A pack of cars lead by the likes of Oriol Servia, Stefan Wilson, and Jack Harvey paced the Indianapolis 500 field to the green flag with seven laps to go on Sunday.
All three of them were trying to stretch a single tank of fuel over the last 43 laps of the race, when the fuel range was at 30-34 laps. Behind them sat Will Power, who was faster and on newer tires then the front three.
Will Power wins his first Indianapolis 500
Power got caught up behind Servia, who surrendered the lead to Wilson and Harvey, during the first of the seven laps on the final run. After getting by him, it was evident that Wilson would be a bit tougher of a task.
Power couldn’t get by the second-place car of Harvey for two entire laps, and with Wilson adding to his lead, it looked like fans at Indianapolis Motor Speedway might get to see an upset.
Then it happened.
Harvey and Wilson were forced to come down pit road with four laps to go, and Power would take over the top spot.
Single-car wrecks were the big theme of Sunday’s race, taking out some of the contenders to win.
James Davison was the first to cause one as his slow speed corralled defending champion Takuma Sato into the wall ending his day early.
Along with Sato, 2016 Indy Lights champion Ed Jones, farewell driver Danica Patrick, veteran Helio Castroneves, Sage Karam, Tony Kanaan, and Kyle Kaiser were all retired before the last 50 laps of the race.
During the madness of the restarts, Alexander Rossi was on a mission. Rossi would go around four cars in a single turn and later overtake two of the top five to sit in P3 with just under 40 laps to go.
Rossi nearly got around Ed Carpenter for second place on the ensuing restart following Karam’s accident, but couldn’t make it stick.
After pit stops shuffled around, Rossi finished fourth behind Scott Dixon, Carpenter, and Power. Ryan Hunter-Reay rounded out the top five.
The series returns to action next weekend, with the running of dual feature races in Detroit. At 3:30 p.m. ET on both Saturday and Sunday, fans can tune in to watch the series once again.
Indianapolis 500 Results
1. Will Power
2. Ed Carpenter
3. Scott Dixon
4. Alexander Rossi
5. Ryan Hunter-Reay
6. Simon Pagenaud
7. Carlos Munoz
8. Josef Newgarden
9. Robert Wickens
10. Graham Rahal
11. J.R. Hildebrand
12. Marco Andretti
13. Mattheus Leist
14. Gabby Chaves
15. Stefan Wilson
16. Jack Harvey
17. Oriol Servia
18. Charlie Kimball
19. Zach Claman De Melo
20. Spencer Pigot
21. Conor Daly
22. Max Chilton
23. Zach Veach
24. Jay Howard
25. Tony Kanaan
26. Sage Karam
27. Helio Castroneves
28. Sebastien Bourdais
29. Kyle Kaiser
30. Danica Patrick
31. Ed Jones
32. Takuma Sato
33. James Davison
MAIN PHOTO:
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