Story By: ASHLEY KELLER / CHEVROLET – SPEEDWAY, IN – In what proved to be both stunning and chaotic, Josef Newgarden, driver of the No. 2 Shell Powering Progress Team Penske Chevrolet, took the checkered flag for his second Indianapolis 500 victory back-to-back, as well as Chevrolet’s 13th in race history.
After a four-hour rain-delayed start that saw the green flag drop late afternoon, the 200-lap event started chaotically, adding drama to the culmination of the month of May with many on-track incidents. Battling it out to the end, Newgarden, Pato O’Ward, driver of the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, and Alexander Rossi, driver of the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, put on a show for the fans, with Newgarden ultimately coming out on top to take the thriller of a victory.
“Congratulations to Josef and the No. 2 Penske team on winning back-to-back at the Indianapolis 500,” said Mark Reuss, President, General Motors. “What an incredible accomplishment. I’m so happy to see Roger get his 20th win here. Chevrolet engineering, our partners at Ilmor and race teams worked hard in the off-season to prepare for the 2024 Indy 500. They delivered power, speed and performance all month long.”
Newgarden’s repeat victory at Indianapolis is the first in 22 years, with Helio Castroneves racing to back-to-back victories last in 2001 and 2002.
“We just had an incredible car,” said Newgarden. “I got just a little out of position at lap 150; we were restarting eighth. I don’t think I got that sequencing correct. I really thought I went too soon, and then tried to back up and then put us in a hole. JD came over the radio and said you’re going to have to win this the old fashion way, I can’t help you. There’s not going to be stops, not going to fuel. So, I just went for it. I said alright, the car was good enough. You guys have done your job, let me drive to the front. They backed me the entire way. You can’t win this race without a great car. This is the best car in the field, I think, today. Hat’s off to the team.”
With Newgarden’s victory at Indianapolis, Chevrolet now has 114 in the V6 era since 2012, as well as 314 podium finishes.
The NTT INDYCAR SERIES next heads to General Motors’ hometown, racing on the Streets of Detroit in the Chevrolet Grand Prix of Detroit May 31-June 2 in the shadows of the Renaissance Center. Motoring around the 1.645-mile Motor City circuit, action airs live Sunday on USA Network at 12 p.m. ET. Additional coverage can be found on Peacock, INDYCAR Radio Network, and SiriusXM Channel 160.
TEAM CHEVY TOP-10 RACE RESULT:
Pos. Driver
1st Josef Newgarden
2nd Pato O’Ward
4th Alexander Rossi
6th Scott McLaughlin
8th Santino Ferrucci
9th Rinus VeeKay
10th Conor Daly
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING (QUOTES):
Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet:
“Real proud of the team today, solid effort all around. It’s been a far from perfect month of May. This was definitely one of the most difficult months of May I’ve had in my six years at this place with the least amount of track time. But we made history today with six top 10s in a row from my rookie start, we raised hopefully over $4 million for our charity Homes For Our Troops which is impressive and that means more than anything else. I think we look back on this month as a whole to understand how we could have been better, try and learn and come back next year to compete to win again. Our teammate Sting Ray did an incredible job leading the race, no easy feat especially in his second year. He looked good and did a helluva job to come up from where he did and nearly get in the top 15. It’s great momentum for the 41 car and all of the boys. They really needed that because they had a rocky start this year.”
Sting Ray Robb, No. 41 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet:
“I don’t know what to say about the day. I think that was the most fun I’ve had in a race car today on an oval. The team did such a good job on the stops. I went long on one but they kept it together. Great stops all day, great strategy. That last yellow, if it wasn’t for that I think we would have been fighting for the win. I’m so proud of these guys, I thought we were the car to beat out there. It feels so good. I’m so happy. Goodheart has been with us for five years – the first dog (referring to the No. 41 livery) to cross the start/finish line in the lead in the Indy 500 so huge thank you to them for sticking with us and getting the rewards for it. Pray.com was a new partner this year and we wouldn’t be here without them so I’m grateful that they’re a part of this I love our brands, our partners and I want more to join the ride so they can experience this with us. ”
Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet:
“I am proud of the work we did today. We recovered. We went back, we went forward, we went back. Some people were just driving like maniacs. We had so many near race-enders. Just so close again, so close. I put that car through things I never thought it was going to be able to do. Sometimes I said ‘Ah, that’s it.’ Somehow, I came out the other side of the corner. It is just so painful when you put so much into it and then you are two corners short. This place, it owes me nothing. I would have much rather finished the race rather than compared last year, but it’s always a heartbreak when you are so close, especially when it’s not the first time. You just don’t know how many opportunities you like that you have. You just have to do the same thing again, keep on getting better and see if we fall on the right side next time.”
Callum Ilott, No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet:
“What a tough afternoon. We suffered an early issue with the weight jacker, which set us back at the start. I then had to change the steering wheel in the pitstop before the race and do a reset of the car. We got going and worked our way into a good position, but unfortunately in the next yellow, I had to do an on-and-off reset, which lost me all the places I gained.
