Josef Newgarden takes top spot in final Indianapolis 500 practice, wins Pit Stop Challenge

Submitted by IMS

Josef Newgarden is aiming to write two chapters of history Sunday in the 109th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge, and if his performance in Miller Lite Carb Day final practice is any indication, he just may have the car to do it.

Newgarden led the final practice for “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” with a top lap of 225.687 mph in the No. 2 Shell V-Power NiTRO+ Team Penske Chevrolet. Newgarden is trying to become the first driver to win three consecutive Indianapolis 500s, and he’ll need to do it from the deepest starting spot in the field of any “500” winner ever.

Two-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Newgarden is starting the race in the 32nd position in the 33-car field after he and Team Penske teammate Will Power were moved to the rear of the field Monday due to an attenuator on their respective cars that violated INDYCAR rules Sunday during PPG Presents Armed Forces Qualifying. The record for the deepest starting spot of a “500” winner is 28th, by Ray Harroun in the inaugural race in 1911 and Louis Meyer in 1936.

“Good final run here,” Newgarden said. “Excited to check the car off again and work with the team. I’m really excited for Sunday. The main show. Everything we work for.”

Newgarden swept the day, as he and his Team Penske crew also won the Oscar Mayer $150,000 Pit Stop Challenge for the second consecutive year.

Two-time “500” winner Takuma Sato was second at 225.415 in the No. 75 AMADA Honda of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, but that speed perhaps came at a cost. His car slowed on the backstretch of the 2.5-mile oval late in the session with an apparent problem, triggering the last of two caution periods. Sato’s machine stopped on the deceleration lane between Turns 3 and 4 before it was placed inside the retaining wall in that area.

Sato is starting second in the race (10 a.m. Sunday, FOX, FOX Deportes, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network).

“I would say we weren’t entirely happy with (car setup) yet, but we were making good progress,” Sato said. “We were pointing in the right direction, so I want to check all the data. We had a mechanical failure on the last run and lost performance on one side of the car. It’s too early for me to say what that was until the team investigates it, but I almost lost control in Turn 1, and we are just fortunate I didn’t hit anything.”

Pole sitter Robert Shwartzman, the first “500” rookie to claim the top starting spot since 1983, was 29th at 220.987 in the No. 83 PREMA Racing Chevrolet.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and Team Penske both put two cars in the top five in a session that featured thick packs of traffic but also mechanical problems for a handful of drivers.

The first caution of the final practice was triggered just past the halfway point when flames erupted from the back of 2014 Indy 500 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay’s No. 23 DRR CUSICK WEDBUSH SECURITIES Chevrolet on the backstretch. Hunter-Reay guided the stricken car to the top of pit lane before he scurried from the car and surveyed the damage as the AMR INDYCAR Safety Team extinguished the flames.

In the Oscar Mayer $150,000 Pit Stop Challenge, Newgarden beat Power in an all-Team Penske final that required all three rounds. Newgarden’s crew won the first round, Power’s the second.

But in the final round, the No. 2 crew changed four tires and completed a simulated fueling in 10.263 seconds, while Power and the No. 12 crew trailed at 10.503. The No. 2 crew earned a $50,000 prize, with the No. 12 crew collecting $25,000.