(Photo: Joe Skibinski / INDYCAR)
By Aaron Bearden
In his first year at the Roger Penske-owned Indianapolis Motor Speedway competing for a team other than Team Penske, Helio Castroneves etched his name further into the track’s lore with perhaps the biggest victory of his career.
Castroneves out-dueled Alex Palou and held on amid late lapped traffic to claim the 105th Running of the Indianapolis 500 – a result that lifts the 46-year-old into the list of four-time winners of the event alongside A.J. Foyt, Al Unser and Rick Mears.
The affable Brazilian celebrated as only he could, with child-like energy and elation.
He parked on the front stretch to the cheers of the 135,000 fans in attendance, the most of any sporting event since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Castroneves climbed the fence with his crew, hugged everyone in sight and even went for jog back down the straightaway to salute the crowd.
Fans cheered him. Competitors embraced him, smiles on their faces. Photographers and videographers hustled to follow him and capture the scene as he soaked in the moment.
By the time Castroneves made it to victory lane, his car had long since been pushed to it.
The battle for the win was a tense one. In the quickest Indy 500 ever, stalled only twice for cautions, pit strategies gave way to an outright fight for the victory on pace at the front.
Pole-sitter Scott Dixon led the field to green, but was quickly overtaken by Colton Herta and Rinus Veekay before falling out of contention when he ran out of fuel after an ill-timed yellow and lost a lap when he car wouldn’t re-fire on pit road. Dixon played fuel strategy to salvage 17th. Alexander Rossi’s day was doomed by the same issue, ending two laps down in 29th.
In their place came a unique battle of youth against experience. Young stars like Veekay, Pato O’Ward and Palou battled up front as veterans like Castroneves lurked, ready to charge when it counted in a race filled with many hopeful contenders with an overall lack of attrition.
A few teams were lost throughout the race, but never to standard on-track incidents. Instead they all suffered issues tied to the pit sequence.
Stefan Wilson brought out the first yellow after spinning into the pit wall. Will Power and Simona De Silvestro also suffered pit road spins, though neither suffered damage. Graham Rahal had a scary crash in front of the leaders while getting up to speed following a stop, but it was due to a lost left-rear tire and not an on-track mistake of his own. Conor Daly hit that wheel with the nose of his car but continued on.
Only Wilson and Rahal failed to finish the race. The other 31 drivers marched on in a rapid race that saw the running order ebb and flow based on when teams elected to pit.
Drivers like Josef Newgarden and Daly led at points, but with the laps winding down it came down to a presumed battle between Castroneves, Palou and O’Ward. Simon Pagenaud and Ed Carpenter added themselves to the mix with a fierce late charge, all finishing within 1.5 seconds of the lead.
Castroneves and Palou traded the lead multiple times over the final run. But in the end it was Castroneves’ jump to the outside coming to two to go that proved to be the difference-maker. The pair caught lapped traffic on the final lap and Castroneves followed the train across the line to defeat Palou by .492s.
Pagenaud followed in third, a strong late surge coming just .562s short of a second Indy 500 win. O’Ward and Carpenter completed the top-five, with Santino Ferrucci, Sage Karam, Veekay, Juan Pablo Montoya and Tony Kanaan wrapping up the top-10.
Newgarden’s day ended in 12th, with Daly 13th. Defending winner Takuma Sato tried to play a late fuel strategy move, but didn’t catch the cautions he needed and wound up 14th. Herta and Dixon finished 16th and 17th despite starting on the front row. A speeding penalty resulted in a 22nd-place result for Ryan Hunter-Reay despite him contending into the late stages of the race.
They all followed Castroneves, who was free to kiss the bricks for the first time since 2009. He partook in strawberry milk — matching his pink-themed livery and fire suit — and tried to process a day that will forever add to his already-legendary Indy 500 legacy.
Next up for the NTT IndyCar Series is a doubleheader in Detroit’s Belle Isle Park on June 12-13.
105th Running of the Indianapolis 500 Results
- Helio Castroneves
- Alex Palou
- Simon Pagenaud
- Pato O’Ward
- Ed Carpenter
- Santino Ferrucci
- Sage Karam
- Rinus Veekay
- Juan Pablo Montoya
- Tony Kanaan
- Marcus Ericsson
- Josef Newgarden
- Conor Daly
- Takuma Sato
- JR Hildebrand
- Colton Herta
- Scott Dixon
- Jack Harvey
- Marco Andretti
- Scott McLaughlin
- James Hinchcliffe
- Ryan Hunter-Reay
- Dalton Kellett
- Max Chilton
- Pietro Fittipaldi
- Sebastien Bourdais
- Felix Rosenqvist
- Ed Jones
- Alexander Rossi
- Will Power
- Simona De Silvestro
- Graham Rahal
- Stefan Wilson
