Team Penske’s Juan Montoya celebrates victory in the Indianapolis 500
Juan Montoya has won his second Indianapolis 500 after trading the lead with Will Power and giving Team Penske its 16th victory in a gripping finish to America’s signature open wheel race.
With the lead changing seven times over the final 16 laps of 200, Montoya shot to the front with three laps remaining to deny Power an historic Australian triumph with Charlie Kimball finishing third ahead of Scott Dixon.
Montoya realised his second win in the Indy 500 15 years after lifting the Borg Warner trophy during his signature days with Chip Ganassi Racing.
The official margin crossing the line of bricks was .10s.
The Colombian had soared into contention by moving into second place on lap 130 after dropping to as low as 30th following the incident where he suffered rear wing damage after contact from Simona de Silvestro.
Juan Montoya flashes across the line of bricks to score his second Indy 500 win in a gripping finish from Will Power
After the final restart Power held the lead from Montoya with Dixon, a factor for Chip Ganassi from the outset, looming in third.
Dixon and Power then swapped the lead four times before Montoya entered the fight against Power.
“Montoya got that nice run and maybe I was a bit nice to him and lifted into 1 and after that I got behind him and had a lot of push (understeer),” Power said who ordered more front downforce and less in the rear during his stop under caution with 30 laps remaining.
“That was some serious racing there. Full credit to the team finishing one-two.
“Congrats to Juan he was very strong all day and came through the field.”
“It sucks finishing second and I’ve done that a few times in the championship. It was a good race and we’ll move on.”
Montoya was lost for words after returning to victory lane in the second year of his comeback to IndyCar racing following spells in Formula 1 and NASCAR.
“This is what IndyCar racing is all about; awesome racing all the way down to the wire,” Montoya said.
Graham Rahal was fifth ahead of Marco Andretti, Helio Castroneves, JR Hildebrand, Josef Newgarden and the fourth Penske runner Simon Pagenaud who had appeared a winning threat until the closing laps.
Polesitter Dixon, who led the most laps of the race, said he had fought overheating problems in his Ganassi Chevrolet while still trying to remain in a position to win.
“We went through different ignition maps and had a lot going on and then every time I came to the apex of two and even four at the end there the front just wouldn’t hang on,” Dixon said.
Ryan Briscoe did a super job subbing for James Hinchcliffe to finish 12th, one position behind Sebastien Bourdais.
With 25 laps remaining Power swept into the lead before a multi-car crash brought out another yellow.
Jack Hawksworth appeared to make contact with the rear of Sebastian Saavedra with Stefano Coletti arriving late on the scene becoming momentarily airborne.
Earlier Tony Kanaan had suffered a heavy single-car shunt with less than 50 laps remaining at Turn 3 with the car snapping sideways after the Brazilian veteran requested a wing adjustment during his previous pit stop.
After the half-race distance pit stops Pagenaud led the way from Kanaan with Power holding solid in third.
Soon after Ed Carpenter and Oriol Servia crashed at Turn 1 after Carpenter pulled out of the draft late to dive down the inside of the Spaniard.
As the field cycled around under yellow from the ensuing clean up, a nasty pitlane incident saw James Davison released from his pit bay as two cars were coming down the pit lane.
Davison and Pippa Mann subsequently collided with the Australian then striking two crew members in the next box who were working on his Dale Coyne Racing team-mate Tristan Vautier’s entry.
One of the injured crew was transported to IU Methodist Hospital with a suspected ankle injury.
“Unfortunately I got sent out there the same time as Pippa was coming. All three Dale Coyne cars made contact,” Davison said who became the seventh retirement from the race.
“Fortunately I think we just took the feet away from under him (crew member) rather than run over him.
“I was making my way into the top 10 and hopefully I can comeback next year and try again.”
Sprintcar ace Bryan Clauson’s race ended on lap 65 after stepping out into the gray and paying the price with his machine slamming hard against the Safer barrier.
A crash seconds after the start saw Takuma Sato (AJ Foyt) and Sage Karam (Chip Ganassi) eliminated when the former tried to sneak around the outside.
With Karam punted into the wall Briscoe (Schmidt Peterson) was clipped by fellow Australian Davison (Dale Coyne Racing) as they were checking up.
The race did not see green action until lap 13 after a series of aborted green flag attempts.
