Josef Newgarden Wins His Second Straight Indianapolis 500 After Incredible Final Lap

The Indianapolis 500 started late, and we were up against the clock, but man, oh man, was it worth the wait.

A race of attrition that saw a lot of drivers bowing out thanks to both crashes and mechanical issues, and also saw 16 drivers lead at least one lap.

READ: INDIANAPOLIS 500 TELLS MONACO TO HOLD ITS BEER, BEGINS WITH ITS OWN FIRST LAP CHAOS

But the most important lap to lead is the last one and the man to do that? For the second year in a row — making him the first driver to go back-to-back at Indy in two decades — Josef Newgarden.

And what a way he did it…

Newgarden spent the final 10 laps or so dueling with Arrow McLaren's Pato O'Ward swapping the lead every couple of laps.

O'Ward took the white flag and led through Turns 1 and 2, but Newgarden got a great run down the backstretch, allowing him to make the winning move.

Then it was straight into the stands, which is quickly becoming his version of Helio Castroneves' fence climb.

Newgarden received a bonus of over $400,000 and got his second straight Indy win without a few key team members on his pit box.

Congrats to Newgarden. He drove a hell of a race, but, man, am I gutted for Pato. 

The guy has been so close to winning at Indy a few times. It's only a matter of time before he's guzzling some milk. It took Newgarden 12 years before he won his first.

The race itself was a wild one that ran later in the day than normal. That presented drivers with completely different conditions than they're used to especially as it pertains to track temperature and where the sun is sitting entering certain corners.

Additionally — especially in the early going — the storm that rolled through washed a lot of the rubber that had been laid down over the last couple of weeks off the track which reduced grip and contributed to some of the early insanity we saw in the first quarter of the race.

Considering fans had to wait several hours to see the race even happen, it's great to see that they got an absolute show that even in the final laps looked like it could have been won by any number of drivers.

As it always does, the Greatest Spectacle in Racing delivered. 

I've said it before and I'll say it again (probably several more times) if you have the opportunity to go to the Indianapolis 500, you need to do it.