He won the pole with Italian team Prema Racing, a dominant European organization that this season expanded to IndyCar. Shwartzman has never before raced on an oval and will start alongside two-time winner Takuma Sato and Pato O’Ward, who lost to Newgarden on the last lap year.

Those Magnificent Five back-to-back winners to precede Newgarden — Wilbur Shaw (1939-40), Mauri Rose (1947-48), Bill Vukovich (1953-54), Al Unser (1970-71) and Helio Castroneves (2001-02) — all had opportunities to add to their collection. None were able to capture that all-important gold for one reason or another.

Memorial Day Weekend brings us the 109th running of “the greatest spectacle in racing” — the Indianapolis 500. The Indy 500 sold out its grandstand of 350,000 for the first time since 2016, and the decades-old local TV blackout has been lifted so locals can watch the race live.

Will Power and Josef Newgarden were among the fastest cars in Indianapolis 500 practice Monday, just hours after their teams were penalized for illegal modifications in qualifying, while Team Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin was searching for speed in a car built up following his practice crash.

Two-time defending Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden had the fastest lap of the 2-hour final practice on Carb Day at 225.687 mph