Many tried, and most failed, with lots of front runners needing to pit inside the last five laps, cruelling their hopes for victory.
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Alexander Rossi, victor of the Indianapolis 500.
The 24-year-old American entered the Indianapolis 500 as a longshot before winning the 100th running of the race.
The first rookie to win Indy since Helio Castroneves in 2001, Rossi used fuel strategy to stretch his final tank of gas the final 90 laps of Sunday’s historic race.
It worked. After he took the checkered flag, Rossi radioed to his crew that he was out of gas. Rossi was third. On lap 195, Newgarden pitted, and Rossi was just behind Munoz.
“Amazing”, Andretti said, more than once.
Rossi didn’t have the speed of Carlos Munoz, who was charging hard over the final 50 miles.
IndyCar series rookie Rossi won the fabled race after a bold tactical move to forgo refuelling to save time and in this individualist sport relied on help from his Andretti Autosport team mates to make it to the finish. “I really was focused on taking it one lap at a time – the emotional roller coaster of this race is ridiculous”.
To be honest, I didn’t sleep too much Saturday night, for excitement.
Munoz has contended at Indy before and he’s proven to be fast at the speedway.
Everyone laughed. Curveballs. And none more wicked than Rossi himself, an American who chose to follow the path least followed by Americans, leaving California at 16 for Europe to pursue Formula One. A known commodity as he climbed the ladder to Formula One – eventually competing in five F1 races past year – Rossi hadn’t seen Indy before a visit in late March. We saw a parade of Indianapolis 500-winning cars, an F18 flyover, the green flag arriving by helicopter, driver introductions, Josh Kaufman singing Back Home Again in IN in a way that would’ve made Jim Nabors proud, and Grammy-winning country superstar Darius Rucker’s spine-tingling rendition of the national anthem, during which a bald eagle swooped in low over turn one. But the slow stop and 36 laps left cost him a shot at the win.
“I was amazed at how many more people it felt like were here with the sold out crowd compared to normal years”, Vanlandeghem said.
“I have no doubt it’s going to change my life”, he said.
Not bad for a driver who – according to team boss Michael Andretti – had “no idea” what oval racing involved when he signed up for the IndyCar series back in February.
Yet in many ways, it was the worst feeling: a crushing disappointment knowing his first best chance to win this most prestigious of races had slipped away. Driving out of his pit stall, Bell made contact with Castroneves and hit Hunter-Reay. That’s when US open-wheel racing split into two warring groups, CART and IndyCar.
As the laps wound down, American Josef Newgarden and Munoz repeatedly swapped the lead. It was all his from there as he easily coasted to the finish line.
The high-rise JW Marriott downtown has a giant window cling saluting the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 with the slogan, “Epic Race, Epic Place”.
“To get a 1-2 finish in the 100th running of the Indy 500 is pretty good”, Andretti said. “We are just so happy”.
Hinchcliffe exchanged the lead with former teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay throughout the first 30 laps. It a tough defeat for Newgarden.
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Roger Penske was optimistic the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 would be one to remember. “It just sucks it didn’t play out the way we needed it to, fuel became a factor at the end”.
