Rossi Coasts into History with Stunning Win at 100th Running
May 29, 2016 | By Phillip B. Wilson
Questions started being asked before Alexander Rossi’s empty fuel tank had his car sputtering out of the final corner of the last lap in front of a sold out crowd in the 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, May 29, 2016.
How could such an obvious unknown pull off such a stunning, life-altering upset to win “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing?”
Not to mention, as so many scratched their heads, how could a rookie conserve fuel to stretch the last load for 36 laps and finish in front of several obviously quicker cars?
“Just pull the clutch and coast,” co-owner Bryan Herta told his disbelieving driver on the radio in that final stretch.
“I was like, ‘What? OK,’” Rossi said.
As soon as the No. 98 NAPA Auto Parts/Curb Honda limped across the famed “Yard of Bricks” for Andretti Herta Autosport with Curb-Agajanian, the racing world started digging into the first Indy 500 rookie winner since Helio Castroneves in 2001 and the 10th rookie to win the "500."
Rossi? Another Italian? Is he related to MotoGP motorcycle legend Valentino Rossi?
No, the then-24-year-old Rossi isn’t a foreign driver, although he made five starts in Formula One in 2015, one of just three Americans to race in F1 since 1990. He’s actually from Nevada City, California. He departed the Golden State at 16 to race in Europe.
Wondering about his future in early 2016, Rossi confessed he wasn’t even thinking about the Indy 500. His first visit to Indianapolis Motor Speedway wasn’t until March 2016, on Easter Sunday.
This isn’t where he expected to end up.
“No, it isn’t at all,” Rossi said. “But I’m ecstatic to be here.”
The first time Rossi ever watched an Indy 500 was, ironically, a decade prior to his win when he thought Marco Andretti was going to win as a rookie before Team Penske’s Sam Hornish Jr. made a memorable late pass to prevail.
Rossi’s best finish in F1 was 12th. His best result in his first five NTT INDYCAR SERIES starts in 2016 was 10th in the GMR Grand Prix on the IMS Road Course 15 days prior to his historic win.
In a “500” with a remarkable 54 lead changes, the second-most all-time, and so many cars capable of winning, Herta realized his driver’s only chance late was to try to make the final fuel load last as long as possible. Herta realized he was asking for the impossible, considering most cars couldn’t stretch their fuel beyond 32 laps.
Teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay helped Rossi with a tow for a couple of laps. Rossi’s final lap speed was a meager 179.784 mph, but he finished 4.4975 seconds ahead of teammate Carlos Munoz, who's last lap speed was 218.789 mph.
About 90 minutes later, Rossi conceded he still couldn’t understand the magnitude of this “unbelievable” accomplishment.
“No, I still don’t,” he said. “I’m still on the last lap actually with Bryan.”
The plan was to save fuel but don’t let anybody pass him, easier said than done.
“I can’t overstate how hard it was for Alex to do what I kept asking him to do,” Herta said.
Andretti Autosport owner Michael Andretti partnered with Herta to form Sunday’s winning entry. Andretti previously celebrated this race victory with the late Dan Wheldon (2005), Dario Franchitti (2007) and Ryan Hunter-Reay (2014). Herta won with Wheldon in 2011. Andretti Autosport picked up its fifth Indy 500 win the following year with Takuma Sato.
Munoz, third-place finisher Josef Newgarden, then with Ed Carpenter Racing, and fourth-place finisher Tony Kanaan thought they had positioned themselves for a shootout at the end. Instead, the closest competitors came away unfulfilled, to say the least.
“To put it politely, I don’t think they were quite as strong as us today,” Newgarden said of the winning team. “I don’t think they had as strong an opportunity to win at the end, so you’ve got to mix it up.
“It just sucks that we didn’t have a shootout where we could have raced each other because I really would have liked to have raced people. I would have been high side, doing something crazy to try and win the thing. I think that would have been a lot cooler.”
Kanaan couldn’t have sounded more dejected.
“This is Indy for you,” said the 2013 Indy 500 winner. “It’s not always fair. It will never always be fair.”
Munoz, also second in his rookie “500” run in 2013, was equally despondent.
“One thing is clear,” Munoz said, “I will win this race one day.”
That Rossi did perhaps had him shaking his head as much as the competition.
“I have no idea how we pulled that off,” Rossi said.
Rossi was the first American rookie winner of the Indy 500 since Louis Meyer in 1928. Also, Ray Harroun won the first Indy 500 in 1911 when everyone in the field was a rookie, Graham Hill won the 50th race in 1966 as a rookie and now the 100th Running belongs to a rookie.
View 100th Indy 500 Race Results.