Joseph Newgarden wins the Indy 500 for the first time in his career

Two major events in motorsport took place today: a few hours after the finish of the Monaco Grand Prix across the Atlantic Ocean, the legendary Indy 500 race got underway for the 107th time.

She passed according to a very bizarre scenario, was interrupted several times not only by yellow, but even by red flags, closer to the finish, one after another, accidents happened, including literally three laps before the end. And when it looked like victory would go to Markus Erikson for the second year in a row, the Swedish racer’s luck turned.

In 2023, the Indy 500 was won for the first time in his career by Joseph Newgarden, who literally managed to lead Erickson on the last lap. The two-time IndyCar champion was long unable to conquer the “old brick maker” as the oval race track in Indianapolis has long been called, but today it was he, the 32-year-old American, who plays for Team Penske, who became the victor.

In addition, many other racers managed to be among the contenders for victory over the entire distance, and Newgarden was not even the main favorite, but in the end the traditional bottle of milk, as well as a check for $ 3 million, went to him.

After the finish, Joseph couldn’t hold back his tears and couldn’t hide his emotions: “I love the city of Indianapolis, I’ve loved the IndyCar series since my childhood and I’m very grateful to the entire Penske team. I wanted so badly to win the Indy 500 and I knew we could do it. The last ten laps I was overwhelmed with emotions, I understood that it would be difficult to win and everything would depend on the sprint in the very last lap.

It’s a lot of stress because we’ve worked so long and hard for this one moment, so we get so upset when we fail to win. But today we are finally going to celebrate success and actually do it, I promise you!”