Newgarden denies O'Ward for back-to-back Indy 500 wins

Josef Newgarden defeated Pato O’Ward in an enthralling last-lap battle to secure back-to-back Indianapolis 500 victories.

McLaren driver O’Ward backed out of a couple of opportunities to overtake Newgarden before passing him as they began the final lap, but Newgarden still had time to retaliate around the outside of Turn 3.

He become the first repeat winner since fellow Penske legend Helio Castroneves in 2001/02, a feat that earned him an additional $440,000 bonus payment from sponsor Borg Warner.

Newgarden achieved Penske’s 20th Indy 500 win despite three key personnel on his car being suspended following the team’s internal investigation into the push-to-pass scandal that was uncovered earlier this year and resulted in Newgarden’s disqualification from the St Petersburg season-opener.

The race, delayed by four hours due to rain, distilled into a late battle between Newgarden, O’Ward, fellow McLaren driver Alexander Rossi and Ganassi’s Scott Dixon, in which Rossi looked best-equipped to beat Newgarden until a late surge from O’Ward - in a visibly wild-handling car - that nearly took him to victory but ended in a repeat of his 2022 close second place instead. That near-miss left him devastated.

Polesitter Scott McLaughlin had been Newgarden’s main rival for much of the race but ended up sixth behind champion Alex Palou.

The third part of Penske’s front-row sweep - Will Power - faded in the race and crashed heavily late on.

Kyle Kirkwood recovered from a penalty for pitlane contact with Callum llott to take seventh on a painful day for his Andretti team.

Its best victory prospect Colton Herta crashed when running second to McLaughlin. His car actually only sustained minimal damage to its front wing, which Herta appeared not to realise as he quickly climbed out. He later rejoined 30 laps down once it had been recovered to the garage and repaired.

Andretti’s 2024 signing and 2022 Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson was a gutted first-lap retirement - pincered into the wall by a spinning Tom Blomqvist in an incident that also took out Pietro Fittipaldi due to Ilott hitting him in avoidance.

NASCAR star Kyle Larson was a spectacular presence in the lead pack for the first half of the race, recovering from losing 10 places with a missed gearshift at an early restart to surge back into contention, only to then drop two laps down when he sped in the pitlane.

He finished 18th, having opted to stick with the delayed Indy 500 rather than abandoning it to get to NASCAR’s Charlotte 600 night race.