1. I hate Leigh Diffey's nickname for Marcus Ericsson. "The Sneaky Swede." If I had to guess the nationality of the blond-haired, blue-eyed, white guy named "Marcus Ericsson" I am guessing Swedish on my first shot. But there is something sneaky about Ericsson.
Ever since Ericsson joined Chip Ganassi Racing in 2020, he has been good, constantly in the top ten, but he doesn't get the recognition. It was tough when your teammates Scott Dixon and Álex Palou are winning races and championships, but Ericsson has scored strong results and done nothing wrong. Entering today, in 35 starts with Ganassi, he had 24 top ten finishes. Ericsson's two victories were fortunate, but he put himself in those positions to capitalize. Top tens are good, a great foundation for a championship push, and last year he earned his best championship finish in sixth.
Ericsson spent basically the first 400 miles of this race in fifth-place. He was hiding like a snake in the grass. Scott Dixon was dominating this race. Álex Palou had been at the front before his fuel concerns forced an emergency stop under the second caution of the race, but Ericsson was hanging out in position, remaining at the front, as was Tony Kanaan.
When push came to shove for the final stops, Dixon went over the speed limit entering pit lane for his final stop, earning the New Zealander a crushing drive through penalty. Ganassi's leading gun was out of it with 23 laps to go. The Arrow McLaren SP full-timers Patricio O'Ward and Felix Rosenqvist were set to take over the point, but when Ganassi needed Ericsson to step up, Ericsson did and he was shot out of a cannon, driving pass both AMSP cars and he pulled away during the final pit cycle. The gap was over three seconds when Ericsson inherited the lead during the pit cycle, but Ganassi nearly had one of his other cars spoil the part.
Jimmie Johnson spun in turn two with seven laps to go bringing out a caution and eventually a red flag with four laps to go. The race was going to restart with two laps remaining. Ericsson was in the lead, and many consider the leader a sitting duck on restarts. Without two laps, there was no time to counter any move should Ericsson have lost the top position. If he lost the lead, it was likely gone for good at that point.
Defense was the only strategy and Ericsson weaved all over the straightaway, covering patches of asphalt that had gone untouched over the first 495 miles of this race. O'Ward had a few chances and heading into turn one on the final lap, O'Ward had the outside but could not make it stick and Ericsson pulled through on the bottom in the lead. An accident at the back of the field with Sage Karam exiting turn two sealed the victory for Ericsson, but even before the caution the Swede's defense held strong to secure this victory.
Ericsson has had good runs at Indianapolis, but the finish had not gone his way. He did well as a rookie, but spun entering the pit lane. He had an early accident in 2020. Last year, he was 11th after starting ninth, not a great day, but not a bad one either. Ericsson has been good on ovals. As a rookie, he had a top five finish in his hands at Iowa before an improper pit entry led to a penalty. He had a top five at Gateway in 2020 and a rear wing issue cost him a second top five that weekend. A few pit lane issues kept him from top five finishes at Texas, but this year he was third at Texas and was competitive that entire race.
The entire practice week, Ericsson was in the middle of the top ten, but never the top Ganassi driver. He may have only led 13 laps, but this wasn't a surprise even if it snuck up on us.
For a driver who had a tough Formula One career, Ericsson's second act in IndyCar was about winning races. He had plenty of junior formula success in Europe and the breakthrough never came in Formula One. There are more than five or six great drivers in Formula One. Too often talent is downgraded because of employer. Ericsson drove for Caterham and Sauber. The points-paying results he pulled out were impressive, but ninth and tenth-place finishes are going to open many doors in an already congested driver market.
There are going to be plenty who see Ericsson's victory and dismiss the level of IndyCar because Ericsson's best championship finish in Formula One 17th, but there are plenty who know there is more than the results when considering a driver's ability. During the pandemic, Daniel Ricciardo wrote a list of drivers he felt was underrated. The first one he listed was Marcus Ericsson.
This is a case of talent getting a chance to shine and in four seasons Ericsson has accomplished what he set out to do in America. Today, he did it on the biggest stage.
2. Two years running Patricio O'Ward is in the mix late at Indianapolis but falls short. O'Ward was third for majority of this race, first behind Dixon and Palou, then behind Dixon and Conor Daly. O'Ward played the waiting game, letting other drivers burn their fuel while he was running long on his stints. On the penultimate stop, running long was in his favor and it got him the lead. The pace was going to be there for the sprint to the finish.
