(Photo: Jason Porter/INDYCAR)
By Aaron Bearden

INDIANAPOLIS — Post-race review and analysis from the NTT IndyCar Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. 

Who Won? 

Simon Pagenaud. The Frenchman outlast Alexander Rossi in a classic battle to score his first Indy 500 win.

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A Perfect Month of May

When Simon Pagenaud emerged victorious from his No. 22 Chevrolet in the INDYCAR Grand Prix, he claimed to be driving the best he had since his 2016 NTT IndyCar Series title run. He had believed results would come since the start of the year, telling media that they “just have to be patient.”

As it turned out, not much patience was required at all.

Pagenaud stormed to the pole for the 103rd Running of the Indianapolis 500 and completed a picture-perfect Month of May with a statement drive in Sunday’s race, dominating the majority of the race and getting the better of an intense late duel with Alexander Rossi to secure the biggest win of his IndyCar career.

“It’s another dream come true, and the biggest dream of my life come true,” Pagenaud said of the win. “It’s hard to fathom really. It’s really hard to process it right now, but I’m just filled with a lot of joy.”

The run was easily Pagenaud’s best at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS). In seven previous starts in the Indy 500, Pagenaud had led just 36 laps and finished no better than sixth at race’s end. The Frenchman easily cleared each bar in Sunday’s race, leading a race-high 116 laps en route to a life-changing victory.

But that’s not to say the win came easily.

In the closing laps of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing, Pagenaud found himself dueling with a driver some had tabbed as a potential replacement for him entering the Month of May. The 2016 champion’s struggles over 2018 and early 2019 led many to believe Pagenaud was on the hot seat entering Indianapolis, and Rossi’s IndyCar prowess and Team Penske connection as a part-time Acura Team Penske driver in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship made him a believable candidate to replace Pagenaud should he be sent elsewhere.

The potential symbolism of the duo’s battle became a storyline in the closing laps, adding additional depth to a duel that already for the sport’s ultimate prize. For a few moments it appeared that Rossi would overtake Pagenaud and steal the veteran’s moment, but with two laps remaining Pagenaud surged past Rossi and drove off to a small advantage.

Rossi got one last look at a race-winning move, but couldn’t get a strong enough run to make a pass. Pagenaud fended the former Formula 1 competitor off in the final sprint to the checkered flag to complete a perfect Month of May, joining teammate Will Power as the only drivers to sweep the IndyCar races at IMS since the INDYCAR Grand Prix was launched in 2013.

Afterwards Pagenaud pulled out on the frontstretch and climbed out of his No. 22 Chevrolet, holding his hands to his head in disbelief as a crowd of 100,000+ fans cheered him on.

“I was crying a little bit on the decel (cool down) lap and the fans were going so crazy, I thought I have to share this with the fans,” Pagenaud said. “There’s no racing without fans. Obviously I wanted to go to Victory Lane and we did. I didn’t think it was going to be that complicated. But I wanted to share with the fans — they filled this place up.”

Once the milk was drank, and the bricks kissed, the effect of Pagenaud’s double-victory month began to set in. The Team Penske ace resurrected what had previously been a quiet season with his May success, rising to a one-point lead in the championship standings over teammate Josef Newgarden.

Pagenaud didn’t go so far as to make a championship call, noting a French phrase that translates to ‘let’s not put the car in front of the cart.’

But Pagenaud did acknowledge the title to be his goal for the rest of the year.

“The goal is to win the championship this year,” Pagenaud said. “There’s a lot to achieve still, and we’re going to get back to work tomorrow. But I hope everybody is scared.”

And as for his ride next year? Will he be back?

“What do you think?” Roger Penske joked. “Do you want to answer that question for me? Absolutely.”

Rossi Comes Up Short

Alexander Rossi already has an Indy 500 win to his name in the 100th Running of the Indy 500, but that didn’t make the Californian any less hungry for a second triumph in the waning moments of Sunday’s 103rd edition.

So when he came up short against Pagenaud at race’s end, the previous triumph also didn’t help lessen the sting of defeat.

“Once you’ve won this thing once, the desire to win just ramps up exponentially every year,” Rossi said. “So it sucks to come this close and really have nothing that we as a team could have done differently.”

