2017 Indianapolis 500 - The Live Blog

From Road & Track

5:00 PM: Takuma Sato, after coming so close in 2012, has finally won the Indianapolis 500. Here's more on his race, and the circumstances that led him to the front, down to the mid-pack, and back to the front. The archived live blog is below.

4:00 PM: The 2012 Indianapolis 500 has been avenged. Takuma Sato, the man who had it all in his grasp but lost control into turn 1 five years ago, wins the biggest race of his life. The Formula 1 veteran, Japan's greatest open wheel driver of the decade, has won the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race for Honda and Andretti Autosport.

3:59 PM: White flag. Sato has a gap and is safe into turn 1.

3:58 PM: Castroneves makes his move into 1 with two to go. No success. Three more chances.

3:57 PM: Sato has controlled the lead well. Three to go, all he has to do is hold off a three-time race winner in a Penske car.

3:57 PM: Sato to the lead on the backstretch, Jones past Chilton for third. Five to go.

3:56 PM: Castroneves to the lead, Chilton is passed on the outside in 3. Sato makes his move on the frontstretch, up to second. Six to go.

3:55 PM: Max Chilton has held off Castroneves four times in a row. Seven to go.

3:54 PM: Helio to second on the outside into three. Nine to go.

3:52 PM: Back to green. Sato tries to make a move to the outside and doesn't succeed giving Chilton a decent lead. He tries again a lap later, still coming up short. Helio Castroneves has moved to third and will have a chance to move to second.

JR Hildebrand jumped the previous restart and will have to serve a penalty from fifth.

3:46 PM, Caution 9: On the restart, your leaders will be Chilton, Sato, Jones, Castroneves, and Hildebrand. Chilton and Jones have to go two laps further on fuel, but this extended cleanup should get them comfortably into that range.

3:41 PM, Caution 9: Involved are Hinchcliffe, Power, Davison, Servia, and Newgarden, with the latter taking only minimal damage. The other four are done for the day, a disappointing end to what were very, very strong runs for Davison and Servia, who started the wreck with contact in turn 1.

3:40 PM, Caution 9: Back to green and Max Chilton has been told he is "Probably" okay to the end. Three wide for second behind the leaders and we have a pile-up from sixth on back.

3:37 PM, Caution 8: The incredible timing of these two yellows has greatly benefited Max Chilton, who is now much more likely to be able to make it to the end of the race on fuel. Perhaps his bigger concern is now the issues with Honda engines, which have now ended races for his teammate and two other competitive teams.

3:34 PM, Caution 8: Just as many predicted, Fernando Alonso's race ends in the most poetically brutal way possible. His Honda engine has lost power on the front stretch, the third Honda to do so in the last 50 laps. It's a repeat of his pains from throughout the Formula 1 season. His late charge has come up short and he will not win the Indianapolis 500 as a rookie.

3:33 PM: Helio slows to grab second and allows Takuma Sato to make a move to the outside, a huge three-wide push into turn 1 and the Andretti Autosport star is into second.

3:32 PM: Alonso is making his push now, having moved past Davison and Kanaan on successive laps and now looking to move past JR Hildebrand. Sato has retaken fourth from Servia.

3:30 PM: Ed Jones tries to take second, stays inside Helio Castroneves through 1 and 2, finally gets the spot into 3. Takuma Sato has to lift, Oriol Servia is into fourth.

3:30 PM: Castroneves moves into second. Sato looks ready to make the move on Ed Jones to do the same very soon.

3:28 PM: Back to green. Castroneves and Davison go side-by-side for third into turn 1. Castroneves keeps the spot and Davison gets shuffled back. The top three break away.