However, Scott McLaughlin's accident with 50 laps to go fell at an odd time. Everyone had just made their penultimate stop. The final pit window was going to be at least ten laps away once the race restarted, but a few drivers took a splash and were going to run deep into the race before needing to make their final stop. A few drivers stopped right when the window opened and another group was going to be in the middle, stopping with about 20 laps to go. O'Ward was caught in traffic during the pit cycle. Ericsson made the pass and then O'Ward lost time to Ericsson negotiating traffic.
The caution was O'Ward's saving grace and he had his shot. Considering how good O'Ward looked, I expected him to make that pass stick, but he backed out and it was game over. It stinks for O'Ward. He spent about 450 miles ahead of Ericsson and when it was go time, Ericsson pulled out a little extra. Perhaps every Ganassi entry had that little bit extra and there was nothing O'Ward could do about it. But I bet O'Ward feels he should have pulled this one out considering who he was against.
3. Tony Kanaan was third, and in the same way Ericsson stepped up when Ganassi needed him to, Kanaan did the same. He was charging in the closing laps and though he was over five seconds behind Ericsson, Kanaan was catching O'Ward.
For a driver who had a handful of Indianapolis 500s get away from him, I was having flashbacks to 2013 when a late restart saw Kanaan slide into the lead and get his first Indianapolis 500 victory. Knowing Ericsson and O'Ward were both competing for their first Indianapolis 500 victory and both are full-time drivers, it would have been poetic if Kanaan stole one as a part-timer, a veteran who had seen it all before and made it count in the two-lap sprint.
Kanaan didn't make 320,000 people leap for joy with a second victory, but third shows something is still there. I want Kanaan to race the Indianapolis 500 when he is 50 years old. That means he needs to go another three years. I am not sure he will make it. The sound in his voice during his post-race interview expresses the end is near, but it isn't here yet.
4. Felix Rosenqvist is making it difficult on Arrow McLaren SP on whether or not the team will retain him for 2023 and onward. Pace has been there but results haven't followed, and Rosenqvist drove his best race of the season and you could argue the best race of his IndyCar career today.
Rosenqvist matched O'Ward for this entire race and Rosenqvist made a late charge on the final restart. The Swede was sixth on the IMS road course two weeks ago. If he can build on these results, I think the team will have a tough time letting him go. Simultaneously, I think Rosenqvist needs to stay at AMSP, because who is going to hire him otherwise?
He isn't going back to Ganassi. Penske isn't hiring. Andretti is a step back at this point. Rosenqvist doesn't bring any funding. I am not sure there is a team that would take a chance on him. He has to make this work. He made it work in the month of May. Now he has to continue for the final three and a half months.
5. Alexander Rossi saved Andretti Autosport's day, and this result is mostly on the driver. The team gets some credit, but Rossi was the only Andretti car that could do a damn thing, and he was mired in 15th for much of this race. The pit stops got him a few spots, but on the penultimate restart he went from about ninth to sixth and made up another spot in the final pit cycle.
Andretti Autosport needs to do a temperature check because Rossi is likely leaving and he is likely heading to the team that was second and fourth today.
Rossi said he is leaving because he wants to win a championship. He basically said the team isn't good enough and it isn't good enough. This groups has made too many poor decisions. Look at qualifying, only one Andretti car made the Fast 12 and the team was never a threat for pole position. That is a stark compared to a few years ago when it had five cars in the Fast Nine and won pole position.
Rossi was on the back foot and made the most of it today.
6. Conor Daly is the luckiest son-of-a-gun in Indianapolis. The caution falls at the right time after his second pit stop and only Dixon and Daly are on the lead lap. Then it happens again but this time only Daly had stopped. Daly wasn't close to the front. He started 18th and was running about 18th when luck fell his way the first time. If that caution never comes, Daly might not even break into the top ten today.
Daly made the most of the break and remain in the top five the entire race. He dropped to sixth in the last cycle when Ericsson, Kanaan and Rossi pounced. This is two consecutive years the cautions vaulted Daly into the leading pack. It doesn't entire absolve Daly of his poor form compared to his teammates, but he did well today and deserves a celebration.