“We kept working hard and added front wing to the car to get the balance back. I came into the pits with a good strategy and got hit from behind, but I luckily managed to avoid other cars in pit lane. It got challenging at the end and there wasn’t much stacking up, but it’s not a bad effort for the No. 6 NTT DATA Arrow McLaren Chevrolet considering all the things we had to deal with today. I want to say thank you for all the support from the fans, partners and team this May. It’s been a pleasure to drive for Arrow McLaren.”
Alexander Rossi, No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet:
“It was a great effort by the whole team at Arrow McLaren throughout this month. It’s just really hard when you come away from this event thinking you wouldn’t have changed anything, and the result still isn’t there. Looking back, there’s nothing in this month that I would have done differently. The No. 7 VELO Arrow McLaren Chevrolet car was great, and when you can’t win with that, it’s tough.”
Kyle Larson, No. 17 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet:
“I would definitely love to be back next year. I feel like I learned a lot throughout the race. I made a couple mistakes early there with the restart. Not sure what I wrong did there but somehow got myself into third. I felt like I did a really good job on the restarts and learned a lot. Definitely feel good about knowing what I would need different for the balance when I come back to help runs and stuff. Then obviously I smoked the left front or something on a green flag stop and killed our opportunity. Proud to finish but pretty upset at myself. Just could have executed a better race. You never know what could happen. Bummed at myself, but huge thank you to Arrow McLaren, Hendrick Motorsports, Hendrick Automotive Group, Rick Hendrick, Chevrolet, Valvoline, everybody that’s a part of this. We’ll go hop on the jet and see if I can get into the 600 somehow.”
Ryan Hunter-Reay, No. 23 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing with Cusick Motorsports Chevrolet:
“It was unfortunate to get taken out there in a pretty unnecessary move. What I think was a pretty dirty move. Ultimately, Dixon, who we were running with ran up front at the end so potentially we could have been there for the fight at the end. We had a hard time at the beginning of the race with a big imbalance. From there, we just continued to add on the stops, front wing, make the balance better. But all in all, it was a tough day. We were up against it, unfortunately got taken out. This team has done a fantastic job, a top-12. I honestly know what I need in this car coming back next year and hope we have the chance to do that.”
Conor Daly, No. 24 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing with Cusick Motorsports Chevrolet:
“Honestly, I’m super pumped. Biggest mover, love to see that. Thankful for Polkadot and Chevrolet for working with us. We had some trials and tribulations over the last week and a half. We knew we were faster than where we started and we proved it. We got up front thanks to great strategy from Dennis and the boys. I love running at the front of this race. I love running with the true professionals up there. The McLaughlins of the world, the Josefs of the world, if we just make one move in the pit lane right at the end, we’re in a better spot. We were lacking maybe just a little bit of speed but that was the first time we ran with that group all month. We weren’t really sure what to expect. I think for what we had, for the amount of time together in this car, we have to be super proud of that. Another top-10 finish and for me here, that’s super cool.”
Dennis Reinbold, Team Owner of Dreyer & Reinbold Racing:
“We were in the mix all day long. It felt good to be up front for most of the running. Conor (Daly) did a great job. All the crew. Our pit stops were really, really strong all day, and that allowed us to go from where we started up to 10th. We were positioned to be even better than that at about three-fourths of this race. I thought we had a really good shot at winning. It just got tough at the end, and we shook out in a restart and got pushed back a little bit on track. It was tight racing. That’s what happens. It was difficult to get spots back at the end. Everyone was running kind of identical laps except for the lead two cars, it looked like. We have finished three of the four races here in the top-10 with the exception being 11th, so we do feel we come here to be able to win. We were definitely in the mix for that today. It was truly a team effort all day long. With the No. 24 car, we’re disappointed with what happened with Ryan (Hunter-Reay). He fell back a little bit, and then they were going to work on the car and be able to get him in the same spot, I think. He would have been right there vying for a top-10 at the end, so anything can happen at the end of this. The top-10 cars were very equal, and anything can happen. If we would have found ourselves cycling through on pit stops, to be in the top-two cars, we would have duked it out with whoever would’ve been up there with us in that group.”
Ed Carpenter, No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet:
“It was one of those days that at times I was happy with the car and sometimes wasn’t. We just weren’t good enough and behind on speed with all of our cars in comparison to what we have done in the past. The team did a great job all month. I am disappointed in our result. There are things that we could have done better today across the board. It just wasn’t our day and sometimes that just happens. After 21 years, I would much prefer a different outcome. Christian (Rasmussen) did a really nice job.
Rinus VeeKay, No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet:
“Today was tough and a long race. Compared to year’s past, I struggled to stack up and make passes like other guys were doing. I was trying hard to. We did receive a penalty that doesn’t fully make sense, but we drove back through the field and were leading at one point. We maximized everything today and it was sketchy out there. We could have finished a few positions higher, but if that means washing out towards the wall and losing momentum, I wouldn’t be mad at that. I tried everything I could and was as aggressive as I could. My mindset before the race was try everything I could and I really think we did that. I am happy and it is a solid result. The No. 21 team had great pitstops today and I am really proud of their effort this month.”