3:26 PM, Caution 7: Everyone has their fuel gambles decided, and barring any late changes of plan the leaders have made their final stops. Your top ten as it stands:

Max Chilton, needs to make 34 laps on fuel
Ed Jones, needs 34
Helio Castroneves, needs 32
James Davison, needs 32
Takuma Sato, needs 32
JR Hildebrand, needs 32
Tony Kanaan, needs 32
Oriol Servia, needs 32
Fernando Alonso, needs 32
Simon Pagenaud, needs 32

3:23 PM, Caution 7: The pits are open and this is just about where teams need to be to make it to the end on a good stretch. Everyone on the lead lap but Ed Jones and Max Chilton stops, as those two have stopped two laps ago. Helio Castroneves now leads the primary strategy, a few laps separated from the leaders, in third after being the first out of the pits, while gambles paid off to move James Davison and JR Hildebrand into the top six.

3:21 PM, Caution 7: Another caution immediately after Max Chilton pits from P1 as Charlie Kimball blows his Honda engine. Zach Veach was already slowing on the backstretch.

3:17 PM: With no small thanks to the many yellows, five drivers have gone 41 laps on this most recent stint. They'll have to make 34 laps on the next stint and will need at least one yellow to do it.

Sato is back on pace and has moved all the way up to third on the primary strategy, just behind Oriol Servia and Helio castroneves. Tony Kanaan and Fernando Alonso sit in fourth and fifth.

3:13 PM: James Davison, who stopped later than Chilton and Kimball, has moved into second after a series of aggressive moves and, if he can save fuel well, might actually have a chance of making it on just one more stop. Castroneves has become more patient and has yet to really attack the top three. Interesting times at Indianapolis.

3:10 PM: Graham Rahal makes an unscheduled stop for a left-rear tire going down. Ends what was once a very promising day.

3:08 PM: Back to green and we're five-wide on the backstretch in the battle for the net lead among those who stopped on the sixth yellow. That's, essentially, a battle for the race lead. Helio Castroneves was the benefactor, now up to fifth, but he's closely followed by Oriol Servia, Tony Kanaan, and Fernando Alonso.

3:07 PM, Caution 7: Aleshin finally stops, that car's only repairs being tape over the hole in the sidepod. Carpenter gets a top-off.

3:04 PM, Caution 7: Ed Carpenter is the only stopper under this yellow despite massive damage to the right sidepod of Mikhail Aleshin's #7. He'll have three laps on those who have already stopped.

3:03 PM, Caution 7: An update on Buddy Lazier, who spun in turn 4 earlier in the race:

3:01 PM, Caution 7: Back to green and immediately a yellow for debris from Ed Carpenter's #20, which lost the left half of its front wing after making contact with Mikhail Aleshin into turn 1. It was a bad restart for Alonso, who fell from leading the group of recent stoppers to 12th overall. The benefactor was Helio Castroneves, who now leads that group in eighth. Charlie Kimball passed Max Chilton for the lead during the brief period of green flag running.

2:58 PM, Caution 6: The leaders pit and those who stopped under the previous yellows stay out, so Alonso moves from first to ninth. A bad stop for Alexander Rossi drops him from second all the way to twenty-first. Chip Ganassi Racing's secondary pairing of Max Chilton and Charlie Kimball lead JR Hildebrand up front, with James Davison and Graham Rahal having about seven laps more fuel in fourth and fifth.

2:52 PM, Caution 6: One of the big story lines of the weekend has finally struck; A Honda engine in a contender's car has gone sour. Ryan Hunter-Reay is the stricken leader, and his race seems to be over. This has to be disconcerting for Alonso, who has been struck by Honda engine failures in Formula 1 for the last two years and was hoping to avoid it on his trip stateside.

2:51 PM: Back to green yet again and Alonso and Hunter-Reay have already traded the lead twice. Castroneves will have to stop in te next few laps but has been very, very fast of late.

2:47 PM, Caution 5: The only notable stoppers under this yellow are Graham Rahal and Simon Pagenaud, and given how strong the former has been of late, that could be very notable in forty laps.

2:46 PM, Caution 5: A quick yellow one lap later for debris outside of turn 4. Alonso took the lead into turn 1 and will lead under yellow.

Sage Karam's earlier issue seems to have been a battery problem.

2:45 PM: Back to green. Hunter-Reay leads.

2:39 PM, Caution 4: James Davison comes down the pits late for his wing repair, giving him one more lap of fuel than the rest of the field. Sage Karam, running in the top fifteen, has stopped on the track and seems to be done for the day with a gearbox issue.

