UPDATED: Logano wins NNS at Dover, but fails post-race inspection - MotorSportsTalk

UPDATE (7:00 p.m. ET): Joey Logano’s No. 22 Penske Racing Ford has flunked post-race inspection after winning today’s NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Dover International Speedway. NASCAR reported on Twitter that Logano’s car was too low in the front on both sides of the car and that the series would “look at it first thing next week.”

In a race that only saw four drivers on the lead lap at the end, Logano earned his fourth consecutive NASCAR Nationwide Series victory at Dover International Speedway – becoming the only driver to pull off the feat at the “Monster Mile” in any of NASCAR’s national touring categories.

The win also kept the momentum going for the No. 22 Penske Racing NNS team, which was triumphant one week ago at Kentucky Speedway with 19-year-old Ryan Blaney.

Logano’s main competition, Kyle Busch, was also stout this afternoon but was undone by a strategy call to stay out on the track during the first two cautions of the race. Unable to catch a third yellow, he was forced to pit under green and had to pit one more time to make it to the finish.

Busch had a lead of nearly ten seconds after a pit stop cycle ended around Lap 125, but on Lap 142, Logano was able to catch Busch and pass him, going on to a 14.6-second victory over runner-up Kyle Larson. Busch, on the other hand, had to pit with 24 laps to go and wound up eighth after leading 89 laps.

Meanwhile, the NNS championship took a big turn after points leader Sam Hornish Jr. was hit with a pit road speeding penalty on Lap 117 and was subsequently relegated to a 17th place finish. That spelled good news for Austin Dillon, whose sixth-place finish enabled him to whittle his deficit to the former Indy 500 winner down to four points.

Kevin Harvick finished third behind Larson, with Brian Vickers placing fourth and Elliott Sadler completing the Top 5.

Follow @estradawriting

INDIANAPOLIS — The first Indy 500 victory for Josef Newgarden also was the richest in race history from a record 2023 purse of just more than $17 million.

The two-time NTT IndyCar Series champion, who continued his celebration Monday morning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway earned $3.666 million for winning the 107th running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

The purse and winner’s share both are the largest in the history of the Indianapolis 500.

It’s the second consecutive year that the Indy 500 purse set a record after the 2022 Indy 500 became the first to crack the $15 million mark (nearly doubling the 2021 purse that offered a purse of $8,854,565 after a crowd limited to 135,000 because of the COVID-19 pandemic).

The average payout for IndyCar drivers was $500,600 (exceeding last year’s average of $485,000).

Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Roger Penske, whose team also fields Newgarden’s No. 2 Dallara-Chevrolet, had made raising purses a priority since buying the track in 2020. But Penske but was unable to post big money purses until the race returned to full capacity grandstands last year.

The largest Indy 500 purse before this year was $14.4 million for the 2008 Indy 500 won by Scott Dixon (whose share was $2,988,065). Ericsson’s haul made him the second Indy 500 winner to top $3 million (2009 winner Helio Castroneves won $3,048,005.

Runner-up Marcus Ericsson won $1.043 million after falling short by 0.0974 seconds in the fourth-closest finish in Indy 500 history.

The 107th Indy 500 drew a crowd of at least 330,000 that was the largest since the sellout for the 100th running in 2016, and the second-largest in more than two decades, according to track officials.

“This is the greatest race in the world, and it was an especially monumental Month of May featuring packed grandstands and intense on-track action,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said in a release. “Now, we have the best end card possible for the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500: a record-breaking purse for the history books.”

Benjamin Pedersen was named the Indy 500 rookie of the year, earning a $50,000 bonus.

The race’s purse is determined through contingency and special awards from IMS and IndyCar. The awards were presented Monday night in the annual Indy 500 Victory Celebration at the JW Marriott in downtown Indianapolis.

The payouts for the 107th Indy 500:

1. Josef Newgarden, $3,666,000
2. Marcus Ericsson, $1,043,000
3. Santino Ferrucci, $481,800
4. Alex Palou, $801,500
5. Alexander Rossi, $574,000
6. Scott Dixon, $582,000
7. Takuma Sato, $217,300
8. Conor Daly, $512,000
9. Colton Herta, $506,500
10. Rinus VeeKay, $556,500
11. Ryan Hunter‐Reay, $145,500
12. Callum Ilott, $495,500
13. Devlin DeFrancesco, $482,000
14. Scott McLaughlin, $485,000
15. Helio Castroneves, $481,500
16. Tony Kanaan, $105,000
17. Marco Andretti, $102,000
18. Jack Harvey, $472,000
19. Christian Lundgaard, $467,500
20. Ed Carpenter, $102,000
21. Benjamin Pedersen (R), $215,300
22. Graham Rahal, $565,500*
23. Will Power, $488,000
24. Pato O’Ward, $516,500
25. Simon Pagenaud, $465,500
26. Agustín Canapino (R), $156,300
27. Felix Rosenqvist, $278,300
28. Kyle Kirkwood, $465,500
29. David Malukas, $462,000
30. Romain Grosjean, $462,000
31. Sting Ray Robb (R), $463,000
32. RC Enerson (R), $103,000
33. Katherine Legge, $102,000

*–Broken down between two teams, $460,000 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, $105,500 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports