The 108th running of the Indianapolis 500 is done and dusted. After 200 laps of drama and action, it was Josef Newgarden who claimed back-to-back Indy500 victories.

However, in the Championship standings, it is Alex Palou who holds his position at the top of the order. The Spanish driver finished fifth in the Indy500, but it was enough to extend his lead in the Championship over the rest of the field.

It is now a Chip Ganassi Racing 1-2 in the IndyCar standings as Scott Dixon has moved up to second in the standings. This has lowered Team Penske driver, Will Power down to third overall.

The top Arrow McLaren driver is Pato O’Ward who after finishing second in the Indy500 finds himself in fourth in the Championship. Colton Herta is the top Andretti Global car as he sits in fifth place after an awful Indy500.

Team Penske holds sixth and seventh spot as Scott McLaughlin sits in sixth and the back-to-back Indy500 winner, Josef Newgarden is now in seventh spot.

Alexander Rossi finds himself in eighth overall, just ahead of Meyer Shank Racing driver, Felix Rosenqvist. Rounding out the top ten is Kyle Kirkwood and the Andretti Global Team.

SPEEDWAY, Indiana — It thundered. It rained. It rocked. Precisely four hours after the green flag was meant to wave over the field of 33 drivers at the 108th Indianapolis 500, an instant classic was authored from the opening lap as a record-setting 18 leaders spent time up front in the spotlight over the 200-lap thriller.

Delayed by a menacing storm, the dinnertime Indy 500 saw the checkered wave as 8 p.m. ET approached, and in those long evening shadows, more than 300,000 spent and weary fans stayed and took stock of the unhinged action that turned a beloved race into an adrenaline-depleting affair.

Crashes, blown engines, rampant aggression — including multiple 200-mph trips into the grass — ruled the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Three drivers failed to make it through the first corner on the opening lap. Honda motors trailed smoke and stranded three more. Veterans Marco Andretti, Colton Herta, and Will Power also smacked the walls as general mayhem meant 47 laps were burned behind the safety car across eight caution periods.

And after each instance of madness was cleaned up, the restarts where were indelible memories were made. Fanning four wide or wider into Turn 1 drew as many cheers as gasps; the risks taken by champions and rookies alike were shocking. It was a gift to the throngs of fans who waited through the long delays.

Mexico’s Pato O’Ward, IndyCar’s most popular driver, commanded the loudest roar as he took the lead in the closing moments, and as more wild swings of fortune were revealed, he was left a tearful, crestfallen mess as his lead was surrendered with two turns left to complete. There’s no taste more bitter in motor racing than the one experienced by the 500’s first loser.

O’Ward, his eyes red from another runner-up result at Indy, was nearly inconsolable. A life so nearly changed in perpetuity, felled by a 0.3417-second deficit at the finish line.

“It’s been a tough month,” O’Ward said after matching the second place he earned at Indy in 2022. “So much goes into this race. I’m somebody that wears my heart on my sleeve. I don’t really hide anything. It’s just when you’ve come so close and it just doesn’t seem to — you just can’t seem to get it right, it’s just a lot of emotion.”

In the end, the team that swept the front row in qualifying ultimately led 90 laps and fired defending winner Josef Newgarden of Tennessee back into victory lane to make him the first back-to-back winner since 2002.

An astonishingly brave pass around O’Ward in Turn 3 — one that normally leads to a calamitous outcome — held and Newgarden sealed his second consecutive Indy triumph in a span of 12 months. The last to do it was one of his mentors, four-time Indy winner Helio Castroneves.

With the sun fading over the vast grandstands, Newgarden’s greatness at the coliseum that made Andretti’s and Foyt’s and Unser’s was confirmed. He’ll need more IndyCar championships and at least one additional 500 win to cement his status as an all-timer, but that quest — one that’s realistic — officially sparked to life May 26, 2024.

“I had let go of the thought of winning this race last year,” Newgarden told ESPN. “It’s so difficult to win. There are no guarantees. It doesn’t matter how good you are or how well you execute. It does not guarantee a victory at Indianapolis ever. Last year I really started focusing on just the opportunity and saying, you know, this is so fun that we get to show up here and we’ve got great cars, we’ve got a great crew and we have an opportunity to win the race. I know we did last year, and I definitely know we did this year.

“I focused on that. I said if we win it, that’s great, but it’s the opportunity that’s the joy of it. I say that because it is very difficult to win the race. It’s very difficult to win it back to back. I’m over the moon. I’ve got no words for what we’ve been able to do.”

Everything Newgarden does going forward is about legacy, which fans at the largest single-day sporting event in the world bore witness to in central Indiana. It was a day they won’t forget.

After a near four hour delay due to thunderstorms and rain, the 2024 Indianapolis 500 is finally ready to go. 

The green flag on the 108th running of the world’s biggest race is to drop at 16:44 local time – that is 21:44 UK time. 

Scott McLaughlin starts on pole position in a Team Penske front-row sweep with Will Power and Josef Newgarden slotting in behind.

NASCAR ace Kyle Larson starts fifth – having seen his plans for Double Duty smashed by the weather, but he is staying for the 500, and not heading to NASCAR’s Coke 600 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Other familiar faces include ex-F1 racers Romain Grosjean, Takuma Sato, Marcus Ericsson and Alexander Rossi – with only Grosjean yet to win at IMS, with the other three all doing so, twice in Sato’s case.

There are 33 cars in the field – so settle in and enjoy the 108th Indy 500 with RacingNews365’s live coverage – and be sure to get your glass of milk ready…