7. The fifth Indianapolis 500 victory will have to wait until 2023, but Hélio Castroneves had a respectable run. Castroneves went the longest on the opening stint and that took him from starting in 27th into the top fifteen. From there, Castroneves pick away a few spots each stint. He got into the top ten but didn't quite have what it took to enter the leading pack. It was a smart drive from the most experienced driver on the grid. You wouldn't have expected any less from him.
8. Meyer Shank Racing deserves some praise because while it doesn't have a second consecutive Indianapolis 500 victory, its cars were seventh and eighth with Simon Pagenaud a spot behind Castroneves and that is kind of where Meyer Shank Racing was the entire month.
It wasn't ever flashy, but it wasn't disappointing. Pagenaud was on the fringe of the top ten in nearly every session. He spent a good portion of the race in the top ten and ahead of Castroneves until the closing stints. No one goes to Indianapolis 500 to finish eighth, but MSR hit its marks today. It wants more but it didn't get less than it deserved when many teams are leaving feeling empty.
9. The comeback of the day was Álex Palou. For the second consecutive year, a Ganassi car was bit with an untimely caution. Dixon had just made his second pit stop and when Palou was approaching pit entrance, the caution came out for Callum Ilott, who hit the barrier in turn two. Palou didn't enter before the caution, but he couldn't jut out into the racetrack to avoid pit entrance. He had to slow down, drive through, and re-emerge in the pack. He went from first to tenth without getting any service.
But he needed fuel and had to make an emergency stop for a splash of gas. That dropped him to the back. Then he had to go to the very back to serve that penalty and he was out of it before we had even completed 200 miles. He needed a caution to go his way, but that never happened. Palou did fight his way forward.
Palou pulled out everything he could and slowly he was back in the top twenty and then the top fifteen. He positioned himself to get into the top ten in the final stint and ninth sucks considering how good his car was, but it was a remarkable recovery and looking at the bigger picture of the championship, he kept himself from being in a deep hole entering the final 11 races.
10. Fourth Indianapolis 500 start and fourth top ten finish for Santino Ferrucci, who drove flawlessly, but Dreyer & Reinbold Racing needs some attention because Ferrucci's crew kept earning him positions through pit stops. Ferrucci made passes of his own but the pit crew was always gaining ground for him. That is remarkable considering it is a one-off team. And the pace was in the cars, something D&R struggled with for much of the last decade since becoming an Indianapolis-only team.
There was some flirtation with Dreyer & Reinbold expanding to more than the Indianapolis 500. In 2020, it ran all the Indianapolis races with Sage Karam, four total races. Results weren't great. I am not sure there is any incentive to run Iowa or Gateway, especially since those are high downforce ovals, but it could be worth it and Ferrucci doesn't have any other races on his schedule.
11. Juan Pablo Montoya kept his nose clean and finished 11th. Montoya was vocal all month about how he wasn't planning on returning to Indianapolis and Arrow McLaren SP talked him into it, and then twisted his arm into running the IMS road course race.
With AMSP about to expand to three cars, this might be the final time we saw Montoya run the Indianapolis 500. He struggled for speed the entire month. The other two AMSP cars were regularly in the top ten and Montoya was struggling to break the top 30 on a few days. In the race, Montoya looked good and made some magic happen, but if he is ready to walk away I think we should let him go.
I am grateful Montoya returned to IndyCar and thrilled he got to win a second Indianapolis 500. He is the best of his generation. Sure, his Indianapolis 500 stats are slim, but let's be thankful for what we got to see. I find it fitting that it is highly probable his final IndyCar start, Formula One start and NASCAR start were all at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He ended with a strong run should this be it.
12. J.R. Hildebrand was not mentioned once on the broadcast and ended up 12th. How did that happen? Honestly, I am not sure because Hildebrand was one of the first cars to pit in this race, stopping on lap 26. I thought he was committing to a six-stop strategy because starting 17th meant he was never going to see clean air and if he ran short stints he could pit, get into clean air and possibly pull himself up the order leapfrogging other drivers.
But Hildebrand was caught a lap down with that strategy. He was waved around back onto the lead lap, but still had some work to do and still wound up 12th. That is a good run for Hildebrand and I am happy he still has three more starts in the remaining oval races.
13. Josef Newgarden had a good day going and then stalled after his pit stop under the Romain Grosjean caution just after the halfway point in the race. That killed any hopes of climbing into the challenge. Newgarden had worked his way into the top ten at that point. He topped off on fuel with about 47 laps to go.
