'Worst moment of my life': Team Penske's tumultuous Indy 500 week ends with crash, car issues
INDIANAPOLIS -- Team Penske's chances for a third straight year of Indianapolis 500 glory, already complicated by a week of penalties and turmoil, ended abruptly Sunday.
Scott McLaughlin's bid for back-row immortality ended on the pace lap – his No. 3 car the casualty of a collision with the wall. Two-time defending champion Josef Newgarden completed 135 laps before a fuel pressure issue took him out in 25th place.
He began the race in 32nd position – one spot ahead of teammate Will Power. Both were sent to the back row after their cars failed inspections for unapproved modifications to the rear attenuator.
Power completed the race, finishing 19th. The lackluster finishes concluded a tumultuous week. Calls for an independent officiating body were renewed, with Penske Entertainment's ownership of both the series and the 500 seen as a conflict of interest. Penske fired its IndyCar leadership last Wednesday.
'I just wish we had a chance to fight for it,' Newgarden said on the Fox broadcast after his exit. 'We didn't even get to see what we had there. We were just slowly working forward.
'... It's just a shame to not be there in the fight.'
Newgarden was talking about his own car and race team. The comments, though, could easily apply to the entire Penske Corporation's endeavor to reclaim the narrative after the past week's chaotic events.
Not only did the team fall short, it stumbled to its worst Indianapolis 500 performance in recent history.
Sunday marked only the second Indy 500 in the past 14 without a top-10 Penske finish. It had posted at least two top-10 finishes in every race since 2011.
A Newgarden three-peat would have made him the first driver to win from a back-row start.
He made steady progress throughout the race. He ran in 10th at Lap 80. By Lap 130, he'd moved up to sixth.
The fuel pressure issue, though, came up during a pit stop after Lap 133. Newgarden later told reporters the problem was 'an anomaly – something we've never seen before.'
Newgarden had qualified for the Fast 12 one day prior to the failed inspection.
'We were trending in the right direction," Newgarden said. 'We just tried to take our time. It was not going to matter until the very end, and I think we were at least going to be in position to give it a fight.
'It's just tough to end on that note. We had such a good month in so many ways.'
The race began under a caution when McLaughlin crashed on the parade lap. He called it 'the worst moment of my life.'
Starting in 10th place, the New Zealand native seemed to represent the best chance for Penske to salvage the weekend. Instead, the only one of its three drivers which hadn't been banished to the back lost traction and slammed into the wall, ruining his left front suspension, on the pace lap.
'It is what it is,' McLaughlin said. 'You've just got to get on with it, pick yourself up.'
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