Josef Newgarden wins his first Indy 500 after passing 2022 champ Marcus Ericsson on final lap, gives Roger Penske his 19th victory

Josef desperately wanted to win this race for years, Newgarden has finally won his first Indy 500 in 2023.

Josef Newgarden has his heart set on winning the Indianapolis 500.

The 11-year streak of failure had grown personal for the twice-victory IndyCar driver.

But on Sunday, Newgarden finally succeeded, taking the Indy 500 to give team owner Roger Penske his 19th victory and his first since he acquired the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

In a frenetic, contentious 2.5-mile sprint to the finish line, Newgarden accomplished it by daringly passing the race's defending victor, Marcus Ericsson.

Following a study of the running order at the moment the yellow flag flew, race control elevated Newgarden from fourth to second when the race was red-flagged for the third time in the last 16 laps.

On the restart, he used his better positioning to slingshot around Ericsson and hold him off from there.

In order to celebrate, Newgarden stopped his Chevrolet-powered vehicle on the front stretch, hopped out, and found a gap in the barrier. He then dove into a portion of the crowd, which was thought to number more than 300,000 people. Then, to imitate veteran Team Penske driver and four-time Indy 500 champion Helio Castroneves, Newgarden scaled the fence.

Since Alexander Rossi in 2016, the 32-year-old Nashville native is the first American to have won the Indy 500. He led five of the 200 laps, defeating Ericsson by.0974 seconds in the fourth-closest finish in 107 years.

Ericsson, driving a Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing, came in second, and he immediately criticised IndyCar for holding a one-lap duel to the finish line. Instead of the green flag flying on the first lap out of the pits, the Swedish driver thought the race should have ended under caution, with him declared the winner.

Santino Ferrucci came in third behind Newgarden and Ericsson, giving 88-year-old A.J. Foyt his team's best finish in the illustrious event that Super Tex has won four times since Kenny Bräck crossed the finish line in 1999.

Alex Palou, the pole sitter and race favorite for Chip Ganassi Racing, finished fourth after recovering from a crash on pit road, and Rossi was fifth on what was an otherwise disappointing day for Arrow McLaren.

...