Josef Newgarden uses last-lap pass to win weather-delayed Indianapolis 500 for second consecutive year

Josef Newgarden used a scintillating last-lap pass to win the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday for the second consecutive year in a race that started four hours late due to extreme weather.

Josef Newgarden used a scintillating last-lap pass to win the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday for the second consecutive year in a race that started four hours late due to extreme weather. “I’m just so proud of the team. They crushed it. I mean, crushed it. … They came here with the fastest cars. We worked our tails off,” Newgarden told race broadcaster NBC. The Indy 500, one of the most prestigious and highly-anticipated events of the motorsport calendar, began four hours late on Sunday afternoon after lightning and extreme weather caused organizers to pause pre-race festivities, evacuate fans from the grandstands and wait for rain to pass and the track to dry up. The race was initially scheduled to begin at 12:45 p.m. ET but was pushed back to 4:45 p.m. When it got underway, it was a fan’s delight, with passes at the front of the field and in the pack. There were a race-record 16 different leaders and 87 lead changes. Newgarden and Pato O’Ward battled for the win in the final laps, with Newgarden passing the Arrow McLaren driver on Turn 3 of the last trip around the 2.5-mile circuit to win the race by just 0.3417 of a second.