Christian Rasmussen, No. 33 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet:
“Today was amazing. The car was on rails. I felt so comfortable right away running in traffic and doing everything I needed to do. Moving up to 12th from starting 24th was pretty good. I hung back when I needed to and made moves when I needed to. We had a damn strong finish today.”
Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet:
“I just gave it my all, all month. It’s just emotionally draining. Unfortunately, that’s my best run and I’m upset about it obviously. You’re a competitor. But Team Penske won and that’s the main thing. Congrats to Josef (Newgarden) and his No. 2 team. Great for Shell, great for Pennzoil. This place just kicks your butt and you’ve got to come back stronger next year.”
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, and Jonathan Diuguid of Team Penske – Winner’s Press Conference:
THE MODERATOR: Wrapping up the 108th running of the Indianapolis 500 with the winning driver and strategist, as well.
Just a couple of deep dives on what happened today. There were 649 on-track passes for the Indy 500, most since 2017. 16 leaders, 49 lead changes. Josef Newgarden led 26 of the 200 laps, of course driver of the No. 2 Shell Powering Progress Team Penske Chevrolet; now a two-time Indianapolis 500 champion, back-to-back for the first time since Helio Castroneves did it back in 2001 and 2002.
And obviously for Team Penske it is a record-setting 20th win in the 500. Josef joins us, as does the strategist in Jonathan Diuguid, who joined Team Penske back in 2007. He’s worked on the INDYCAR programs IMSA, ALMS programs, as well, and now gets to boast that he’s an Indy 500 winner, as well.
Congratulations to both.
Josef, I don’t know if you’ve had time to stop and think about what happened today, the 12 hours of Indy, but I’m guessing you’re glad the race happened today.
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I’m so throttled, you have no idea. I don’t know that I’m going to be very articulate right now in this moment.
But I’m appreciative of this team. This team earned this win the entire month. They’ve earned it the entire year. You have no idea how much effort has gone into this. It’s every individual. That is that Indy exemplifies. It exemplifies the team.
And to show it in qualifying, to show it in the race is a proud moment for everybody. I’m thankful Jonathan was here. I missed Tim, I missed Luke, but I was just as happy to have Jonathan and Raul. It was different but they’re just as good.
This team just has no shortage of excellence across the board. I would step into any one of these cars thankfully. You don’t have to be on one program. They’re all great. I think they all contributed to this win, so it was a big team day. Really just appreciative.
I enjoyed driving today. That’s how I started this year. That’s what I wanted to get back to, and very, very gratifying race to go through with this group.
Q. The pass outside of Turn 3, your thoughts as you look back at that?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, hard to know if it’s going to work. I don’t think it works unless you’re racing someone like Pato. It’s not that Pato didn’t race me hard, he just raced me clean. That move doesn’t work unless you’re racing someone like that. It just doesn’t. It’s very easy that that doesn’t work out.
So I think he’s a tremendous champion. He could have easily won the race himself. He was very capable of that with his team. For us, it worked out. He drove me excellently. I’m very thankful for him and the way that he drove.
From our side, we left it all on the track. There was nothing that we were going to come home and regret. I definitely felt that way in the final. I’m like, we’re going to put it all on the line. You have to if you want to win Indy. That’s just the way it’s got to be, especially nowadays.
It was enough. Our car was so fast, and it was pretty good. It was a little hairy at the end as far as the trickiness, but we had it all day as far as the commitment and the car and the team, and we laid it all out there in Turn 3.
Q. Jonathan, for you, heck of a weekend, Pit Stop Challenge and then the win here today. How did this happen? Rate this.
JONATHAN DIUGUID: Yeah, like Josef said, to be able to come in — and this isn’t my full-time job, as they say, to be able to come in and represent the team and the amount of work that went into showing up the way we showed up here. I think I’ve done Indy probably over 15 times, and this is the smoothest, easiest weekend as far as preparation. We showed and cars were fast out of the box, and when you’re in a situation like that you can start to focus on the details.
Like Josef mentioned, the details are what got it done today. I was talking to Raul after the race and I said — turned to him and said, Raul, I don’t think we made any mistakes today. Might have made 50/50 decision one way or the other, but there was no mistakes, and that’s what it takes to be in a position like we were at the end.
I think on the final restart there was an alternate strategy that came into play and we were cycled back in line. I think I said to Josef, you’re going to have to do it the old fashioned way. Can’t really help you out anymore. The old fashioned way is passing on track, and that’s what we did, and there were some amazing restarts in addition to the pass on the outside of Turn 3 that everyone on the timing stand timing stopped looking at the television screens because we didn’t know if we were going to come out the other side.
I think the confidence that Josef had in the car allows him to do that. And like he said, it was an excellent it day on pit road. And with the help of Kevin and Mark the technician and Mustafa and the all guys. The preparation level for the race and the execution was second to none.
Q. For as disjointed as last year’s finish was with the red flags, this year really more than made up for that because it was just a straight-up fight all the way to the end. How satisfied are you to be able to win it like that?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I thought they were both incredibly satisfying. That is what I would say. Very different races, but both hard fought and deserved as far as for our team and the effort that was put in, the car that was on track, the execution. I feel very similar about them.
