rinus VeeKay, 2021 series champ and Sunday’s polesitter Alex Palou managed to claw his way back to 4^th. After having three cars in the thick of things in the race’s final quarter, Arrow McLaren’s best finish came from Alexander Rossi in 5^th. Scott Dixon, Takuma Sato, Conor Daly, Colton Herta and VeeKay rounded out the top-10.

Indianapolis 500 recap:Josef Newgarden wins; results, leaderboard from IMS

Marcus Ericsson furious for green/white finish

The race’s second of three red flags saw the race go green with eight laps to go and Pato O’Ward leading Ericsson and Newgarden in the top-3. Newgarden leap-frogged them both by the backstretch, and O’Ward, trying to take 2^nd-place back from Ericsson, held the throttle flat entering Turn 3. With Ericsson half-a-car-length ahead, O’Ward finally lifted just a hair, touched his right-front wheel to Ericsson’s left-rear, sending the Arrow McLaren driver into a tailspin into the Turn 3 SAFER barrier.

Simon Pagenaud was also caught up in the chaos after a tap from the rear, and Agustin Canapino couldn’t stop, crashing into the back of O’Ward. The yellow flag was followed by a red with seven laps to go. With four laps to go on the restart, Ericsson, edged ahead of Newgarden just before the start-finish line for the lead, moments before a front-stretch crash behind the leaders involving Benjamin Pedersen, Graham Rahal and Ed Carpenter.

The red flag came out again with three laps to go, and the field then cycled around to pitlane and stopped for the third time in less than 30 laps with two laps remaining and Ericsson leading Newgarden, Ferrucci, Rossi and Palou.

After the race, Ericsson was furious with the call from race control to red flag the race and give the field less than one lap to ramp up for a shared green and white flag.

“It felt like a dangerous end to the race,” Ericsson said. “There weren’t enough laps to do what we did. You can’t get the tires up to temperature. I think I did a great job behind the wheel and caught Josef off-guard and built a gap and kept the lead. I just couldn’t hold him back.

“I don’t think that was fair. It feels like we did everything right and won that race, but it got taken away from us.”

Indy 500:Loose tire flies over fencing, fans after late race crash

Scary moment as tire flies over stands, fans

The race’s first red flag came with under 20 laps to go as Felix Rosenqvist, who started on the front row and led more than 30 laps Sunday, got passed by Newgarden heading into Turn 1. The Swedish driver got caught in Newgarden’s dirty air, sending him high into the Turn 1 wall. He tried to keep it there, but eventually came off the wall and began spinning. He then clipped the left-rear wheel of Kyle Kirkwood, sheering the wheel off the Andretti driver’s car and tumbling over the fencing in Turn 2. The wheel sailed over the top of the end of the Turn 2 grandstands and split the gap between the grandstands and the Turn 2 suites. It eventually came to a stop after hitting a white Chevy sedan in the parking lot. Fortunately, only minor injuries were reported.