2:36 PM, Caution 4: Very few takers under that yellow, notable among them are Max Chilton, JR Hildebrand, Marco Andretti, and reigning series champion Simon Pagenaud. Despite being within a conceivable range of a second-to-last stop, those are the only takers. All four are fast enough to win on an alternate strategy.

2:33 PM, Caution 4: Buddy Lazier spins early into turn 4, bringing out the yellow on lap 122. Most have stopped, but this may require a lengthy clean-up and give drivers the opportunity to go off-strategy again. For those thinking about their final stop, likely coming around lap 170, this is the ideal opportunity to differentiate from the field.

2:31 PM: James Davison, driving the back-up car of the injured Sebastien Bourdais, had worked his way into the top ten earlier in this run but now has a loose front wing and has been black flagged for a loose front wing, the result of contact with the rear bumper of Oriol Servia's #16.

2:27 PM: After that cycle, we have our first significant lead of the day. Ryan Hunter-Reay is up nearly four seconds on the field, with two teammates behind him, and will likely fall back into line with that group to save fuel once the group with drafting help catches up to him.

2:25 PM: Rossi comes in from second, notably a lap earlier than the rest of the Andretti Autosport group up front. That team now has three cars capable of running up front, and though Rossi is a lap separated, all three are on essentially the same strategy. This is a notable contrast with Penske, which seems to have four fast cars, two of which are on the primary strategy and two of which are working an alternate cycle. With JR Hildebrand having fallen off lately, Ed Carpenter Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing sport just one competitive car each and have no real way to split strategies, while Rahal-Letterman teammates Graham Rahal and Oriol Servia seem committed to running on the primary strategy together.

2:20 PM: Castroneves and Power stop, returning Rossi, Hunter-Reay, and Alonso to an Andretti 1-2-3. Notably, Graham Rahal now runs fourth, while Penske seems to have found its way with two on-strategy cars in the top ten and two off-strategy cars having looked competitive when staying out with the leaders.

2:16 PM: Helio Castroneves, with just one winglet, moves into the lead. It's the first lead for a Chevrolet, or a car not out of the six-strong Andretti Autosport stable for that matter, in a while. We're at lap 100, halfway.

2:11 PM: While Hunter-Reay and Rossi are still up front where they've been all day long, Fernando Alonso has slipped to fifth after being passed by a charging Helio Castroneves. Worse, Takuma Sato has slid all the way to seventeenth after a particularly tumultuous restart. Andretti Autosport's dominance is waning, if ever so slowly.

2:07 PM: Two laps later and Hunter-Reay is clear into the lead. Even for this race, that was a notably dicey restart. Hasn't been one instance of a corner without at least one pair going side-by-side in four laps.

2:06 PM: Will Power and Max Chilton, who stopped under the previous yellow, take advantage of going off-strategy by not stopping under the yellow and start up front. Power led the field to the green, but Chilton quickly got past into turn 1. Ryan Hunter-Reay, leader of those who did stop, is already back into third and chasing down the race leaders on fresher tires.

2:01 PM, Caution 3: We've got another quick yellow, this for a sizable chunk of debris on turn 1. It's a piece of the left-rear winglet off the #27 of Marco Andretti, who now sports the reverse of the asymmetrical damage that Helio Castroneves and the #3 Penske team have chosen not to repair.

1:58 PM: Tony Kanaan makes a big move to break up the Andretti Autosport 1-2-3-4, following Fernando Alonso in moving past a falling Takuma Sato. A lap later, it's another Andretti Autosport swap as Rossi lets a charging Ryan Hunter-Reay by.

1:57 PM: Back to green yet again. Alexander Rossi makes quick work of Sato to retake the lead and we're a legitimate four-wide into turn three further back in the pack.

1:46 PM, Caution 2: The timing of that yellow is ideal for anyone looking to go off-strategy early. James Hinchcliffe, Max Chilton, and Will Power headline the group that stops, all three of whom are in cars that are theoretically quick enough to compete for the win if they find themselves up front on strategy with 20 to go.

