Ryan Hunter-Reay manged to slice his way up from 19th starting position to win the 98th running of the Indianapolis 500. This year's edition of the 500 ended up being a classic thanks to a monstrous stretch of 150 green flag laps, a red flag, and the lead being traded between Helio and RHR over each of the last 4 laps. Here are a few thought on one of the greatest 500's in recent memory.
The opening laps of the race were a lot calmer than was anticipated. This could be contributed to a couple of different things. First, the drivers learned an awful lot last year. They did not want to be out front burning extra fuel, and if they were out front, they would be a sitting duck. The DW12 punches quite the large hole in the air, making passing a lot easier compared to the past. Second, race day ended up being one of the hottest of the month. Carb day was warm, but not to the extent of race day. The warmer ambient and track temperatures meant the cars were much more on edge when compared to last year. Were drivers more content to sit back and pound out the laps because of all of this? Possibly.
It was pretty remarkable to watch the laps fly by so quickly. At around lap 100, you really started to wonder if the whole thing could go green! A great benefit of the vast green flag stretch was that all pit stops were completed under green flag conditions. This meant that all of the front runners, except Montoya, were on the same fuel strategy. Any pit stop, let alone one under green, has the opportunity to ruin someones race. It was extremely impressive to see how few pit stops were marred with a fuel hose that wouldn't engage, or tire that wont slide on the hub. Thinking back over the race, only one somewhat slow stop from Helio and Munoz hitting a tire on his way into the pit box were the only hiccups for the leaders.
When Kimball spun and brought out the first caution of the day, you knew the old adage of "cautions breed cautions" would come into effect. Thankfully, periods of caution laps allowed for all the key players to pit and get on the same sequence, which prevented the race from becoming a fuel millage contest. I personally appreciate the ability to save fuel, and stretch out the stops for a possible advantage at the end of a race. Montoya did an unbelievable job of saving fuel and could have been a factor had he not received the penalty for speeding down pit lane. With that said, there's nothing better than seeing a balls out run to the finish for all the lead cars.
Dixon had a very uncharacteristic incident to bring out the next caution. Has Dixon EVER hit the wall at Indy, either in practice or in the race? I cannot recall any incident. If you the reader can, please comment at the end of this post! His incident speaks volumes for how on edge the cars were on Sunday. Again, the heat really made for a slick track.
Continuing with the cautions breed cautions theme, on the restart after Dixon's accident, the hotly debated clash between Hinch, Carpenter and Bell occurred. My take? The blame can be split between Hinch and Bell. Bell moved down on Ed, thinking he would move down as well, without realizing that Hinch was inside of both of them. Hinch made very optimistic move to go inside of the other two. Three really good cars got taken out of the race because of this. Ed was running with RHR for most of the afternoon. Could he have been a factor at the end?? We unfortunately will never know.
Bell's hit on lap 192 was BIG, and it's good to see he was generally OK afterwards. This brings us to the first red flag at Indy for a crash in 35+ years. Had IndyCar not thrown the red, the race would have surely ended under yellow. If sitting in the stands is any indication of the public's opinion of this move, it was a great call! When they announced over the PA that the red flag was coming out, the crowd cheered about as loud as they did all day. I'm pretty traditional when it comes to this sort of thing (i.e. I HATE the concept of a green-white-checkered finish) but I was OK with the red flag. If RHR did not win, I may have a different attitude. That happens at any other 500 in history and RHR wins under yellow. As long as IndyCar is consistent with red flags in the future, then I'm OK with the concept. Let us know your thoughts on the red flag in the comments below.
So in the end, Ryan Hunter-Reay wins an incredible 6 lap dash to the finish. RHR and Helio had an epic, but relatively clean fight to the second closest finish in Indy 500 history.
RHR is the first American champion since Sam Hornish in 2006. He is a well spoken all American guy and will be a great Champion and representative for IndyCar. Congratulations!