He was never going to be able to go that long on the final, but he did effectively split the final stint in half. He had greater range late in the race. He could stop in 12 laps and make it or he could go likely as late as 15 to go. There was greater flexibility for decisions and he wound up getting to 13th, a good recovery but a result that still smarts. For the first time since 2011, Team Penske does not have a top ten finisher in the Indianapolis 500.
14. Graham Rahal wasn't noted once and he finished 14th. That fits Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's month. The team never showed any pace. I didn't see it climbing far up the order and throwing its weight around. The team has some work to do.
15. Will Power had an odd race. Power made up spots in the opening laps but he lost more than he gained toward the end of that first stint and the team could never find balance in the car. He settled in the middle of the field and never looked right for a top ten run. Making it even more strange is Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin were going forward and there was a thought either to those could have mixed it up and held on with the leaders if they got there. Rough day for Team Penske.
16. We come to our top two rookie finishers. David Malukas was 16th and Kyle Kirkwood was 17th. With three rookies crashing out, I would say it is between these two for Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year.
Malukas qualified 13th and looked respectable throughout practice and qualifying. Kirkwood gained 11 positions after starting 28th. I would vote for Malukas. Honestly, none of the performances were all that great this year. Malukas was good in qualifying. He was good in the race even if it wasn't much to brag about and Malukas was the top finishing rookie after his car had to be repaired after a Carb Day accident.
Both drivers get praise, Malukas gets the award.
17. Ed Carpenter was tenth when the red lag came out and the car would not re-fire after the red flag was initially lifted. The car was eventually restarted, but Carpenter lost those positions and instead of being tenth, he had to fight back in two laps just to get 18th.
IndyCar has allowed the teams to put more fans on the cars after the Will Power incident at Belle Isle last year. It is not a perfect world. You cannot guarantee every car is going to restart no matter the circumstances. This is always a risk when the red flag is lifted whether it is with four laps remaining in the Indianapolis 500 or lifted after four laps into the Portland race because of a massive accident at the chicane. Machinery will fail you at the most inopportune time.
In Carpenter's case, it was while tenth in the Indianapolis 500 with a two-lap dash ahead of him. It is cruel because Carpenter was in the top ten for basically this entire race.
18. Devlin DeFrancesco was 19th. Yeah, that's about right. Nothing flashy plus no mistakes equals 19th. The bar wasn't set much higher than this.
19. Christian Lundgaard was 20th. Yeah, that's about right. Nothing flashy plus no mistakes equals 20th. The bar wasn't set much higher than that.
You can see why David Malukas really is the only choice for Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year. DeFrancesco and Lundgaard went from 24th to 19th and 31st to 20th. Nothing earth-shattering from that rookie duo. But they completed all 500 miles! Good for them.
20. This is the most crushing defeat of Scott Dixon's career. A pit lane speeding penalty on the final stop of the Indianapolis 500 while coming in from the lead and having already led 95 laps. That is a dagger of historic proportions. Thank goodness Dixon has already won this race otherwise this would go down in Indianapolis 500 history alongside "Andretti is slowing."
It is still devastating because with 95 laps led, Dixon is now the all-time leader in Indianapolis 500 laps led, breaking the record Al Unser had held since 1987. After winning his fifth Indianapolis 500 pole position last week, getting the all-time laps led record in this race while also leading the most laps in a record-extending sixth Indianapolis 500, this was on a platter to be Dixon's grand performance, one he deserves. Not to forget mentioning it would have been his 52nd career victory, tying him with Mario Andretti for second all-time.
All the pieces were there for a glorious ceremony fitting for the best IndyCar driver in the 21st century and arguably the best IndyCar driver all-time, and a pit lane speeding penalty on the final stop erased that celebration.
Dixon has been in a rut for over a year. Any concerns about him falling off a cliff were eradicated with this performance and then he made the one error you did not expect Dixon to make. After a spate of pit lane entry issues last year, there were only two speeding penalties in this race, one for Dixon and the other was for Stefan Wilson when Wilson was already a lap down.
It is baffling Dixon made this error. If he nails that stop he wins this race. I don't think Ericsson would have charged to the lead if Dixon was under the limit. Ericsson likely would have charged forward just to provide support for his teammate against the AMSP duo.
