The former American Idol judge was supposed to ride in a two-seat IndyCar pace vehicle alongside racing legend Mario Andretti on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, but Gaga suited up instead. This is a 24-year-old who had never even seen the Indianapolis Motor Speedway until this past Easter. Newgarden stopped with five laps to go and Munoz with four, both for fuel, allowing Rossi to take the lead.
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Rossi rightly gave owner Bryan Herta the praise for calling the fuel strategy that was just, just right and that included cruising around the oval with the clutch in for part of the way to the checkered flag. He rolled awhile, finally coming to a halt roughly halfway around the track, requiring a tow to return to Victory Lane. “I’m one of the family today”.
“I’m just so thankful for doing this on the 100 running”, Rossi said. Munoz was openly emotional as he got out of his auto after the race.
“He really went to school and used his teammates and learned every day throughout the month”, Andretti said.
He joked and said I think I will need to see a physicist after this is all over.
Consider this: On the final lap, Munoz averaged 218 miles per hour.
“Really, you can’t predict what’s going to happen at the end of the race”. I sit around and pretend to look important.
“I knew I didn’t have enough fuel”, he said. Rossi was one of seven Honda drivers to lead portions of today’s race. Allan is a fixture at the race track, armed with keyboard and camera, eager to take you inside open-wheel sport where the news is being made.
Rossi became the first rookie to win the 500 since Helio Castroneves in 2001 – Juan Pablo Montoya had won as a first-timer the year prior – but this was more of a stunner.
The four races between then and now, run in newly designed race cars, were the most competitive in Indy 500 history. “I’m at a loss for words; it will change my life”.
Rossi is a relief driver for Manor Racing in F1.
“I can’t compare (the wins) other than to say I am so happy”, Herta said”. “I was going to wing it on those last three to five laps and kind of feel out what I had to do to try to beat him, if he was the guy I had to actually race at the end”.
“We ran the numbers”, team owner Michael Andretti said. “Unfortunately, they had their problem in the pit, which I could not believe, and I thought that may have been our shot at winning”.
Alex Tagliani and Alexander Rossi did not pit under the caution and led the field back to green on Lap 121, with Rossi quickly taking the top spot. Restarting in seventh and eight, respectively, the pair cycled up the order as the leaders made their final stops for a splash of fuel in the closing laps.
“That milk drinks awesome”, three-time Indy 500 victor Hélio Castroneves said. “To come home 1-2 is just incredible”.
“To get a 1-2 finish in the 100th running of the Indy 500 is pretty good”, Andretti said.
Leader: Ryan Hunter-Reay, who started third and exchanged the lead with Hinchcliffe during the first 28 laps, led Townsend Bell and Josef Newgarden at the 100-mile mark. “I’m not saying we should have won the race definitely because we had the best vehicle, I just think we had a auto that could have won”. They played the fuel strategy.
His family suffers from the notorious “Andretti curse” that has produced just one victory – Mario Andretti in 1969 – despite numerous chances to win.
One of the largest Indy 500 crowds in recent memory, more than 300,000 and perhaps close to 400,000, celebrated the race’s centennial.
The 29-year-old Canadian had his best outing of the season earlier this month, finishing third at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis for which he sported +700 odds at the sportsbooks, and making his first podium appearance since winning at last year’s Indy Grand Prix of Louisiana.
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“After the struggle in qualifying, we really focused – me and [teammate Scott] Dixon – on the race”. Rossi becomes the 70th victor in race history and will become the 103rd face on the famed Borg-Warner Trophy.