Rossi’s first Indy 500 win came with fuel strategy, the classic phrase “clutch and coast” echoing in his ear courtesy of team co-owner Bryan Herta on the final lap as he drove off to a win in one of Indy’s biggest races ever. At the time the victory seemed like it could be a fluke, but in the three years since Rossi has established himself as a true speedway contender with daring passes and impressive drives through the field – evidenced by his 3.5 average finish in four indy 500 starts.

That speedway prowess was put to the test on Sunday, as a host of small issues kept Rossi in a continuous chase of the leaders until the closing stages.

A mid-race drive to the front saw Rossi place himself in the top-five, but a fueling issue on his penultimate pit stop trapped Rossi in his pit box for more than 20 seconds. He slammed his hand against his car in frustration as the fueler struggled to refill the car, yelling “What are we doing?!” into the team radio as he waited desperately for a chance to return to the track.

A caution for a spin on pit road behind him kept Rossi from dropping further than fifth after the incident, but his frustration shone through after struggling throughout the race with mechanical issues tied to fueling.

“When you come here four times and three of the times you can’t get fuel in the car, I think you can understand why I was upset,” Rossi said. “It can’t happen. I mean, it wasn’t a human error, it was a mechanical problem, but still, it’s not something that we can have here. It’s the biggest race in the world, and 75 percent of the time we can’t get fuel in the race car.”

Rossi dropped a spot to sixth on the ensuing restart, being overtaken by both former “Amazing Race” partner Conor Daly and the lap-down car of Oriol Servia. But he quickly rebounded to catch the cars that had passed him.

A defensive Servia made overtaking difficult for Rossi in the ensuing laps, causing his frustration to build as he lost time on the cars he was racing for position. Rossi boiled over again a few laps later when Servia attempted to block the inside lane, leaving Rossi to jump high with a last-second move.

The Californian couldn’t hide his frustration. He raised his hand into the air and gestured to Servia as he overtook him, showing disgust over a battle he didn’t believe he should have needed to fight.

Rossi’s frustration with Servia’s driving still hadn’t died down when he came to the media center after the race.

“I think it was one of the most disrespectful things I’ve ever seen in a race car, to be honest,” Rossi said of the incident. “He’s a lap down and defending, putting me to the wall at 230 miles an hour.

“It’s unacceptable. It’s unacceptable for him, and it’s unacceptable that INDYCAR allowed it to happen as long as they did.”

From there Rossi’s race saw no further issues, and thus the Californian began a steady ascent back to the front. He overtook Daly for fourth, got a clean 6.9-second pit stop from his pit crew on and surged past both Josef Newgarden and Ed Carpenter amid the final round of pit stops to slot in second for the final run to the checkered flag.

Rossi believed himself capable of winning, joking that he was “angrier” with his crew over the final caution flag. But in the end Pagenaud’s Chevrolet carried more power off the turns than Rossi’s No. 27 Honda, and it proved to be the difference. Rossi came within a few feet of his second Indy 500 triumph, but could only watch from behind as Pagenaud surged to a career-boosting win.

“We were flat in that final lap coming to the flag – we just didn’t have enough,” Rossi said. “You can’t take anything away from the (car) 22 guys. They were on pole, they led a lot of laps, did a good job and had a fast race car.”

The Californian expressed pride in his own crew for giving him a top-tier car for the fourth-consecutive year, though they fell just short of victory for the third time. But in the end Rossi couldn’t conceal the hunger for a second victory in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

“When we get No. 2, it’s going to be probably a huge explosion of emotions,” Rossi said. “Because we all want it really bad.”

Strategies Gone Awry

The two biggest IndyCar stars of 2018 were each in position to seize headlines again on Sunday, but circumstances during the race eliminated them both from contention in the closing laps.

One year removed from his first Indy 500 triumph, Will Power looked every bit of a threat to repeat his 2018 win in the opening stint of Sunday’s race. Power rose up from sixth to take second on Lap 10 of the 200-lap event, and proceeded to follow Team Penske teammate Pagenaud around the 2.5-mile oval for the majority of the next 60 laps.

