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By Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS – On a completely empty Indianapolis circuit, Takuma Sato claimed a momentary victory in the Indianapolis 500 in an unsatisfactory ending on “The Greatest Show of the Race”.
Sato resisted Scott Dixon and won the yellow flag after teammate Spencer Pigot crashed five laps of Sunday’s race finale against empty grandstands for the first time in 104 races due to the pandemic.
Pigot needed medical attention on the track, the turn of the scene of fate was a huge box of debris and the cleanup would have been long. There was only four laps left in the race, there wasn’t enough time to allow for a smart reboot.
If it was a NASCAR race, a prevention would have been quick to establish a definitive shooting. IndyCar has a tendency to avoid devices and a red flag overdue in the livid purists of the Indy 500 2014.
Dixon, the five-time IndyCar champion who had ruled the race, asked on his radio if IndyCar would give the pilots a definitive shootout.
“Do they turn red?” Dixon asked. “They’ll have to turn red. There’s no way they’re going to erase it.”
The answer no, turn the end of the race into a simulation game.
“It’s a little ridiculous to expect what might have happened. The truth is that Takuma won,” said the owner of the winning car, Bobby Rahal. “It’s not the first 500 to be reported in yellow and there’s a hellish mess there.”
IndyCar said in a final post that “there were very few laps left to gather the platoon behind the speed car, factor a red flag and then restart for a green flag ending.”
Dixon visibly disappointed after leading 111 of two hundred laps in search of his moment of victory at Indy.
“Certainly hard to swallow, that’s for sure. We had a wonderful day,” Dixon said. “The first time I saw them, I let them sink like this. I think they’d throw a red one.”
Dixon had the idea that he would eventually run over Sato while Sato was running in abnormal traffic, and thought Sato’s team would reduce fuel. Rahal said his driving force had enough fuel to get to the end.
None of this mattered in the end because Sato was able to turn the fast lane and then get on the elevator, the new owner of the track, Roger Penske, settled to take the winner in a top victory circle. Rahal, the winner of Indy 500 in 1986, and David Letterman, with his mask buried in a rebellious gray beard while the veteran comic and television host welcomed Sato.
“Let me tell you that if you told me this morning at the end of the Indianapolis 500 that Takuma Sato, Scott Dixon and Graham Rahal were running through your head, I’d say it’s a dream, it’s a dream come true,” Letterman said. “And I woke up and it turned out we won the Indianapolis 500.”
Sato has become the first winner of Japan’s Indy 500 in 2017. Graham Rahal, Sato’s Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing teammate, was third in Dixon.
Sato knew Dixon would be hard to beat under the green.
“I know Scott comes right away, at the end of the fourth corner, screaming ahead,” Sato said. “I had to stop him.
The birthday party was silenced as the RLL team had a socially remote winners circle. Penske was forced to house his first 500 as owner of the iconic unenthusiastic racetrack and made it the largest place in the world. The track regularly attracts more than 300,000 spectators on race day; Penske said there will only be 2500 participants on Sunday.
“It’s not a satisfied place, ” said Sato. “It’s hard for everyone, not just us. It’s just luck, so much luck, being able to play as a sport, be able to show millions of people watching TV today at home, have energy on.
Sato had the classic ride down the fast lane in the back of a convertible, being interviewed about the crowd coping formula with the crowd applauding the winner. He shortly removed his mask to kiss the brick yard; When the entire RLL team covered up to fuck him, the organization did so with masks.
“It’s strange. It’s strange. Nobody likes it,” Rahal said. “I feel bad. I hope our fans who saw it on television have enjoyed the race. I know it’s not the same as being there, but I think everyone understands the situation.”
It was Pigot, Rahal’s third pilot, whose accident marked the debatable end. His nasty blow destroyed his car and he was prone to heal on the track before being taken to the hospital for further examination. IndyCar said he was awake and alert.
Sato’s victory helped Honda break Chevrolet’s two consecutive win streaks in the Indy 500. Santino Ferrucci fourth, while Honda ranked first 4.
The champion of the protective series, Josef Newgarden, finished fifth, the top-ranked Chevrolet driving force and the most productive of the Pennsylvania team’s four-car group. Chevrolet lags behind Honda in terms of speed from the 500’s buildup and only had one driving force at the start in the nine most sensible.
Tangled in traffic, the Chevy never argued.
No one did, really, because Dixon seemed to be in control after casually overtaking poleman Marco Andretti on the first corner of the first lap and leaving. Andretti was looking to end the 51-year loss streak of his well-known circle of relatives and controlled a shot with Andretti’s first pole in 33 years. After Dixon took the lead, Andretti returned to the area and, in spite of everything, finished 13.
“We had high hopes for raceArray … but we didn’t have them,” Andretti said. “We didn’t have the pick-up we needed at the resumption, he left us with a duck seated and we couldn’t win flat at the pit stops to make up for anything. Everyone left us 13th.
Fernando Alonso, who seeks to win the highest level of the motorsport edition of the Triple Crown, 21st and never competed. It’s his third attempt to win Indy and the two-time Formula One champion returns to this series in 2021.
“We didn’t do a great lap,” Alonso said. “I’m happy to finish the race, cross the finish line and have 500 miles in my pocket. We tried to run, but luck didn’t go with us.
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