Now we have to wait, at least another seven days until Dixon can end this year-plus winless drought and finally tie Mario Andretti for second all-time in victory, and we wait 364 days until Dixon gets another shot at a second Indianapolis 500 victory.
21. Marco Andretti was 22nd but led three laps during the final pit cycle. Andretti was the final car on the lead lap.
How long is Andretti going to keep doing this? He started 23rd and finished 22nd. He was running just inside the top twenty for much of this race. I like him. I think people have been too harsh to him. He wasn't his grandfather or his father, tough. But he wasn't a bad guy. A shy guy, sure, and people for some reason had a problem with Andretti's shyness.
But it is one thing to be an Indianapolis one-off, qualify in the top half of the field and possibly be in the mix. At no point was that on Andretti's radar this year. With the direction the team is heading that likely will not be the case next year as well.
The ride will always be waiting for Andretti. It is only one race a year, but will this one race be worth it if your best hope is 15th?
22. Sage Karam was good for most of this race, not quite in the top ten but on the cusp of it for much of the day. Then Karam had an accident exiting turn two on the final lap.
Karam did make some aggressive moves today. Nothing that was over the line dirty, but this is his only IndyCar race of the year and he wants his best result possible. I think he likely felt some extra pressure with Ferrucci joining the team and spending much of the race in the top ten. Karam was respectable throughout practice. Dreyer & Reinbold has a solid program. Hopefully Karam is back. Nothing suggests he will not be, but this result does not do him justice.
23. Jack Harvey and Takuma Sato both stopped at lap 157 just prior to the restart after the Scott McLaughlin incident. There was almost no way they were going to make it 43 laps on fuel, but they tried. Unfortunately, both stopped just prior to the Johnson accident and were caught a lap down.
This was Harvey's one gamble. He was on the tail end of the lead lap the entire race. Sato was running well inside the top ten and then faded. I am not quite sure what bit Sato in this one.
24. Dalton Kellett was two laps down in 27th. A.J. Foyt Racing didn't have great qualifying pace, but when you see J.R. Hildebrand qualify 17th and then turnaround a lackluster strategy into a 12th-place finish and you see Kirkwood finish 17th, the center point of the field on the lead lap, you have to wonder if Kirkwood had a senior teammate for the full season and someone with more experience at Indianapolis, how well Foyt could do?
People punch down on Kellett. He is a good guy and accessible. He is an asset to IndyCar and though he isn't competitive, I think Kellett is valuable to the series and could be an ambassador explaining the intricate nature of the series.
At some point, finishing outside the top twenty each week catches up to you. A driver cannot make a 15-year career doing it. Unless you are Dick Simon but this is a different era. I hope Kellett can remain involved even if it isn't as a driver.
25. Stefan Wilson completed 198 laps, a big improvement from last year. This was a piecemeal entry. It didn't have any hopes competing for a top ten result. A lead lap result was asking a lot. Wilson got it to the checkered flag, which is a moral victory. He went a lap down basically after this first pit stop and never saw the lead lap again, always out of rotation for the wave around.
I like Stefan Wilson. He is another good guy. I want to see him driving regularly somewhere. If he can combine that with an Indianapolis 500 program then great. It will likely help his form and could improve his results, but that also depends on the car. Wilson could have been driving for Red Bull and winning grand prix and he wasn't going to do much better than what he did today in 27th.
26. There were six cautions today for six incidents. Five of those were in turn two. That happens. It is a combination of the wind, track temperature, tire wear and the downforce levels on these cars. Almost all of these incidents occurred at the end of fuel stints with tears worn. Like clockwork, we were preparing for green flag pit stops and someone was in the wall.
I don't like it because I like seeing a race develop and watching green flag pit stops. There is added pressure on everyone. IndyCar has tried to add a little more downforce to these cars to increase stability, but with this universal aero kit only so much can be done. I don't think IndyCar and Dallara are going to develop a larger rear wing especially since we hope a new car will be here in 2024 or 2025 or 2026... soon is what I am saying.
It is more difficult to pass with the universal aero kit. It isn't impossible but there were more dull periods in this race than we were accustomed to seeing. We got a little spoiled but there is also a happy medium. These cars are more weather sensitive than the original DW12 aero package and the manufacture-specific packages.