Power was making better fuel mileage than Pagenaud by electing to draft behind him in second, and the Australian was able to fend off any challenges from behind him with strong No. 12 Chevrolet. He was in position ride to the finish with a shot at the win, but the complexion of Power’s race saw a steep change when he came to pit road for his second stop.

As he came up on his pit box, Power mistakenly slid through a small section of his stall, contacting the fresh tires prepared to be placed on his machine and requiring his pit crew to adjust for his car placement during the stop.

The incident led to a slow pit stop from Power’s crew, but the true killer for him came a few laps later. INDYCAR officials assessed Power a penalty for the incident, eliminating his track position and dropping him to the back of the field on the Lap 79 restart.

Power steadily marched forward throughout the day to finish a strong fifth at race’s end, but he never managed to factor into the battle for the win. Afterwards the veteran offered scathing commentary over the incident.

“They (INDYCAR) ruined my day for no reason,” he said. “I didn’t even hit a guy. Wait until I see them…. Shame on them, man.

“We were really good. We were in that group at the end. It’s a disgrace that these guys control what happens on the track. I’m not really happy at all.”

Scott Dixon finished much further back than Power, slotting in 17th at race’s end. But entering the final 60 laps no driver seemed better poised to ruin Pagenaud’s march to victory. During the 60-lap green flag run in the race’s middle stages, Dixon increased an fuel mileage advantage he’d already build on Pagenaud and Chevrolet into double-digit laps, stretching his fuel further than any of the other contenders.

Had the run to the finish played out without a yellow, Dixon likely could have taken less fuel or driven harder in the final run to the checkered flag. But instead he was mired back in the pack by an untimely yellow on Lap 137 and included in a Lap 177 crash that resulted in front wing damage and a killed race.

“I think we were probably going to eliminate a stop, which was going to pit us in a great position,” Dixon said afterward. “And then that yellow flag just hosed us. It dropped us back, both myself and the No. 10 car (of teammate Felix Rosenqvist).

“We were hung out in the back of the field, and we just got caught up in that accident.”

Not only did the strategy failure keep Dixon from victory lane in Indianapolis, it also slowed what had been a solid start to the 2019 season. Dixon’s incident dropped him from second in the championship standings to a tie with Takuma Sato for fourth, with a 47-point deficit to Pagenaud heading into next weekend’s doubleheader weekend in Detroit.

Late-Race Pileup

With 25 laps left in Sunday’s race veterans Sebastien Bourdais and Graham Rahal each seemed poised to chase career-best runs in the Indy 500. But a late battle between the pair ultimately resulted in a crash that altered the look of the top-10 and set the race up for its run to the checkered flag.

Rahal was attempting to overtake Bourdais in Turn 3 on Lap 177 when the pair made contact, setting off a massive crash that eliminated Felix Rosenqvist and Zach Veach while also damaging the cars of Dixon and Charlie Kimball.

 

Rahal’s reaction following the crash was one of sheer disgust. The Ohioan pumped his fist in anger, threw his gloves down and voices displeasure over a potential top-five that turned to a DNF.

“I’m very disappointed,” Rahal said. “It’s another year you get to sit and think about this. I respect Sebastien (Bourdais) a lot. I don’t respect that move.

“I do respect him as a driver tremendously, and I’m sure he feels the same right now. At those speeds, that’s how you kill somebody. And I’m just not a fan of squeezing people and putting people in those positions. It’s not necessary.”

Bourdais admitted that he didn’t think Rahal had the strong positioning he proved to have at the time, but the Frenchman also defended his actions.

“It’s always easy to say I should have given up going into the corner, but at that point when you have to make the call whether you’re going to jump on the brakes and let the guy fly in because I didn’t really feel like the side by side was an option. I didn’t really want to pay the price to see what was going to happen there.

“It started to be a bit of marbles, and I didn’t really feel like that was an option. I thought he was going back off, and we were going to be OK. It’s that stage of the race where nobody wants to give up. It’s just bad timing.”

The end result was a negative for each driver involved. Rahal led the group in 27th, with Rosenqvist, Veach and Bourdais slotting in 28th, 29th and 30th. Even Dixon and Kimball saw potential top-10 send in 17th and 25th after sustaining damage in the crash.

