Timing is everything, as 2024 Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden explains in the new issue of RACER magazine.
The culmination of a duel worthy of one of the world’s legendary races, Newgarden’s last-lap move on Pato O’Ward, when he passed the Arrow McLaren around the outside through Turn 3, proved decisive in securing a second-successive win for the Team Penske driver. You can plan, you can run the scenarios through your head, but in the end this was reactive — the defining moment when instinct takes over.
Fittingly, Indy’s first back-to-back winner in more than two decades graces the cover of RACER No. 329, our annual Legendary Races Issue. And could he become the first driver in “500” history to earn three straight wins? The 2025 cover is yours if you do, Josef…
Speaking of defining moments, victory for the No. 50 Ferrari 499P in the 2024 24 Hours probably came down to an inadvertent tap from its No. 51 sister car on the No. 8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID. With just two hours to run, that likely cost Toyota a sixth win in seven years at La Sarthe, but — and a theme develops here — secured back-to-back wins for the Prancing Horse.
We’ve got fascinating insight on Ferrari’s 24 Hours win, and we also look at how the little things added up to thwart the Action Express Racing Cadillac’s chances of a strong result at La Sarthe on its road trip away from the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship “day job.”
Little things? That would also be the constant trickle of changes that every Formula 1 team brings to its cars during the cut-and-thrust of the season. Each one in isolation might barely register on lap time, but cumulatively, they can be the difference between winning and losing, as we find out.
Also in this issue, we chat with one of the breakout stars of the 2024 F1 season, as well as a cult hero of Netflix’s “Drive to Survive,” Yuki Tsunoda, check in with Ford and Chevrolet on their new-for-2023 GT3 Mustang and Corvette programs, and get JR Hildebrand’s high-speed impressions on McLaren’s ultimate track-day car, the no-compromise Solus GT.
We also bid farewell to one of the undisputed legends of U.S. racing, 1963 Indianapolis 500 winner Parnelli Jones, who passed away in June. As our own late, great Robin Miller noted, a Mount Rushmore of American race drivers would have to include Parnelli, a man whose successes stretch way beyond the Indy 500 and into Trans-Am, off-road racing, and even a brilliant run of success as an owner.
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