Today was another excellent statement of that. Just to echo Jonathan again, it’s every little detail piece has to — you can’t win this race on a whim. It rarely happens that way. There’s no guarantees when you show up you’re on the grid today and it’s about getting every little detail right.
We didn’t make mistakes today. We didn’t make mistakes last year. I think the team deserved both of them. Really, really proud to be a part of it. You have no idea. I had so much fun working with this team. They did a great job.
Q. 20th Indy 500 win for Roger and once again you get your 30th victory. You get to celebrate that twice. How important are those numbers to you?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: They’re very important. I think they’re important to Roger. It’s one of the things that I love about him is his vision to always be moving forward. I think some people, maybe it doesn’t work for them, but you don’t have the success and the integrity of someone like Roger Penske without that vision.
I have seen it personally over the last eight years. I have a tremendous amount of respect for him, and the numbers matter. I know how bad he wanted 20, and I can tell you I really wanted the second one, and this entire group wanted to win today.
I think they deserved to win today, and they care about winning these races. You have to. Why do we show up if we don’t care about it? We care tremendously.
It means a lot, and glad to get back there.
Q. You were already going to win over $3 million with the victory, but the $440,000 from Borg-Warner, that’s a nice bonus. Just to be able to have that and more importantly the accomplishment of going back-to-back.
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Well, everybody on this team deserves a big bonus after today. Not even today, this month. Wow. I mean, I’m telling you, it’s not — this Indy, you can see the highs and lows of it so easily. You go up and you go down, and we’ve been down on the speed aspect the last four years and we’ve been fighting our way back as a group together.
Everybody has earned this one today, all year. It took a long time to get to this point. Yeah, it’s cool.
Q. Your celebration was identical to last year. In that moment emotionally, how was it similar to last year and how did it feel different?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Oh, so similar. I genuinely mean that. It was very similar. You don’t know that you’re ever going to win this race. Of course you could dream about it. How could you not?
I’ve dreamed about winning this race for years, but you never know you’re going to win it until you’re winning it, and that’s right before the line that you know you’re winning it.
It’s very spur of the moment, and I just wanted to get back to what we did last year and celebrating with this group so quickly was very gratifying.
Q. What was your strategy for navigating the delay? I think everybody expected there would be one but didn’t know where it would fall. Did you rest? Did you take a nap or anything like that?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, it was pretty straight — I’ll let Jonathan answer this one because it’s pretty straightforward from my side. I actually didn’t really talk to these guys much, so I would be interested to hear his perspective on what the team was doing.
But I was pretty low key. I was just waiting basically for Jonathan to text me to say, hey, we’re about to go.
JONATHAN DIUGUID: Yeah, because the name of the text group was Indy 500 Domination, right? So we did have a text group, but started on that. To be honest the communication about the weather delay was pretty clear, and they had a hard and fast line in the sand for time-wise. We knew there was plenty of time to get a full-distance race in, so we just executed the race plan that we had talked about on Saturday.
Q. Is anything different when you’re racing here later in the day? That’s a lot later than you guys would normally have the car out there, whether it’s temperature, whether it’s shadows and light, whatever it was; did anything feel different?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, definitely. Conditions are drastically different. We were talking all day, Jonathan and I, about it. He was keeping me up to date on track temp and ambient, and it really started to change the last 50 laps. It stayed pretty I would say stable up to that point, at least from my side, and then I could really tell a difference 50 to go.
It started rapidly cooling, mostly the track itself, and that brought a different balance. It actually brought a trickier balance to drive and I think just helped everybody gain a lot more grip.
It just made the battle even more fierce at the end because no one is really fading within a tire run. Everyone is just able to push flat out and stay pretty close.
So that’s a difference to what a full daytime hot race would be.
Q. Josef, when they handed you the bottle of milk, you took a couple of big swigs and then you reached for the phone, you FaceTimed someone, used some expletives. Who were you talking to there?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: That was Luke Mason on the phone. Someone gave me that and I saw him on there. It was good to see him.
Q. On that late last lap pass when Pato got around you going into 1, you come out of 2 being able to follow him closely to make that run into 3. Was that a byproduct of the cooler track temperature or were you able to — when did you notice you could follow that closely earlier in the race?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I did. I think we had that confidence for most of the month. It’s a byproduct of an excellent race car.
I mean, look, I’m not going to take credit for being able to follow that closely. If the car can’t do it, it can’t do it. In oval racing you can’t force these things. It’s very much a team aspect.
That’s why I say I think Indy magnifies that more than anywhere else we go. You have to have the race car just dialed perfectly to be able to do that stuff.
It has been really fun to drive all month. To Jonathan’s point, it’s been pretty simple. We’ve not really stepped outside of our box much. It was really well orchestrated and we just tried to hit our points and execute well. That was a byproduct of a great car.
Q. If you get the chance to talk to Pato, because obviously he’s kind of going through some things being runner-up here a few times, going through his own drought, if you will, like what you endured, what do you tell him?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I would echo what I already said. He’s a champion. He’s one of the best competitors we have in this field. He’s a really nice guy. Every time I talk to Pato we have great conversations, and I think we have a lot of respect for each other.
