109th Indianapolis 500 Post-Race Notes and Quotes
(Photo by John Grainda/Penske Entertainment)
By Dennis Krause
Josef Newgarden’s quest for a third consecutive Indianapolis 500 win came up short on Lap 132. The driver of the No. 2 Shell V-Power NiTRO+ Team Penske Chevrolet was running in sixth, up from his 32nd starting position prior to making his fifth pit stop. After his routine stop, Newgarden radioed to his crew that something didn’t feel right and when he returned to the pits where it was discovered there was a fuel pressure issue.
(Photo by Karl Zemlin/Penske Entertainment)
“It’s tough to not have a shot here at the end. It’s a team sport. It takes everything to win here. I’m still immensely grateful to run at Indianapolis. As tough as it is to take, I still feel grateful to be out here today. I just wish we had a chance to fight for it. We didn’t get to see what we had in this Shell V-Power Chevrolet. We were slowly working forward. Thank you to our partners and our whole team. It’s a big effort and a shame to not be there in the fight.”
Newgarden’s teammate Scott McLaughlin didn’t even make it to the green flag. McLaughlin was warming his tires on the final pace lap before the green flag when the rear of his No. 3 Pennzoil Team Penske Chevrolet quickly swapped ends, making moderate contact with the inside wall. After returning to the garage it was determined that that the damage was too severe to continue.
(Photo by Travis Hinkle/Penske Entertainment)
“I don’t know. I have no idea,” said McLaughlin. “I just lost control of the car. It just came out of nowhere. I’ve never had that. I just lost rear grip. I’m sorry for my family, my friends, my partners, my sponsor, and my team. It’s definitely the worst day of my life.”
NASCAR champion Kyle Larson suffered a tough day in his second quest to complete the 1,100-miles of the Indianapolis 500 and NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the same day. Larson spun his No. 17 hendrickcars.com Arrow McLaren Chevrolet in Turn 2 on Lap 92 after completing a pit stop, making contact with the wall and collecting the cars of Kyffin Simpson and Sting Ray Robb in the incident.
(Photo by James Black/Penske Entertainment)
"I hate that I caused that crash, especially for everybody at Arrow McLaren and Hendrick Motorsports. There were a lot of people here to see a better result than that. We'll shake it off and head over to Charlotte to try and win that one. I put a lot into making this effort possible, so just bummed out really. We'll try to mentally move on quickly and get to Charlotte. Physically, I'm fine, just very disappointed. I think the best therapy is to get back behind the wheel. Thankfully, I only have a few hours until I'll be back, and once we crank the engines up hopefully I'll forget about it.”
Because of rain showers that delayed the start of the 500 and the four lengthy yellow caution periods consuming 44-laps of the first 92-laps, Larson wouldn’t have been able to finish the race before having to leave for Charlotte. The race had roughly 100-miles to go at Larson’s scheduled departure time.
Larson’s day didn’t get any better at Charlotte where he hit the wall early while leading, then was collected in a crash on Lap 247 of 400 that ended his day. Afterwards, he doubted that he would try the Indy 500/Coke 600 double again.
“I don’t know. It’s so fresh right now I don’t really have a good answer for you. The Double is just a tough undertaking. The window of time is too tight. Even if I didn’t wreck, I don’t think I would have made it here on time and probably would have had to end that race short anyways.
“So I don’t really think it’s worth it. But I would love to run the Indy 500 again. Just doing the Double I think is just logistically too tough”
Larson’s Arrow McLaren teammate Pato O’Ward finished fourth in the race, his fourth top-four finish in his last five starts.
(Photo by Aaron Skillman/Penske Entertainment)
“We’ve seemed to have had every single result in the top five over the past five years except for the most important one.
“Congratulations to Alex; I've got to get on whatever he's eating or sleeping on because he's on a run that I've never seen before, one I don’t think this series has seen before in 50 years. It's impressive what they've done.
“My race was a lot of up and downs I would say. The restarts were chaotic, and we were just three cars too far back. We made four or five spots in the last pit stop sequence. I think we were just one pit stop sequence short or one restart. Everybody you could see was stuck.”
(Photo by Paul Hurley/Penske Entertainment)
Although he led the first eight laps of the race, with the first three being under caution, Robert Shwartzman had a rough first race on an oval. The rookie was eliminated from the race during a pit lane mishap on Lap 87 when his No. 83 PREMA Racing Chevrolet skidded through his pit box, hitting the inside wall and a few crew members. Shwartzman ended up in 29th place.
For the first time since 2000, A.J. Foyt witnessed his two cars finishing in the top-10 in the Indianapolis 500. David Malukas earned an Indy 500 career-best third, while Santino Ferrucci claimed seventh Sunday afternoon.
(Photo by Travis Hinkle/Penske Entertainment)
For Malukas, Sunday’s 500 was a turning point after last season when he was injured in a training incident, lost his ride with the Arrow McLaren team, only to finish the year out with Meyer Shank Racing.
“Yeah, I mean, this past year that I've had has been the toughest year I think of my life really. It was a lot of different emotions, roller coasters. And if I look back one year ago today, I wasn't even in INDYCAR anymore. I didn't have a left hand and I was here just being a fan. And I could say one year later that I'm back in the 500 and not just back but I'm fighting for the win, which is incredible to say.
“It's been an insane year. It's always going to be a year of maturity for me. I've aged -- although it was a year, I feel like I've aged 10. Everything happens for a reason and I'm taking all this knowledge and everything I've learned in the past year and all the hardships and going to put it into more success in the future.”
As A.J. Foyt Racing has a technical alliance with Team Penske, paddock rumors have Malukas going to Team Penske in the near future.
In a break with recent tradition, winner Alex Palou didn’t pour the milk over his head. Rather, he drank it and shared it with his family and team owner Chip Ganassi.
(Photo by Chris Owens/Penske Entertainment)
“There's been a lot of people that had told me not to do that, and then I was like, okay, maybe I get too excited and I do it. I was close, but then I thought, oh, man, I'm going to be with the milk all over me for like the next five, six hours. But there's been a lot of die-hard fans that have told me that, and I respect that. Ricky, my crew chief, told me that once, and I was like, all right, I'll try not to do it.
“I have to tell you, it was the best milk I've ever had. It was super sweet. I don't know if they put anything in it. But it tastes so well, and I didn't pour it into my head.”
Dennis Krause has spent decades covering all forms of motorsports, including over 40 Indianapolis 500s, with stints at WIBA Radio, PIT PASS - Radio’s Premier Motorsports Magazine and Motorsports Minute. Follow him on X @DennisKrause500 or motorsportsminute.bluesky.social or motorsportsminute on Threads or MotorsportsMinute+ on Facebook.