No drivers appeared badly hurt in the incident, but Veach was not cleared to drive after sustaining a right knee injury. The Andretti Autosport sophomore will have to receive additional treatment and evaluation from medical professionals prior to next Saturday’s first race in Detroit.

“I think that was the biggest hit I have ever had on an oval,” Veach said. “My knee came up and hit the steering wheel here I backed in. I got my right knee pretty bad – I think it is OK. Luckily, they did X-rays, but it is just really bruised.”

Other Notes

  • Sunday’s race wasn’t just a marquee moment for Simon Pagenaud, it was also a long-awaited Indy breakthrough for longtime owner and sponsor John Menard. He wouldn’t go so far as to rank Pagenaud’s triumph over son Paul Menard’s 2011 Brickyard 400 win, but acknowledged that his first Indy 500 triumph “ranks right in there.”
  • Takuma Sato spent most of his 200 laps struggling and mired in traffic. But the 2017 winner benefitted from a strategy play to contend for the win and score a surprising third-place result at day’s end. “It is a little bit of a pity that we couldn’t challenge for the win, but we got third under some very difficult circumstances, I think,” Sato said. “It’s a huge credit to the team. So a big thank you to the team for getting me back.”
  • A mid-race pit road spin from Jordan King sent crew member Chris ‘Chachi’ Minot to the hospital on Sunday with an unspecified leg injury. “It’s not good, it’s not what you want to do,” King said of the incident. “It’s not. I don’t even know what to say. I’m really disappointed in myself and for everyone involved.”
  • A late fade to 10th may mask the speed he showed throughout the day, but Indiana native Conor Daly ran as high as fourth in the middle stages of a strong Indy 500 showing with Andretti Autosport. Daly felt he’d validated his Andretti opportunity after the race. “I haven’t even in a car for a year, and we are out there fighting with guys who are really good,” he said. “Multiple Indy 500 winners, champions, and we were there. I don’t know what else I can do.”
  • Few drivers enjoyed a more consistent Month of May than rookie Santino Ferrucci. Less than a year removed from antics in Formula 2 that effectively ended his shot at a Formula 1 career, Ferrucci survived a wet INDYCAR Grand Prix and strung together an impressive Indy 500 to tally a pair of top-10s and Rookie of the Year honors in Indianapolis. Ferrucci even had a highlight in the form of a wheel-to-wheel battle with 2013 Indy 500 champion Tony Kanaan coming off of pit road.

  • James Hinchcliffe was just happy to be in the Indy 500 last week, sneaking through the Last Row Shootout to qualify 32nd after failing to make the race in 2018. But the Canadian also put together a strong run, rising to 11th to gain more positions than anyone else in the IndyCar field.
  • Pippa Mann completed a bounce back of her own in the 2019 Indy 500, and brought USAC regulars Clauson-Marshall Racing with her along the way. One year after failing to qualify for the event, Mann rose from 30th to 16th to tally a career-best result in CMR’s maiden voyage to the Brickyard.
  • The fairy tale story of Juncos Racing’s 2019 Month of May came to an expensive end after 71 laps. One week after he knocked two-time Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso out of the race with a clutch qualifying run in the Last Row Shootout, Kyle Kaiser lost control of his No. 32 Chevrolet and crashed out of the race in Turn 4.
  • Colton Herta’s disastrous post-win drought continued with an early exit to his Indy 500 debut. Mechanical issues forced Herta out of the race after just three laps, relegating him to a 33rd-place result. Herta has had an average finish of 25.75 in the four races since his historic Circuit of the Americas victory, a despite there being only 23 or 24 cars in the three races before Indianapolis.
  • It appears Simon Pagenaud’s late heroics in Indianapolis may send him to the Oval Office. President Donald J. Trump sent out a tweet from Japan congratulating Pagenaud and Roger Penske on his 18th Indy 500 win before claiming he would “see them both, and (Team Penske) at the (White House)

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Aaron Bearden Featured Indianapolis 500 Indianapolis Motor Speedway Indy 500 NTT IndyCar Series