I’m appreciative for the way that he drives. He drove like a champion in this race and he’s just as deserving of a winner in my opinion. He definitely could have won this race. It’s tough to not win it. I can’t say anything to ease that for him. When you don’t win, it hurts.
I’ve left here 11 times prior with a broken heart, so I know the feeling. Whether you’re close or you’re far, it’s a broken heart. I can’t ease that.
But he’s a champion. I think he knows it. I definitely have a lot of respect for him.
Q. Today Larson was up front until he had issues on pit road speeding. What was it like for you running around him? Did you notice him at all? He said he wants to come back and do this again. What are your thoughts on that?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I think he should. He’s a great driver. He’s been a joy to have here this weekend. He’s been great to talk to and work with as far as on track. I didn’t see him much today. At least I didn’t feel like I did.
There was alternate strategies going on, as Jonathan talked about, and I think he was in a different spot to us. I’m not surprised he wants to come back. I think it speaks volumes for the Indy 500 that he stayed.
It just shows the significance of this event, and I’m not surprised he wants to come back. I think it’s great for the sport.
Q. We’ve talked a bunch over the last 365 days; you’re hungrier to come back this year to win again. You can go for three in a row next year. This is a busy week coming up for you. What is something you want to make sure you do that maybe you didn’t get a chance to last year when you went to the victory week celebration, obviously going to New York? And then your cool-down lap seemed like you were still flying out there. Was that just an excitement level to get to and back into the stands?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, it was a blur. It was so intense the last 30 laps that it was difficult to just shut that off. It was flat out. Like no one was lifting or giving anything up. I felt like I was wrecking half the time, and it looked like others were kind of the same way. It was just full on.
When I crossed the line, just shut the engines off; you’re still in full out mode. I think that’s what you saw there. I just tried to process it very quickly, which is difficult to do in a minute, trying to get back to the start-finish line.
Q. This week is obviously going to be a busy one. You turn around and go to Detroit and you’ve got media obligations. What’s something you learned last year that you’ll take in a little bit more?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I’m just going to try and be more measured with — it’s very tough. It sets you back from a commitment standpoint. You’ve got to go so many places. I’m someone that really needs personal time. I value that tremendously. I can’t be in front of a lot of people for too long, and unfortunately that’s like a big part of the job, especially if you win this race.
I’m going to try and honor my commitments and do a great job for the series and for this event, but I definitely need to measure it more than last year and find some time to get back into the season rhythm.
Q. Josef, where does this one rank for you? Pato came in here and so did Scott talking about how they made moves during the race that could have put them in the wall or spun out. This race from a viewer’s perspective was thrilling and exciting and you come out on top. Does this rank higher than any of your other wins you’ve had?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Have you won this before?
JONATHAN DIUGUID: No.
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I didn’t know that. I thought Jonathan had one. I want him to answer this, too. It’s very special. I’ll repeat: it was tough not having my normal reality here this weekend, but I was just as excited to have Jonathan and Raul.
I think very highly of these two individuals, and I’ve seen them at various points in my career where I thought, hmm, maybe I’ll have an opportunity to work with them full time on the INDYCAR side and it didn’t work out. We’ve all gone on different career paths.
So it ranks — the circumstances, the camaraderie, the time that we got to spend together out of chance, this wasn’t supposed to happen and we got this opportunity out of chance, and to be able to pull it off together, it ranks very, very high for me. Very high. I don’t know that I want to put it first on the list, but it seems like it probably would be first. It’s really, really cool.
Think it’s a good question for Jonathan, too. I didn’t realize he hadn’t won it. It is right up there.
JONATHAN DIUGUID: Like Josef said, I’ve finished second a couple times with Helio when I was his engineer there. I know being so close and not being able to come over the finish line, so to be able to be a part of this group and represent a lot of hard work from other people, I feel a little bit guilty in the sense that I kind of showed up and everything was going smoothly and got the opportunity to be here.
But that’s what it’s like to be part of Team Penske. The opportunities exist on many fronts, and I think being able to be part of this today is definitely a high point in my career and look forward to more.
Q. Earlier this month Roger Penske got his sports car victory out in Monterrey and you were on top of the timing stand for that. Today you get Mr. Penske his 20th Indy 500 win. Those are two pretty special accomplishments that you’re involved in. How do you put that into perspective?
JONATHAN DIUGUID: I think this year is probably going to go down as a dream year. This group also was part of the Daytona 24-hour win.
I talked a little about feeling guilty, and I think Josef said the same thing after the Daytona 24 hours. He kind of rocked up and we got the first win after many, many decades.
I think the biggest thing today we talked about in the race was qualifying on the front row. We could be on offense all day and I think that’s what we were. We were on offense for the last 60 laps.
Josef did a good job saving fuel. We made strategy decisions to be in a good spot to be able to push hard for the last 60 laps, and I think that’s what Josef talked about being worn out and tired he end of the race because it was flat out, no fuel saving and big push there.
