Ethan Ringel scores Indy Lights pole for Freedom 100

By May 21, 2015, 3:33 PM EDT
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A Schmidt Peterson Motorsports driver is on pole for the Freedom 100, the marquee race for the Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires, but it isn’t necessarily the driver you’d first think of.

Ethan Ringel laid down a two-lap average of 197.684 to secure his first pole position in the No. 71 Dallara IL-15 Mazda.

Ringel was surprised, but thankful, to score the pole position.

“I’m kind of in disbelief that I’m here,” he said post-qualifying. My engineer has told me all year that I have to get comfortable on the oval, that Indy is a place you really have to drive the car. But since I ran that first test at Homestead, I loved it. I think that’s the key with being comfortable – you have to respect it. And especially at Indianapolis, you can’t go past the limits here.

“I’ve had a blast since the first lap. Going into the week, I thought I’d be happy with a mid-pack so this is a bit of a shocker. I knew the car was pretty quick and it felt pretty good, so I thought it could be a good qualifying time. So now, I want to focus on the race, to figure out strategy. I’ll try to relax as much as I can and take things as they come.”

He’ll start ahead of the pair of race winners from the Grand Prix of Indianapolis weekend, SPM teammate Jack Harvey and 8Star Motorsports’ Sean Rayhall.

Scott Anderson and RC Enerson make it all four SPM cars in the top five.

Points leader Ed Jones (Carlin) will start eighth.

U.S. Marine Staff Sgt. Liam Dwyer will give the Command to “start your Mazda engines” on the fourth anniversary of his “Alive Day.” During his second tour of combat duty, he was gravely injured after stepping on an IED on May 22, 2011 in Afghanistan. Despite losing his left leg above the knee, he is now a Mazda-backed race driver and race winner in the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge series.

Speeds are below.

P No Name QSpeed
1 71 Ethan Ringel 197.684
2 42 Jack Harvey 197.551
3 8 Sean Rayhall 197.111
4 77 Scott Anderson 196.329
5 7 RC Enerson 196.237
6 18 Kyle Kaiser 195.998
7 14 Max Chilton 195.648
8 11 Ed Jones 195.598
9 4 Felix Serralles 195.427
10 12 Spencer Pigot 194.504
11 5 Juan Piedrahita 194.416
12 51 Shelby Blackstock 194.404

Winner Josef Newgarden earns $3.666 million from a record Indy 500 purse of $17 million

By May 29, 2023, 6:01 PM EDT
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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 $16 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