INDIANAPOLIS — Yes, rookie Alexander Rossi is the Indianapolis 500 champion in the 100th running of the race.
In one of the most stunning finishes in race history, the former Formula One driver who didn’t plan to compete in the U.S. this year reached victory lane in his first oval race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday.
Rossi ran out of gas after taking the checkered flag to become the first rookie to win the race since Helio Castroneves in 2001.
Rossi won for a combined effort of Andretti Autosport and Bryan Herta Autosport. Michael Andretti’s team won for the fourth time — four different drivers, though none of them carry the Andretti name — and Bryan Herta’s group has won twice since 2011. The other victory was with Dan Wheldon, who pulled another stunner by passing JR Hildebrand’s crashed car coming to the finish line.
Rossi won by conserving fuel as the leaders realized too late they weren’t going to make it on fuel. As many pitted, Rossi slowed down as best he could, even following Herta’s order to engage the clutch to save fuel.
Rossi, who won in just his sixth IndyCar race, held off Carlos Munoz and Josef Newgarden, who both pitted, and finished second and third, respectively. The margin of victory was 4.49 seconds. Rossi’s nearly dry engine sputtered as he came out of Turn 4.
“I didn’t have any preconceived notions I was going to win,” Rossi said afterward. “I wanted to, but I don’t know if I thought we could.”
And now?
“I still don’t,” he said. “I’m still on the last lap (mentally).”
Some of that fuel saving came as a result of drafting behind teammates in the second half of the race. Someone asked Andretti how impossible it was to go 36 laps on the final tank of gas as Rossi did.
“It’s possible,” he joked.
Andretti tabbed Rossi, 24, after Rossi’s Manor Racing deal fell through. Rossi will be Manor’s reserve driver for several races yet to come this season. It doesn’t mean he will have a European ride, however.
“I drive to the track in a road car,” Rossi said.
Now, he’s an Indianapolis 500 winner, the 10th first-timer to do that in 100 years of the event. The last true rookie to win was George Souders in 1927.
Rossi hails from Nevada City, Calif., but he wasn’t the U.S. driver pegged to win this race. Others were teammates Ryan Hunter-Reay, Townsend Bell and Marco Andretti, among them.
The race featured 54 lead changes (second-most in 500 history) and 13 leaders. IndyCar’s timing and scoring system clocked 850 passes during the 200-lap race.
The spectacle of the 100th was displayed from the dawning of the morning, with 350,000 people pouring into the historic facility for the first sellout in IMS history.
Buddy Lazier’s car had a throttle problem ahead of the start, keeping him from taking the green flag. He missed the first 48 laps as his crew made repairs.
Pole winner James Hinchcliffe led the sprint to Turn 1, but as he predicted, he wasn’t in the lead the first time the pack got to Turn 3. That honor went to Hunter-Reay, his former Andretti teammate.
The two took turns swapping the lead — 12 times in the first 24 laps — and the chase was on. Hinchcliffe first incurred trouble on the first pit stop when the fueling mechanism stuck, costing him an extra five-plus seconds. He exited sixth.
After debris on the track at Lap 47 created the first caution, most of the competitors came to pit road. Exiting, Will Power drifted wide into the pit road path of Tony Kanaan, who lightly brushed the wall. Power was penalized for an unsafe exit, a penalty Team Penske teammate Simon Pagenaud later incurred as well after hitting Mikhail Aleshin.
Juan Pablo Montoya wasn’t able to defend his title after losing control of his Penske machine in Turn 2 of Lap 64. After finishing first, fifth and first in his first three 500s, Montoya hit the wall for the first time in his IMS career.
“I just lost it,” said Montoya, who started 17th.
The last driver to win consecutive 500s was Helio Castroneves in 2001 and ’02.