Q. Josef, a couple of times you win races, Mr. Penske has brought you ice cream, things like that at Texas. What did he say to you today? What was that moment like?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: He was the same RP. He’s not changed. He was just — look, he was happy for the group. When Roger sees everybody execute, there’s nothing that makes him happier because that’s what we preach. We try and work together as a team.
It is one team. He genuinely does it not care which car wins the race, and I think oddly enough that is how a lot of individuals feel. Of course selfishly we want to win for each car, but when Roger sees us execute as a team and a car win the race and to do it through execution, he’s very proud.
Like I said, I’m going to tell you, he’s going to be on to No. 21 now. Everybody thought he wants 20 and that’s his number, but like he’s going to be, okay, how do we get to 21. He might even say something silly like we got to get to 25 or something.
I just love it. I love his mentality. We’re always moving forward, and that’s what I felt today.
Q. Do you expect his parking space will be changed by the end of the night?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It’s probably already changed.
THE MODERATOR: I believe it has changed already, yeah.
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I’d be surprised if it’s not.
Q. I remember you said on media day that you have the plan that you must be in the first position or the second one in order to win the race. How did you plan this part of the race? Jonathan said you already had something in strategy because you know the draft and all this kind of thing.
JONATHAN DIUGUID: Yeah, I think obviously this race is run for over 100 years so you can look back at history on where people needed to be to be in a position to win the race. And like I said, with qualifying on the front row, we sort of controlled our own destiny all day.
We had conversations in the strategy meeting of from lap 0 to 100, we’re okay with dropping back to seventh or eighth to save fuel and hit these targets. As we get close to the end of the race we want to be in the top 3 because that’s the only way you don’t, A, get caught up in somebody else’s mess or control your own destiny, like Josef said.
I think with 40 laps to go, we were in the group there, and I think that the communication is now it’s time to do your homework. What I meant by that was learn how to pass, learn how to get the runs, learn how to manage the draft, and learn how to manage the fuel, because it’s all going to all-out blast for the last 15 laps, which is what happened.
It takes all the learning from not just this race but previous races to be able to apply that and execute. Restarts like Josef had on the last restart, I think it was three wide into Turn 1, which never really ends up very well, but in that case I think we picked up four spots and put us back into contention, and then the pass on the last lap in Turn 3 there.
Just being at the front all day is really important because that’s what it’s going to come down to, and that’s what our focus was.
Q. What lesson did you learn from the St. Pete race that will help you through the year?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Hmm, lessons. In an odd way, I think it’s a very — I’m grateful for the experience. I think it’s good. It’s been a very illuminating experience to me, more from the outside world.
I know what I take from that personally. I know what it showed me, which I’m thankful for. I think it shows you things that maybe weren’t fully clear but are very clear now.
I think it’s an experience that it’s got to either break you or tough you up, and for me, that’s all I’ll say about it. We’ve been moving forward. We’ve never worked together more as a group than this weekend, and I thought that was difficult to do.
This is the most tight-knit team I’ve ever seen. It’s been a pleasure to be a part of it because it’s such a well-conjoined group. Everybody works so well together. It’s fun to show up here. It’s fun to go to work.
I’ve never had it better than this month. Excited to go forward. We’ve had a really good time this month.
Q. 30 years ago Al Unser, Jr., made the statement that in the final laps of a race when you’re contending, et cetera, the only thing in his mind that mattered was winning, trying to figure out a way to win. That doesn’t mean necessarily be reckless but put it out there, hang it out on the line. When did you notice coming up that you had that ability and did you feel that today of whatever it took?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yes, definitely. I thought I misstepped a little bit. The team with me was really, really in step with what was going on and giving me all the right information. And then it comes down to trying to make the right moves at the right time, and I think I misstepped a little bit to be honest after probably lap 130, 140, and then there was a little bit of a recovery mode to that.
Two parts to the question is when we showed up we felt like we had a race-winning car. It was very evident I think to all of us. It was evident to me and I think the team could see it, and we were trying to put the pieces together correctly and not misstep, and then in the race it was the exact same deal.
I radioed in that this is the car. We’re not going to lose this race because of the car. We’re going to lose it if we don’t do the job correctly, and everybody did the job correctly today, and I think that’s why it was pulled off.
Q. When you’re watching him do it out there on the track, it’s in his hands the last 20 or so laps, what is that like and what does that tell you about him one more time what he’s made of?
JONATHAN DIUGUID: Yeah, I think I said something in the timing stand, this is the fun part because we can just sit back and be race fans and watch, and to sort of see what happened for those last 20 laps was amazing. The crowd that was here today, to get to see the moves that were happening in Turn 1 on the restarts and then in the last lap, it’s definitely going to be an iconic race and one that’ll be replayed many times because it was nonstop action. There’s a high stress level and everything, but we did our last pit stop, we had enough fuel to push flat out the whole time, so to be honest, we were just race fans at that point and just feeding the information that Josef needed about what was happening around him and then just watching him go to work.
Q. There’s the Borg-Warner bonus that you now know about. This is the first back-to-back since Helio did it some 22 years ago. Your thoughts on how rare a feat like that is and how special that is.