In other Penske-related news, Helio Castroneves has been handed a drive-through penalty for passing before the green on the previous restart. Josef Newgarden is now that contingent's leader in 11th.

1:42 PM, Caution 2: A furious five laps after the restart, Conor Daly crashes in the outside turn three wall to bring out the yellow. he was part of an aggressive scuffle for twelfth that was four-wide at one point, ultimately pushing his Honda-powered car too hard to move past Kimball on the outside, snapping out of control and bouncing into the wall. There's another spin behind Daly, as the #50 of Jack Harvey finds itself in the turn three grass. Looks to be the end of the day for both drivers.

1:40 PM: Sato now moves past Rossi to take the lead, and while Ryan Hunter-Reay tried to follow, the 2014 winner lifted just before washing up into Rossi inside of turn 1.

1:39 PM: Back to green and Alonso's teammates are making quick work of him. First it's Alexander Rossi moving past to take the lead, then Takuma Sato and Ryan Hunter Reay. Andretti Autosport runs 1-2-3-4, with the leader on the restart in fourth.

1:32 PM, Caution 1: The damage for Castroneves is a lost right-rear bumper winglet. The pits open, every driver on the lead lap takes advantage, and the #3 Penske team changes it under yellow. The top three leave as they entered, with Alonso leading Rossi, Sato, Carpenter, and Ryan Hunter-Reay. Andretti Autosport has four cars in the top five on this restart, five in the top eight.

1:30 PM, Caution 1: After a red flag of just over twenty minutes, the field re-fires and we're back under yellow. Alonso is your leader, 145 laps to go.

1:21 PM, Caution 1: A familiar face had entered the top ten for the first time today just before this incident, with three-time winner Helio Castroneves now running 8th. He may have some balance issues when the race resumes, however, as he seems to have made some sort of light contact with the inside wall while avoiding the flipping car of Scott Dixon during that incident.

1:13 PM, Caution 1: With both Howard and Dixon closely avoiding helmet-to-anything-else contact, that incident serves as a reminder that IndyCar (and most other open wheel racing, for that matter) still doesn't have any real head protection. A canopy to deflect debris wouldn't have been able to help much there, but as intermittent IndyCar driver Townsend Bell points out, there are other options that could help in that situation:

1:07 PM, Caution 1: We're now under red for what will be a lengthy clean-up. The wreck is a result of Jay Howard falling off the pace, slowing into the racing line in turn 2, and becoming unavoidable for the full-speed Dixon. The contact instantly launched Dixon, who was instantly launched into the air, flipping into the inside wall. The Dixon car hit the top of that SAFER barrier engine-first from the side, instantly fracturing the car in two. That both walked away from that wreck is a testament to how safe Dallara's current chassis is in cases of odd angle full speed impacts.

1:04 PM, Caution 1: Yellow for a massive crash in turn 2, collecting Scott Dixon and Jay Howard. Dixon's car is destroyed, with the rear end breaking off from the engine on back. Dixon walks out of the car on his own, while Jay Howard gets out with light assistance.

1:00 PM: Rossi briefly retakes the lead, but just half a lap later Alonso takes it back. The only two drivers with recent Formula 1 experience in the field are now joined by the third F1 veteran at Andretti Autosport, Takuma Sato, who has moved past Ed Carpenter and Tony Kanaan to take third.

12:58 PM: While the distinguished race leader may seem like the favorite for rookie of the race, keep an eye on Ed Jones. Previously in the top ten, he now runs in twelfth after those stops, but he's shown consistent pace in a very fast car and is now the lead driver for a team known for its propensity to take risks to win races. That's the exact position Alexander Rossi found himself in last season, with the end result being a rookie champion.

12:53 PM: Rossi moves past Carpenter, with Alonso following. Just a few seconds later, Fernando Alonso makes a move of his own, and for the first time of his career, the two-time Formula 1 World Champion leads the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race.

