Takuma Sato Wins 2017 Indianapolis 500

From Road & Track

2012 was a unique Indianapolis 500, the first of a new generation of cars that proved to create a dramatic, passing-friendly race that rewarded a different kind of driver. While the 500 was traditionally won by the fastest and most patient, the DW12 rewarded a driver willing to make two passing moves a lap and do everything in their power to get to the front of the field. Takuma Sato took to the new car immediately, and when he found himself behind the leading Dario Franchitti with one to go and a strong run heading into turn 1, it seemed he was destined to take a dramatic win.

He made his move a straight too soon, however, and his Rahal Letterman-Lanigan car snapped out of control. Franchitti would go on to win under yellow, and Takuma Sato's best race of his career to date ended prematurely.

That moment has defined his career since, and even after he took his first career IndyCar win with AJ Foyt Racing at Long Beach in 2013, he was still the man that should have won Indianapolis. His tenure with Foyt's program ended last season, allowing him to join an Andretti Autosport team that won the 500 in 2016. He was the forgotten man for much of the month, sharing a team spotlight with the son of the team owner, the 2014 race winner, the reigning race winner, and two-time Formula 1 World Champion Fernando Alonso, but after two engine failures and one disastrous stop, he found himself as the only Andretti in contention with ten to go.

It was a day dominated by Honda power throughout, for better or for worse. It was polesitter Scott Dixon leading early, but his race would end in disaster when a laps-down Jay Howard slipped out of the groove in turn 3, bouncing back into traffic and launching Dixon into the air. The resulting wreck was nightmarish, with Dixon's Dallara flying into the inside SAFER barrier and landing side-first so violently that the back half of the car was torn off at the gearbox and thrown back onto the outside of the track. Both Howard and Dixon escaped serious harm, but Dixon did return to the infield care center a few hours later and left with a walking boot.

After the wreck, the race briefly calmed as Andretti Autosport's top four of Sato, Alexander Rossi, Fernando Alonso, and Ryan Hunter-Reay comfortably and quietly swapped the lead under minimal pressure. A flurry of well-timed yellows, for debris and for single-car incidents involving Conor Daly and Buddy Lazier, quickly changed that and opened up a variety of strategies. Helio Castroneves was among the beneficiaries, leading at halfway after going off-strategy and eventually falling back in line with the majority of the field inside of the top ten.

Then, disaster for Honda. The manufacturer had some issues with engine durability in practice throughout the month, but avoided any sort of problem in the race until lap 137, when Ryan Hunter-Reay's engine gave way on lap 137. A bad stop for Takuma Sato further fractured the Andretti group, opening the opportunity for Chip Ganassi Racing's "B-Team" of Max Chilton and Charlie Kimball to move onto a strategy that saw them lead for a stint. Then, another Honda disaster, this time Kimball suffering the engine failure. Chilton had stopped the lap prior, with 34 to go, as had Ed Jones, and the two suddenly found themselves within reasonable range of making their way to the end of the race on that final stop of fuel. When the rest of the field stopped, and when Alexander Rossi's strong run was sabotaged by another disastrous stop, the pair came out in the lead of the race.

Finally, Honda's third disaster struck. Fernando Alonso, having impressed as a rookie by qualifying in the top five and leading throughout the day, was making his charge back up into the top five when his engine fulfilled what can only be described as a perfect tragic narrative, blowing up just as so many of his Formula 1 engines from the supplier have over the past year and a half and ending his race the way many had jokingly predicted for months. He had a very real chance to win and was well ahead of his teammate who actually did win. Instead, he went home without finishing, just as Jenson Button did in his car in Monaco this morning.

The door was then opened for what seemed to be a final frantic restart, with Jones and Chilton still not certain they could finish the race without stopping again up front. Then, James Davison and Oriol Servia, running in the top five a few laps prior, both lost control in turn 1 in a fight for sixth, creating a chain reaction wreck that also caught up 2016 polesitter James Hinchcliffe, 2014 series champion Will Power, and new-for-2017 Penske driver Josef Newgarden. The extensive clean-up made for plenty of fuel saving, enough for Chilton and Jones to be certain of their fuel mileage. With JR Hildebrand handed a drive-through penalty for jumping the previous restart, the top four were Chilton, Sato, Jones, and Castroneves, and all that was left was the dash to the finish.

Sato tried to move past Chilton on the outside early, an unsuccessful move that left him vulnerable to Castroneves, who had moved past Ed Jones on the restart and soon took second. Three laps later, the three-time 500 winner was past Chilton and into the race lead, with Sato close behind. It took just a lap for Sato, having learned his lesson about what constitutes a reasonable opportunity to pass for the lead late back in 2012, to make his move, and he quickly moved past Castroneves. Over the next five laps, he successfully defended a lead that had changed hands throughout the race from what had over the last 190 laps become one of the strongest cars in the field, and with his Honda engine outlasting those of his teammates, Sato would go on to win.

The win is just Sato's second in an IndyCar, and by far the biggest of his career. The fan favorite hadn't been on a podium in the series since 2015, but after strong runs at St. Petersburg and Barber Motorsports Park, he now finds himself in fourth in the series standings.

Though IndyCar's biggest event is over, the series resumes next weekend with two races in Detroit, both of which will be aired on ABC.

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