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: You know, someone had to reset the bank, and I guess we did. But no, it was great.
I’ve said this a couple times before I got up here, but I had let go of the thought of winning this race last year. It’s so difficult to win. There is no guarantees. It doesn’t matter how good you are or how well you execute. It does not guarantee a victory at Indianapolis ever.
Last year I really started focusing on just the opportunity and saying, you know, this is so fun that we get to show up here and we’ve got great cars, we’ve got a great crew, and we have an opportunity to win the race. I know we did. I know we did last year, and I definitely know we did this year. I focused on that. I said if we win it, that’s great, but it’s the opportunity that’s the joy of it.
I say that because it is very difficult to win the race. It’s very difficult to win it back-to-back. I’m over the moon. I’ve got no words for what we’ve been able to do. I’m really proud of this team. They deserve it.
PATO O’WARD, NO. 5 ARROW MCLAREN CHEVROLET – Post-Race Press Conference:
THE MODERATOR: Joined now by Pato O’Ward who led 11 of the 200 laps this afternoon and early this evening, driver of the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, second runner-up finish in the Indy 500, second podium of the season, 22nd of his young NTT INDYCAR Series career.
You’ve kind of had a chance to think about things a little bit. What are your thoughts on the runner-up finish in the Indy 500?
PATO O’WARD: Yeah, first of all, very proud of what Arrow McLaren did for not just me, but for everybody within the team. I think I can speak on behalf of Kyle, Alex, Callum. They gave us the tools to fight. They gave us the tools to be there.
As for my race, it was just such a stressful race. We were up and down, up and down. The car definitely wasn’t the easiest to drive at certain moments.
I just tried to keep peace as much of the race as I could. I feel like I did. Really prepared to open the doors to ultimately have a chance to win at the end of this, and yeah, it’s just heartbreaking. Two corners short.
I’m glad that we finished the race. Congratulations to Josef, two in a row. But yeah, I put that car in certain points where I didn’t know if I was going to come out the other end and in one piece because I just want to win this race so freaking bad. It owes me nothing, so every time we come back, there’s always a smile on my face to have another opportunity.
Q. Do you mind talking us through the pass that Josef made in Turn 3.
PATO O’WARD: Yeah, I think Josef is a great competitor. I’ve raced wheel to wheel with him so many times. He’s obviously one of the stars in the series, one of the strong ones. I knew it was going to be a fight until the end. Just two corners short.
I really thought that I did everything in my power to get it done.
Q. Are you okay? I’ve never really seen you react the way that you have reacted today.
PATO O’WARD: Yeah. I’m fine. It’s been a tough month. So much goes into this race. I think I’m somebody that wears my heart on my sleeve. I don’t really hide anything.
It’s just when you’ve come so close and it just doesn’t seem to — you just can’t seem to get it right, it’s just a lot of emotion I would say.
Q. Will you go back and watch the last lap and look for something you could have done different?
PATO O’WARD: No, I don’t think you can control that. I think in a way I’ve cracked a code and I know how to position myself to win this race. I know I can win this race, and I know that I know how to also protect a good result when maybe the win isn’t in the cards for me.
But yeah, just in a race like that where it was a constant emotional roller coaster where things — things that weren’t going perfectly smooth, they really weren’t, but I think the team did a fantastic job, gave me an opportunity and called a really good strategy to then get ourselves back to the front and made a very strong overcut which ultimately put us into contention there in the end.
And then just trying to get into the top two cars the last few laps was like — it’s so hard to do with these cars. You’re just stuck there, and you have to risk so much.
I think on both fronts, on Scott and Alex, I was like probably higher probability of shunting the car than getting back in one piece. But that’s what you have to do, I guess. Today we’re second.
Q. Does that make it that much harder because you put yourself in those situations, and will that fuel you? Are you already thinking about that fueling you moving forward?
PATO O’WARD: Every 500 for me has been very different. There’s been some that I’ve led a lot more and been up front a lot more. This one we were stuck a lot more. Some people were driving like maniacs on the restarts. I was just playing defense for 85 percent of the race. Some of the moves out there were just mental, stupid. I was just glad that I didn’t touch anybody, I didn’t crash.
I know how to make my way up in this place. All I needed to do was keep my car clean and for yellows to stop coming out because then you can’t do anything. Where it gets good is when we can start getting creating with overcuts, undercuts and all that jazz.
Glad I was able to do that, and yeah, made our way with I think one exchange it was. Just come back next year and go at it again.
Q. You mentioned that history with Josef. I think by my count this is the eighth time you guys have been 1-2 and he’s got six victories. Does that make it sting a little bit more? Does that go through your head a little bit that it’s him?
PATO O’WARD: No. I was glad that I was racing somebody that I can trust and somebody that I think is a fantastic competitor. He’s on a fantastic team.
For us, I think it’s a privilege to really make them sweat. I think we certainly did today.
Like I said, a couple seconds short.
Q. You mentioned that roller coaster of emotions today. Was it like that for these two weeks because it seemed like Monday you didn’t feel like you were in the ballpark at all and you didn’t know if the team was going to be able to fix it?