IndyCar cannot bank on it being cloudy and under 75º F to have a good race. I thought today was a good race, but it needs to be a little better than just waiting 30 laps for another pit cycle. It is too late with the universal aero kit, but that should be a focus whenever we see a new chassis and new bodywork introduced.
27. Speaking of those incidents, Jimmie Johnson slammed the wall in turn two. I know many were high
on Johnson possibly winning this race. When Johnson qualified 12th, I expected him to struggle in turbulent air and remain in the middle of the field. That happened and then he was caught a lap down after his second pit stop. He did get the wave around, but he was at the tail for the rest of the race.
Johnson was on the same strategy as Andretti, and Johnson did get to lead lap 188, but this wasn't a great day for Johnson even before the accident. It would have been a shame if Johnson finished ahead of Dixon and after Dixon's penalty that looked likely.
I thought the broadcast had a healthy amount of Johnson coverage. It wasn't overboard. It acknowledged he was in the race, you had to considering he is a seven-time NASCAR champion making his Indianapolis 500 debut, but he wasn't the focus. Once he was in the back third of the field, his pit stops might have been shown or mentioned, but the broadcast didn't listen into his radio just to hear what he was struggling with. He wasn't a factor in the race and didn't receive more attention than warranted.
28. Scott McLaughlin looked competitive today. If McLaughlin hadn't been caught in the qualifying line when the rains came and forced to make an attempt when the conditions cleared, he would have started about ten positions better and McLaughlin likely would have been in the top ten by the end of the first pit cycle.
It is an entirely different race if McLaughlin is in the top ten within the first 50 laps than the race we saw today. He had a moment in turn three and that was game over with a quarter of the race to play. He climbed into the top ten fight. This is a bummer, but there is always next year.
29. Colton Herta had the race from hell and it all started with his Carb Day accident. Herta was forced to the backup car, which was his winning car from the Grand Prix of Indianapolis a fortnight ago. The car wasn't even shaken down before the race and Herta was in a losing position from the drop of the green flag. His pace was woeful. It felt like a piece or two was missing because he couldn't even run laps in the 41-second range.
I am not sure what could have been done. I don't think Herta should have gotten a special session yesterday. Maybe just a ten-lap shakedown, not that it would have mattered considering how poor the car was. I will say I was surprised Andretti didn't have a spare speedway car ready to go.
I know it is a five-car effort and even Andretti Autosport doesn't have a dozen spare chassis laying around, but it didn't have one spare car ready in case of emergency? I feel like that would be something the team would have. It is unlikely two or three cars would have had incidents big enough after qualifying weekend and Monday practice that would have required back ups. It would just seem prudent to have a spare ready. The spare wouldn't be perfect, but it would at least be in the ballpark.
At the start of practice week, Rossi said his car was the exact same car he raced last year at Indianapolis and that the car hadn't been touched since last year's race. What car did Rossi use during the Indianapolis test in April? There had to be another car out there capable of being set up for the speedway. I know Belle Isle is a tight turnaround, but this is the Indianapolis 500. Have a spare ready and once you get through Carb Day begin turning it over for Belle Isle if that is where it has to be used next.
This is all easier said than done, but after watching what Herta went through today, he should have just remained in bed. He had a better chance of winning with his mattress than that car.
30. Romain Grosjean made it 105 laps before his spin. Grosjean never had a handle on race setup. He was always raving about his qualifying trim, but the race setup was a beast for him. He was smack dap in the middle of the field, behind Rossi before his accident. If Grosjean doesn't spin, I am not sure he would have been much better than DeFranesco.
31. Callum Ilott might have broken his wrist in his lap 69 accident. Ilott started well. He didn't look out of sorts. The car just got away from him in turn two. I am sure this raises a question mark about his availability for Belle Isle. That is a tough circuit with two good hands, and Ilott is already down one. We have something to keep an eye on this week.
32. The first car out today was Rinus VeeKay after 38 laps when he spun in turn two. It was too early to tell whether or not VeeKay actually would have been there at the end. He looked strong, but there were also two capable AMSP cars and eventually winner Marcus Ericsson that jumped up there. VeeKay could have fallen behind all three. He could have remained ahead of all three and won. He could have had a pit lane speeding penalty of his own in the middle of the race. We will never know. Either way, it was disappointing to see such a challenger out before completing 100 miles.
33. 364 days until the 107th Indianapolis 500.
