Indianapolis, IN – The 110th running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge was quite the thriller, setting up the closest finish ever, with a final one-lap shootout where Felix Rosenqvist edged out David Malukas by 0.233 seconds. Scott McLaughlin finished third, followed by Pato O’Ward and Marcus Armstrong, in front of the largest single-day spectator sporting event in the world.
“What a car!” exclaimed Rosenqvist, 34, competing in his eighth 500, driving in his third season for Meyer Shank Racing (which has a technical partnership with Chip Ganassi Racing). “The car was a rocket. A massive thanks to the team, Honda, SiriusXM, and all our partners. It takes an army to create a rocket like that. It was so hooked up all day, from the get-go. We actually didn’t change anything and saved time in the pits leaving it as it was. It was a little loose in the end, but it was just perfect. We were the best car in all situations. I had it under control but that last yellow (Lap 198) didn’t help. I was flat out using the high line and getting a side draft from the other guys. And, it stuck.
“Everything lined up,” continued Rosenqvist, who led three times for a total of 25 laps. “Pato (O’Ward) was struggling with fuel. We were pretty rich to the end. I was hunting instead of being hunted. What an incredible finish. That’s the way I’ve always pictured it in my head. It was almost like muscle memory when it happened because I’ve been dreaming about that last lap move. It just played out perfectly. We raced super hard. There was some wheel banging and some tire marks on the side pods, which is cool, but no one ended in the wall. That’s why it turned out to be such a great finish and show for the fans.”
Driving in his first season for Team Penske, a broken-hearted David Malukas, 24, who lost by a few feet at the yard of bricks, led 30 laps during the race. But not the last one.
“Disappointment,” said a teary-eyed Malukas. “I don’t know what else I could have done. We were the best car. I gave it 150%. I almost crashed this car every lap. We were the fastest car out there. I’ve never pushed so hard in my entire life. Ended up P2. I did everything. We’ve had such a stellar season. The team has given me so much support and everything I needed.
“I keep getting a lot of seconds this season,” added Malukas, who’s yet to win in the series. “I’ve been through many different teams but no one is like Team Penske. You are so closely connected and it feels like family. I just wanted to get the win for this team. We’ll come back.”
Malukas’ teammate Scott McLaughlin, 32, led five laps in the race and went from 10th to third after the final restart in his sixth Indy 500.
“I’m happy,” explained McLaughlin, earning his 24th career podium for Team Penske. “We weren’t fast enough in traffic. I really struggled to hold with the 12 (Malukas) and the 10 (Palou) there at the last exchanges. I had to make my hay on the restarts. I was just throwing it in and taking whatever gap I could. I went from 10th to third in two laps. It’s quite a bit of money from fifth to third so I was trying to get third. I was going to ship it and if I crashed, I crashed. I saw Felix up high in the last two corners and I wondered how this was going to work out. It’s really tough to lead this race now. I took the lead there for a little bit, but you’re just so draggy out front. The draft is incredible.
“This is the pinnacle, and this is what I want out of everything,” continued McLaughlin. “We were on the alternate strategy, having 10 or so laps better tire than everyone else. We knew that we probably had grip on the restarts, grip up high, and just a matter of making it happen. It’s Christmas but not everyone gets a present. Only one guy goes home with one.”
Rosenqvist started on the outside of the front row, alongside Alexander Rossi and pole winner Alex Palou. At the start, Palou and Rossi exchanged the lead 12 times until the first caution on Lap 18 for Ryan Hunter Reay, who lost control, hitting the wall in Turn 2. Katherine Legge was also caught up in the incident.
Under cloudy skies and the threat of rain, Palou and Conor Daly battled for the lead until the second round of pit stops at around Lap 60. Chip Ganassi teammates Palou and Scott Dixon then exchanged the lead 24 times in 26 laps until Lap 94, when the second caution came out for moisture. Rosenqvist ran in third.
Because the race could’ve been declared complete if the drivers made it one lap past the halfway point, to 101 laps, the racing was frantic, with many daring passes. No one was saving fuel or tires. On restarts, cars swarmed each other down the front straightaway, often five-wide.
At the halfway point, the intense battle continued between Palou, Dixon and Daly. Following the restart on Lap 132, for Josef Newgarden’s crash in Turn 4, the fight resumed between Palou and Daly, who were joined by McLaughlin. Then Rosenqvist took the lead on Lap 154 but was challenged by Malukas and O’Ward, taking turns leading the final 30 laps after their sixth and final pit stops.
The 500-mile race took 3 hours and 5 minutes, with an average speed of 162.021 mph. There were 70 lead changes among 14 drivers at the Start/Finish line, a new record. The race on the famed 2.5-mile oval had seven cautions for a total of 51 of the 200 laps. Two red flags occurred, first for moisture on Lap 105 (for 12 minutes), then on Lap 193 (for 10 minutes), to avoid finishing the race under caution, allowing cleanup from Caio Collet’s incident hitting the Turn 2 wall.
The sell-out crowd of over 350,000 fans roared, standing on their feet, for the final one-lap shootout to see the popular Swedish driver, Rosenqvist, earn his second career NTT INDYCAR win, his first on an oval, at the greatest spectacle in racing, the Indianapolis 500.
Honda earned its ninth win over Chevrolet, utilizing the 2.2 L V-6, twin-turbocharged engine package in competition since 2012.
Palou still leads the championship battle with 273 points, followed by Malukas with 236, Kyle Kirkwood, 224, Christian Lundgaard, 195, and O’Ward, 188. Teams now change over their cars to street course configuration in preparation for the Detroit Grand Prix on May 31.