PATO O’WARD: No. It’s been a tough month. Monday we were definitely struggling a lot; Friday my car came alive. During the week — I’m getting out of the flu. I had fever for five nights straight. I wasn’t sleeping. It’s been a ride.
But I felt good enough today to — I guess almost get the job done.
Q. Obviously nobody can control the weather, but what was your strategy for dealing with that delay and the uncertainty around knowing exactly when the window was going to open up and even maybe dealing with the track at a later point in the day than you’re used to being on it?
PATO O’WARD: I thought it was cool. It was like sunset Indy 500. It was pretty badass. I don’t mind it. I think a night race here would actually be so sick. I don’t think it’s going to happen ever, though.
Q. I was talking to just the team and Rossi after. Everybody is emotional, but everybody on the Arrow McLaren team is giving credit to each other. You even did at the start when you were talking. How do you build the camaraderie that you guys have in the entire team?
PATO O’WARD: We do no good to each other by not helping each other. It’s important to know that if your teammates are up there, that’s a good thing. It’s a good thing. I was very happy to see that I had two of them up there. Before the race, Alex just came out, and he’s like, I’ll see you there soon, because he knew that I was going to be in the mix.
It’s cool to do it with people that you trust and people that you get to work with day in and day out, and at the end of the day if it was him winning this race, if it was me winning this race, I think we could see we would have been really happy for each other because I know how much work we’ve all put into just making the team take that step into where we want to be.
Yeah, I’ve really enjoyed the month with my teammates and with my engineer, my performance engineer, all the team bosses. It was a very strong result as a team today for us, and yeah, obviously it stings that it’s that close.
Q. You’ve talked a lot about your emotions already today, but as soon as you got out of the pit today, I saw you kind of bury your head in your helmet on the hood of your car. What was going through your mind at that moment?
PATO O’WARD: It’s just very wet in there. I didn’t want to take it off just yet. Just wanted to calm down a little bit.
Q. When does the pain go away and get replaced by the pride of what you were able to do?
PATO O’WARD: I think in a few hours. I feel very proud of what I did today. I really do. It’s just after all that work and all those — just very risky kind of choices that I had to make in order to put myself in that position, it’s just like, oh, it just stings to not be able to just finish it. But it is what it is.
I know we’ll be there next year.
Q. When you made the pass for the lead, the crowd reaction was a lot more enthusiastic than the ultimate pass for the victory. To know there was that many people out of a crowd of 340,000 fans that would rather have seen you win, how does that make you feel?
PATO O’WARD: Everybody here, the INDYCAR community, all the INDYCAR fans, people from Indianapolis have really made it feel like home here to me. I’m so thankful for that. I’m so grateful for that.
At the end of the day, I hope I put smiles on kids’ faces and people that were here out to support us. I hope that they go home tonight happy with the show that we gave them because I feel like it was definitely not a boring race.
We had to fight for our result today harder than I’ve ever had to fight for it, and I think that’s why it’s just that much more emotional, because I put everything into today.
Q. How much fun has the last month been working with Kyle Larson?
PATO O’WARD: It’s been fantastic, but the guy has been so busy. He hasn’t even been part of the engineering meetings for like 80 percent of the time. But I think he’ll be back next year. They haven’t said anything, but I think it would be fantastic to have him back. I think he did a phenomenal job.
I didn’t see quite where he finished, but when I was playing around with him out there, playing in traffic, I think he did a phenomenal job.
Q. I saw you had this amazing double save in Turn 2. I don’t know if you remember exactly —
PATO O’WARD: I remember. It wasn’t the only one. I don’t know if they televised the other ones.
Q. Talk to me about what happened there and how you dealt with that.
PATO O’WARD: Man, if there was one time where I had to put so much trust in my skill, it was today. Like I said, there were so many where I was like, I don’t know if this is going to work out.
I was so loose, so, so, so loose. It was just wiggling so much, moving around a lot. There were so many moments like that where I knew what to expect, but sometimes you just never know when it’s going to kind of want to bite.
That’s just what makes it so much more like, oh. Right? I risked so much today to put myself in contention to win this race, but that’s what you have to do whenever you’re stuck in line like that. That’s why if not you’re just stuck, no one passes.
I did it when it counted, and yeah, there were — probably the most crazy 500 that I’ve had for sure just in terms of like issues that I was having within my car. So many moments.
Q. You mentioned how highly you rate Josef. Can you take any solace in knowing how long it took him to win a 500, and it’s taken some really fantastic drivers along the years a long time to win this race?
PATO O’WARD: I think everybody’s path is different. I don’t quite think — some guys obviously get it done very early on and then never again, and some guys take a long time and get it. But I don’t think any of these guys have been basically in contention five years in a row and not gotten the win. That’s what I’m going through.
I think probably the closest one that’s been through that is probably Helio. I know he has four, but he’s been second a lot of times. So I think it’s a good thing that I’m finishing second. Maybe I get a couple in a row in the future. I don’t know. Maybe I don’t get any.
This place, like I said, it doesn’t owe me anything. It’s just very cool to be a part of this event.