After another race overdue at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the 104th edition of the Indianapolis 500 ended Sunday under an anti-competitive and debatable yellow flag. For Takuma Sato, it meant glory.
Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s 43-year-old driver beat Scott Dixon on the track with more than 25 laps by the end. They advanced with 15 to the end, then glided towards the checkered flag with caution.
With five laps to go, when Sato and Dixon were almost side-by-side on the start and end line, Sato’s teammate Spencer Pigot on Turn 4. The slip on the pit lane broke his car, and Dixon’s hope for a moment Indy 500 win.
Dixon led 111 laps, finishing third all-time in the Indy 500 with 563, ahead of A.J. Legends. Foyt and Mario Andretti. Sato needed only 27 laps for the 20th multiple winner of the Indy 500, the first since Juan Pablo Montoya won his moment in 2015.
“It’s unbelievable. Thanks a lot. I can’t locate the words, I can’t locate the words,” Sato said on Victory Lane. “Scott had just come out of (curve) 4, screamed, approached and stopped him.
“It’s amazing.”
Dixon was left with his hands on his hips in the pit lane, a little why, so close to the expected end, the race was not marked with the red flag. The recent bail high was in 2013, when Tony Kanaan won.
Series leader IndyCar, as Sato, is looking to win his Indy 500 moment, his first appearance in 2008.
“It’s hard to swallow, that’s for sure. We had such a wonderful day,” Dixon said on the show. “I’m not sure (Sato) will succeed in fuel consumption. We’d gone for a walk after them.
“I think they even doubted whether they deserve to save fuel and get to the end. I think it would have been an attractive race to the end.
Dixon had been the dominant car, beating poleman Marco Andretti almost without delay after he waved the green flag. At one point, Dixon extended his lead to more than 10 seconds, dominating the strategy war in the pits that began in the first 10 laps of the race. But a yellow one arrived on turn 83 that brought everyone, adding Sato, back to the new Zealander’s sight.
Still, Dixon held a comfortable lead in a 154 lap reboot, in a position to qualify to the end. But Sato passed it three laps later, prompting his round-trip duel. Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s driver operated on lap 168, giving Dixon a brief lead before doing the same. That would be the last time I ran to the front.
With 15 laps to go, Dixon hugged Sato at the start and end line and tried to make his way into Turn 1, but Sato remained only a few tenths ahead with the official lead after Zach Veach and Max Chilton had to throw the wells moments earlier.
Sato’s defense in the last 20 laps looked strangely like last year’s duel between winner Simon Pagenaud and runner-up Alexander Rossi. Pagenaud clung to the internal line, forcing Rossi out to go around the open air and take the last two laps. Rossi could never take it.
With seven laps to go, Sato resumed traffic when his lead over Dixon lasted more than a second, with Sato’s teammate Graham Rahal in the final. Dixon lacked that extra spark to achieve a pace that could fit Sato’s pace.
“Takuma ran hard all day,” said team owner Bobby Rahal, who won his team’s 500-meter title. “In the end, I was worried about this traffic. Things were getting complicated, however, Takuma did pretty well, Scott did well, but there was enough difference, and that’s all it took.
“Who, what would have happened in the last five rounds.”
Pigot’s referral at the end is only the last of a full race of activities on Sunday.
In particular, Rossi’s day ended on lap 144, when car No. 27 entered the dirty air after being forced to return to the back of the box due to a damaging pit exit and playing with Sato a few laps earlier. Rossi escaped on Turn 2 and nailed the wall, completing his day on the 27th.
It’s Turn 2 all day. I think we had the car to win,” Rossi told NBC after cleaning the medical center. “I keep saying what I just said, but still, Takuma reacts to reboots and doesn’t get a penalty. Just consistency.
“We will communicate about it. I don’t have an opinion right now. It’s notoriously frustrating. There are two sides of the story.”
Alex Palou’s clash against the wall of Turn 1 created the yellow flag where Rossi, Sato and a giant platoon component threw the most into the pits on lap 122. Dale Coyne Racing’s motive forced the third rookie of the day to retire early, adding A.J. Dalton Kellett of Foyt Racing (solo accident on turn 3 on lap 83). In the reboot after Kellett’s accident, Conor Daly of Ed Carpenter Racing fell too low on turn four on the concrete and lost traction. After turning to the inner wall, the smoke he created when he stepped on the brakes forced Arrow McLaren SP’s recruit to lose control, striking the inner wall of Daly and Chevy.
Marcus Ericsson climbed too high on Turn 1 on lap 25 and hit the outer wall for the precautionary moment of the day. The first of the day on the fifth lap, when Dale Coyne Racing’s right front tire James Davison got stuck due to a brake problem. Ed Carpenter also had a slight touch with the wall on the first lap, which sent him straight to the pits and covered more than 10 laps.