12:50 PM: Jay Howard, running mid-pack throughout the race, runs out of fuel halfway through lap 32. That seems to be the outer limits of the Honda fuel window. No Chevrolet made an effort to stretch their fuel that far. Ed Carpenter takes the lead from Rossi and Kanaan under that set of stops, becoming the first leader in a Chevrolet today. Rossi slots into second, Alonso into third, and Kanaan finds himself back in fourth.

12:46 PM: Dixon's car seems to be moving away from him as his tires age, having slipped from second to sixth in just two laps. Up front, Tony Kanaan becomes the first of the leaders to stop. He went 29 laps and seemed strong all run long, but Dixon, who was running second for most of that run, seems to have outrun the comfort zone on his tires on the same setup in the same time.

12:44 PM: Alexander Rossi, after looking quicker for the better part of fifteen laps, has finally moved past Scott Dixon for second. He now begins to hunt down Kanaan for the lead. Further back in the field, Fernando Alonso moves past JR Hildebrand on the outside for fifth, his first appearance in the top five since the beginning of the race. The top seven are all covered by a blanket of just two and a half seconds, with the spacing about a second per car through the rest of the field.

12:40 PM: Dale Coyne Racing's Ed Jones moves into tenth. That's the team's only healthy car, with their #18 heavily damaged after the harrowing wreck Sebastien Bourdais endured on Saturday of qualifying weekend. That car was incredibly quick in the one lap it did run in qualifying conditions and it seems the team's speed has carried over to the race setup with the team entry of Jones.

12:35 PM: Early in the running, leader Kanaan is the first driver in the top ten to set a lap in the 223 MPH range. Alonso and Carpenter each have a lap at 222.9. Chip Ganassi Racing's top pair lead, Andretti Autosport's five strongest cars run 3-6-7-8-9, and Ed Carpenter Racing's two-car contingent fill out the top five. There is just one Penske car in the top fifteen, Will Power in 10th.

12:31 PM: Onto lap 5 and Dixon loses the lead to teammate Tony Kanaan, who has passed a car into turn three every lap from the start of the race. Rossi has moved past Will Power into third, first among the non-Ganassi contingent.

12:28 PM: We're green. Your big winner on the three-wide start is Will Power, who moves from the third row all the way to second. Your big loser is Fernando Alonso, who falls to the back half of the top ten from the middle of row two, a particularly difficult starting position for someone not used to full speed rolling starts. Dixon leads, with Carpenter and Kanaan pressuring Power for the second position.

12:19 PM: Tony George gives the command and the front row is rolling away. Your lead contenders are those three: 2008 winner Scott Dixon, two-time polesitter and lone owner/driver in the field Ed Carpenter, and reigning champion Alexander Rossi. Dixon and Rossi have three and five(!) teammates, respectively, but Carpenter has just one driver, JR Hildebrand, joining him in his stable. Penske Racing, generally the favorites here, have struggled all month, and their stacked five-car lineup put just one driver on the first three rows. Other drivers to watch include James Hinchcliffe of Sam Schmidt's Honda-powered operation, Rahal-Letterman's one-two punch of Oriol Servia and Graham Rahal, and Sage Karam, the young 500 specialist who has proven to be equal parts fast and prone to risk taking in his IndyCar career to date.

12:07 PM: The mock grid is formed and we're just Back Home Again In Indiana, a starting command, two pace laps, and probably five or six more ads for ABC game shows away from the beginning of what promises to be one of the best races of 2017.

12:00 PM: Six years into the DW12 era, the Indianapolis 500 has cemented itself not just as perhaps the most prestigious race in the world, but as one of the best and least predictable as well. Over the past five seasons, no driver has won the race twice, only Andretti Autosport can claim more than one win as a team, and four have been under question until well after the leader entered turn four on the race's final lap. There has yet to be a 500 in this decade that couldn't be considered a classic in its own way, and with one of the deepest fields in years (featuring Fernando Alonso as the most distinguished rookie at the Speedway since Nigel Mansell), 2017 could extend that streak to eight in a row. Pre-race ceremonies have begun, and the 101st Indianapolis 500 is just twenty minutes away.

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