Breaking It Down: How Newgarden passed Ericsson on last lap to win Indy 500

It was one of the most aggressive and risky passes of Newgarden's career, but was there a choice? After all, this was the Indy 500!

In the final lap of Sunday's Indianapolis 500, Josef Newgarden literally made the push to pass defending race winner Marcus Ericsson with about a half-track distance left to grab one of the closest (fourth-closest in 500 history) and exciting finishes in Brickyard annals.

For the Henderson, Tenn. native and Team Penske driver, it was his first career victory in the biggest race in the world and at the most famous racetrack in the world, as well, taking the checkered flag on his 12th try at the prestigious win, his previous best being third-place in 2016 with Ed Carpenter Racing, a year before he joined Team Penske.

But Newgarden's win wasn't easy by any stretch. He made one of the most aggressive and risky moves of his career when he overtook Ericsson on the final lap. One mistake and we'd have had a whole other winner and Newgarden would likely have continued to lament about yet another Indy 500 that got away from him.

A noted basketball fan, Newgarden essentially juked Ericsson at the right place and at the right time, with about a half-lap left. One of the most difficult things in IndyCar racing, particularly on ovals like Indianapolis Motor Speedway, is when a leader has to worry about who's chasing him.

It's a much more ideal situation to be the hunter rather than the hunted, and that's exactly what Newgarden was Sunday. He stalked Ericsson, capitalized on his weakness, made a risky but albeit still calculated move, and drove on to victory.

"When a race like the Indy 500 is on the line, you put it all on the line," Newgarden said. "There's no holding back."

This win is not only a big one for Newgarden, truly cementing him as one of the all-time greats in the sport, but it is also another major win for team owner Roger Penske, grabbing the team’s first win at the track since former Penske driver Simon Pagenaud did it back in 2019.

It also marks the 19th victory in Team Penske history, far ahead of Andretti Autosport, which holds 13 fewer victories than Penske in the 500 -- although ironically all of Andretti's wins at Indy have come as a team owner, but never when he was a driver.

Beyond the race winner, Newgarden, there were some interesting storylines of note that truly capped what was a fascinating and entertaining 2023 Indy 500:

* Ferruci has career-best third-place finish

After nearly two decades of very lean results at the track that made the team patriarch famous and wealthy -- including being the first of four drivers to win four Indy 500s -- AJ Foyt Racing (AJFR) may be back.

While they never left physically, this was a career performance for driver Santino Ferruci, and a resurgence race for AJFR, which came into this race 15th on the season.

For Ferruci, in five career starts at Indy, this was the best career finish he has had at IMS in his career, in addition to four other top-10 finishes. But beyond the statistical performance came the show he put on on the track, making sound passes toward the front of the field on Marcus Ericsson as they battled for the lead towards the tail end of the race.

Although a third-place finish in the Indy 500 may not be the finish that Ferruci and Foyt wanted, it is a positive push in the right direction in terms of momentum heading into the rest of the year.

There's no question that AJ Foyt Racing is one of the more storied teams in IndyCar racing, led by its iconic patriarch. To see a potential return to success after so many years of disappointment is truly hopeful and inspiring -- provided Ferrucci can continue showing the same kind of progress at the other 11 races still remaining on this year's IndyCar schedule.

He has a great deal of talent and definitely being a bright star on the rise is good for everyone around.

* The Battle for Supremacy

Going into this year’s race, the unknowns of what could take place were there.

People may say that it goes for every race, but with strategy being as big a factor as ever before for this year’s Indy 500, there was an unexpected sort of feeling toward this race.

That factor in this year’s race showed.

For the 500, no driver had the upper hand throughout the entirety of the race.

Some of the fast drivers coming into the weekend, such as Alex Palou, Pato O'Ward and Felix Rosenqvist all were involved in some form of contact during the course of the race, including the scary crash that happened with less than 20 laps to go between Rosenqvist and Kyle Kirkwood.

If he only had a couple more inches, Kirkwood may have been able to avoid the spinning Rosenqvist, who had no control over his car when it hit the wall and broke a control arm in the suspension, leaving him literally a sitting duck in the middle of the frontstretch.

Kirkwood tried his best to avoid Rosenqvist but couldn't. And that's when it got real scary.

Kirkwood's left rear wheel made contact with Rosenqvist's car, tearing off and going flying. In turn, Kirkwood plowed hard into the wall and flipped, riding around much of the Turn 2 circumference upside-down, coming to rest in the same position, leaving him hanging upside down and at the mercy of physics.

Thankfully, members of the AMR Safety Team were on the scene within seconds and were able to manually slowly and safely turn the car back upright and, near-miraculously, Kirkwood climbed out of the mangled wreck under his own power, walked to a waiting ambulance and waved to the appreciative crowd, knowing he was okay.

But let's get back to the race: to put it into perspective, there were 14 different leaders throughout the event with six of the leaders leading more than 10 laps in the race. However, it was a driver in Newgarden that was able to grab the victory by only leading 5 laps total.

With that said, there was a lot of clean passing throughout the entirety of the race, especially for Rinus VeeKay early, who was battling with Alex Palou for the early lead in the race (although the pair did make contact in a pit road incident that definitely impacted both of their ability to come back for a win (although Palou got the better end of that outcome by finishing fourth).

This race showed that in a race, speed doesn’t play a factor, but the mental and planning strategies of a driver play a huge part in the outcome of the day.

But at the same time, how does any team strategist plan for the chaos that filled Sunday's race?

* Rookie Mistake

Although many had high hopes for strong finishes from at least some of them, this year's four-driver rookie class did not prevail.

While there were some exciting Indy rookie storylines heading into the weekend, including underdog RC Enerson making the cut with an Abel Motorsports team that was making its first-ever NTT Indycar Series start, the rookies did not have the best of luck in the weekend, as the track won most of the battles.

Not one of the rookies in this year's edition of the 500 was able to make it to the final flag of the race, with each one running into their own set of problems, such as Enerson having a mechanical failure and only running 75 laps of the race, or Sting Ray Robb coming down with a flat tire and crashing with only 90 laps completed, which put out the first caution of the afternoon.

But the afternoon showed that the trials and tribulations that Indy brings were too much for the rooks.

The true rookie standout of the race was Benjamin Pedersen.

Pedersen, who almost finished the race but ran into late push contact with Ed Carpenter, was battling in the top 15 and had a solid performance on the weekend, ultimately finishing 21st.

* Final Thoughts

The true calling here, particularly for some fans who may have forgotten it, was "Never, EVER, count out Team Penske."

Coming into the weekend, the talk was around how it may be a Chip Ganassi vs. Arrow McLaren showdown, but Team Penske stayed consistent and put all of their drivers at the end in favorable positions to grab the victory.

While Ganassi and Arrow McLaren showed speed, consistency -- and staying out of trouble and mistake-free -- was the name of the game in this race and Team Penske did that throughout the 200-lap event.

This should give the team and Newgarden a huge boost for sure heading into next Sunday's Detroit Grand Prix, in which there will be plenty of unknowns for all teams given that this will be the first time IndyCars will be racing on the new course in the streets of Detroit after a couple of decades at Detroit's Belle Isle Park.

Contributing: Jerry Bonkowski