Takuma Sato picked up his second Indy 500 victory in four years and in doing so proved that he is not just another pretty face at IMS. The 43-year-old brought Rahal Letterman its first Indy 500 win in 16 years and showed that you should never count the old guys out. Honda engines dominated the race, claiming the first four positions. Pato O’Ward finished sixth and will most likely pick up the Rookie of the Year Award. O’Ward was entered last year but due to a misjudgement on closing time in qualifying he didn’t get on the track. He went on to win the series’ Rookie of the Year for 2019. He was piloting a Chevy, by the way.
Marco Andretti performed as I expected him to. Starting from the pole and taking the green flag, Dixon, Sato, and Hunter-Reay were around him coming out of the first turn. He ran fifth for a while but quickly fell to a mid-field position. He finished 13th. Marco is a driver but definitely not a racer. So much for the Andretti Curse.
As the premier Chevrolet team, Team Penske were just out-classed. The Honda engines just had too much horsepower. Not having the Captain call the shots made a big difference as well. Josef Newgarden did the best he could with what he had, but he was never in position to win the race. Will Power and Helio Castroneves coasted in mid-pack for the whole race, and defending champion Simon Pagenaud brought up the rear. He finished 22nd.
Graham Rahal did well, finishing third. Second year driver Santino Ferrucci finished fourth. Ferrucci was last year’s Rookie of the Year, finishing seventh. He seems to have an affinity for the track. Who knows, maybe we’ll see his mug on the Borg Warner someday. James Hinchcliffe took a seventh. It was great to see James back. Colton Herta was eighth, the best finish of any of the Andretti Autosport drivers. Jack Harvey finished ninth, Ryan Hunter-Reay was tenth.
It just was not Alexander Rossi’s day. First he was penalized for a pit stop violation. He bumped Sato’s oncoming car while pulling away from the pit. Then while racing to get back into contention he hit the backstretch wall to end his day. He felt the penalty was unfair. But what else would he say?
Okay now we come to Spencer Pigot. Pigot was driving the third Rahal Letterman car. Trying to improve his position on lap 195, he hit the fourth turn outside wall, careened across the track and slammed into the pit entrance guard rail. It was a brutal looking accident. Fortunately he did not suffer a serious injury.
The yellow light came out and the end of the race was run under caution. There are those, including Scott Dixon, who felt the race should have been stopped and restarted when the track was cleared. We’ll never know if Dixon could have caught Sato and won. Dixon now has his third second place finish at Indy which ties him with Tom Sneva and Al Unser Sr. for the most runner-up finishes.
There were some seriously nasty crashes, particularly for Pigot, and then Conor Daly and Oliver Askew both occurring in the fourth turn. It looks as though the new enclosed cockpit is really making a difference. Keeping everyone safe should always be the primary goal.
With five races left in the 2020 series, Dixon has a comfortable lead in the point race. Newgarden is now in second place
Next weekend is a double-header near St. Louis at the Gateway World Wide Technology Raceway for 6th Bommarito Automotive Group 250 on Saturday and The Mega Savings 250 on Sunday. So Good Luck and Good Racing!
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