Juan Pablo Montoya celebrates his win drinking the milk in Victory Lane. [Russ Lake Photo]
Indianapolis, Ind. – Hard-charging Juan Pablo Montoya raced to victory in the 99th running of the Indianapolis 500. The Colombian bounced back from an early incident and an errant pit stop that dropped him back to 30th. From there he moved steadily through the field, first catching the leaders and then battling for the lead as the race neared the end.
After slipping past Scott Dixon, he then waged a titanic battle with teammate Will Power, passing him on the 197th lap and racing to his second 500 victory, the first taking place 15 years ago. The three aces had the crowd on its feet over the course of the last 30 laps.
The margin of victory was a scant .1046 seconds and the average speed for the 500 miles was 161.341 miles per hour. The race time was three hours and five minutes.
Montoya drove the meticulously prepared Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet.
Said the victor, “It was fun. Our Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet was good all day. These guys at Team Penske did an amazing job. When I came through the field, I knew I had a good car. That fight there at the end was awesome.”
About winning the 500 for the second time, Montoya stated, “I don’t know what to say. This is too much! This is what racing in IndyCar is all about – awesome racing all the way down to the wire. It was just awesome.”
For the legendary Team Penske, it achieved its 16th 500 triumph.
Said owner Roger Penske, “We have a commitment to all our guys in the shop – we want to win. You can’t look in your review mirror. We met with our guys yesterday and set our strategy. I said, ‘We have to execute,’ and I think we saw that today. We executed on Juan’s car when he had that problem on the restart, and the pit stops were terrific. After the pit stop competition, we got a little buzz in our team that maybe we didn’t have. I come here for one reason, and that’s to win. And I want to come back as long as I can stand. “
Juan Pablo Montoya beats Will Power to the checkers. [Russ Lake Photo]
About the close battle between his two drivers, Penske added, “I knew we had two of our drivers up there but I couldn’t believe it. The worry was Dixon and the 83 (Charlie Kimball). At the end of the day, they played fair. There was good passing – in and out. All I can say is that we won the race.
“(The) Ganassi (team) was so strong all day long and they had a smart driver in (Scott) Dixon. Our guys stayed in there, and Montoya coming from all the way in the back… I’ll tell you, you give that guy the bit and put it in his mouth – as you know, he doesn’t give up. I’m just so thrilled for everyone who works for us, all the people who support us and all the race fans that were here, what a great day.”
Power once again failed to realize his dream of winning the 500, coming home second some car length behind at the finish
“I was trying to keep the lead because I knew with the heat, the tires were degrading and eventually they wouldn’t be able to get runs,” Power said. “(Juan Pablo) Montoya got a last run and maybe I was a little nice to him into turn 1 and lifted. After that, I had set my car up being up front – I got behind and had a lot of push. I got really close to him after turn 2 but washed out and I had to lift. That was the race. It was serious racing and a lot of fun. That’s all I had. Congrats to Juan. He was very strong all day and had to come through the field. It sucks finishing second. I’ve done that a few times in championships. But it’s the Indy 500.”
Charlie Kimball drove superbly in second half of race and passed teammate and early leader Scott Dixon, to gain third place.
“I was hoping they were going to push each other just a little bit too far and end up in the grey and I thought I was in the catbird seat,” he stated. “We just couldn’t capitalize on it and get close enough at the end to be able to make a run at him. But overall, the Novo Nordisk Chevrolet was quick when it needed to be and the guys made it better in the pit stops. They were on the money today.”
After leading 84 laps and looking like he had the win locked up, Dixon ended up fourth.
As expected, the New Zealand native was disappointed, saying, “When I really needed to go, I just couldn’t turn the car. We were fighting a little bit with the car overheating, so we were trying to go over different ignition maps. There was definitely a lot going on. As the laps were counting down I was trying to make something happen. Every time I came to the apex at turn 2 or even 4 toward the end, the front just wouldn’t hang on and I had to breathe it. Congrats to Juan. He drove a hell of a race and it was a good comeback from where he came from.”
The top four finishers drove Chevrolet-powered cars.
Graham Rahal and Marco Andretti gave Honda its best finish as they came in fifth and sixth.
Helio Castroneves, JR Hildebrand, Josef Newgarden, and Simon Pagenaud rounded out the top-10 finishers.
The race was dotted with incidents and a scary pit road accident that injured two crewmen.
The first incident took place on the opening lap when Takuma Sato tried to run three-abreast run in turn 1, taking out Sage Karam and also involving Ryan Briscoe, Pippa Mann and James Davison.
Said Karam, “I don’t know what Sato is doing; it was kind of a bonehead move. It’s the first lap and he’s trying to make it three wide. I don’t get it and it ruined a lot of people’s races.”
Shortly thereafter while running under caution, Simona de Silvestro tagged Montoya in turn 3, damaging the latter’s rear wing, and he had to pit for a replacement wing.
Bryan Clauson crashed out on lap 64 as did Tony Kanaan on the 153rd go-around. Also, Ed Carpenter and Oriol Servia came together on lap 113, ending their day against the wall. In total, six caution flags slowed the race for 47 of the 200 laps.
Dale Coyne Racing had three cars in race and they all got caught up in a pit road accident. All three were in pits at same time with Davison and Tristan Vautier next to each other. Farther back Mann had completed her stop and while passing the Davison pit, his crew sent him out and he touched the Mann car and slid into Vautier’s unsuspecting crew, knocking down two members of the crew that were working on the front of the car.
One was checked out and released and while the second sustained an ankle injury and was taken to Methodist Hospital for further evaluation.
With 24 laps to go, a jarring three-car crash took place exiting turn 4. Sebastian Saavedra got into back of Jack Hawksworth, and the pair slammed into the wall at speed, scattering debris everywhere and catching Stefano Coletti, who had no chance of missing them. Others skated through the debris.