For the first time in two years, the Indianapolis 500 was back on Memorial Day weekend in front of a sold-out crowd. You could feel the electricity in the air and a sense of normalcy. During the pre-race festivities, Roger Penske thanked the fans for coming out and gave the command. On the pole was Scott Dixon, Colton Herta started second, and Rinus VeeKay third.
The crowd roared when all thirty-three cars took the green flag. Colton Herta led the opening lap. Then on the second lap, Rinus VeeKay passed Herta for the lead. He led thirty laps before making his first scheduled pit stop.
While everyone else was making pit stops, Stefan Wilson came down pit road tapping his brakes. He could not slow down, and he spun right into pit wall, blocking pit road. The first caution of the race was out. Wilson’s car suffered suspension damage in the process, and he finished in 33rd place. Scott Dixon ran out of fuel during the caution, and his team could not refire the car in time for the green flag to way. Dixon was now down a lap.
The race restarted on lap 46 with Colton Herta in the lead. On lap 49, VeeKay got the lead back for one lap before Conor Daly took over on lap 50. Daly led twenty laps before making his second scheduled pit stop with Helio Castroneves, the new leader. He would head to pit road on lap 77. Once the second round of scheduled pit stops was complete, Conor Daly resumed the lead on lap 84.
Moving ahead to lap 114, Graham Rahal passed Pato O’Ward for the lead. O’Ward took the lead away from Daly back on lap 103. Rahal went to pit road for service. During the pit stop, his tire changer forgot to tighten the left rear. As Rahal accelerated coming off pit road, his tire came off, sending him into the turn-one wall. The second caution was out.
Rahal was unbelievably agitated as he exited his car and saw the damage. He was running well and looked to be one of the cars challenging for the win. Conor Daly, the third car coming around the turn, suffered nose damage when the wheel from Rahal’s car bounced down the track, hitting Daly’s car.
Alex Palou became the new leader when the race restarted on lap 125. He would be in a three-car battle with Castroneves and Pato O’Ward. Castroneves led a couple of laps, followed by O’Ward for four laps, then Palou got the lead back on lap 131.
Palou led an additional sixteen laps before making his fourth pit stop. Five drivers took turns leading the next fourteen laps, including Scott Dixon, Takuma Sato, Pato O’Ward, Helio Castroneves, and Felix Rosenqvist. Simona De Silvestro and Will Power were the latest drivers to spin on pit road during pit stops.
With 22 laps to go, the win was down to four cars. After everyone made their last scheduled pit stops, the race came down to Alex Palou, Helio Castroneves, and defending champion Takuma Sato. With six laps to go, the race was down to Castroneves and Palou.
On lap 194, Helio Castroneves passed Sato for the lead. He lost the lead to Palou with four laps to go. The crowd was going nuts in the closing laps. With two laps to go, Castroneves took the lead from Palou. The two approached lapped traffic, making the race intense.
On the final lap, Castroneves held off Palou to win his fourth Indianapolis 500 by .4928 seconds. Helio joins A.J. Foyt, Rick Mears, and Al Unser as the only drivers to win the 500 four times. Castroneves set the fastest lap ever to win the race, and it was the first 500 win for Meyer Shank Racing.
The rest of the top ten finishers were Simon Pagenaud third, Pato O’Ward fourth, Ed Carpenter fifth, Santino Ferrucci sixth, Sage Karam seventh, Rinus VeeKay eighth, Juan Pablo Montoya ninth, and Tony Kanaan tenth. Conor Daly led 40 laps, the most in the race. There were 36 lead changes and two cautions for 18 laps.
The NTT IndyCar Series heads to Detroit, MI for a doubleheader event on June 12th, at 2 pm on NBC, and 13th, at noon on NBC for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix.