VIDEO: Race Highlights
See below full results
1
Juan Pablo Montoya
Team Penske
Dallara/Chevrolet
200
2
Will Power
Team Penske
Dallara/Chevrolet
200
0.10s
3
Charlie Kimball
Chip Ganassi Racing
Dallara/Chevrolet
200
0.79s
4
Scott Dixon
Chip Ganassi Racing
Dallara/Chevrolet
200
1.02s
5
Graham Rahal
Rahal Letterman Lanigan
Dallara/Honda
200
2.31s
6
Marco Andretti
Andretti Autosport
Dallara/Honda
200
2.53s
7
Helio Castroneves
Team Penske
Dallara/Chevrolet
200
2.78s
8
J.R. Hildebrand
CFH Racing
Dallara/Chevrolet
200
3.56s
9
Josef Newgarden
CFH Racing
Dallara/Chevrolet
200
4.02s
10
Simon Pagenaud
Team Penske
Dallara/Chevrolet
200
4.21s
11
Sebastien Bourdais
KVSH Racing
Dallara/Chevrolet
200
5.30s
12
Ryan Briscoe
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
Dallara/Honda
200
5.66s
13
Takuma Sato
AJ Foyt Enterprises
Dallara/Honda
200
6.16s
14
Townsend Bell
Dreyer and Reinbold
Dallara/Chevrolet
200
8.50s
15
Ryan Hunter-Reay
Andretti Autosport
Dallara/Honda
200
9.64s
16
Gabby Chaves
Bryan Herta Autosport
Dallara/Honda
200
10.10s
17
Alex Tagliani
AJ Foyt Enterprises
Dallara/Honda
200
11.21s
18
James Jakes
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
Dallara/Honda
200
12.04s
19
Simona de Silvestro
Andretti Autosport
Dallara/Honda
200
12.73s
20
Carlos Munoz
Andretti Autosport
Dallara/Honda
200
39.83s
21
Justin Wilson
Andretti Autosport
Dallara/Honda
199
1 Lap
22
Pippa Mann
Dale Coyne Racing
Dallara/Honda
197
3 Laps
23
Sebastian Saavedra
Chip Ganassi Racing
Dallara/Chevrolet
175
Contact
24
Jack Hawksworth
AJ Foyt Enterprises
Dallara/Honda
175
Contact
25
Stefano Coletti
KV Racing Technology
Dallara/Chevrolet
175
Contact
26
Tony Kanaan
Chip Ganassi Racing
Dallara/Chevrolet
151
Contact
27
James Davison
Dale Coyne Racing
Dallara/Honda
116
Mechanical
28
Tristan Vautier
Dale Coyne Racing
Dallara/Honda
116
Mechanical
29
Oriol Servia
Rahal Letterman Lanigan
Dallara/Honda
112
Contact
30
Ed Carpenter
CFH Racing
Dallara/Chevrolet
112
Contact
31
Bryan Clauson
KVSH Racing
Dallara/Chevrolet
61
Contact
32
Sage Karam
Chip Ganassi Racing
Dallara/Chevrolet
0
Contact
33
Conor Daly
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
Dallara/Honda
0
Mechanical
IndyCar Series standings
Pos
Driver
Points
1
Juan Pablo Montoya
272
2
Will Power
247
3
Scott Dixon
211
4
Hélio Castroneves
206
5
Graham Rahal
204
6
Josef Newgarden
173
7
Sébastien Bourdais
161
8
Charlie Kimball
160
9
Marco Andretti
151
10
Tony Kanaan
147
11
Simon Pagenaud
142
12
Ryan Hunter-Reay
130
13
James Hinchcliffe
129
14
Carlos Muñoz
122
15
Takuma Sato
106
16
James Jakes
99
17
Gabby Chaves
99
18
Luca Filippi
85
19
Jack Hawksworth
76
20
Stefano Coletti
75
21
Simona de Silvestro
66
22
J.R. Hildebrand
57
23
Sebastian Saavedra
47
24
Sage Karam
45
25
Francesco Dracone
38
26
Ryan Briscoe
36
27
Townsend Bell
32
28
Carlos Huertas
31
29
Alex Tagliani
27
30
Justin Wilson
25
31
Conor Daly
23
32
Pippa Mann
16
33
Oriol Servià
10
33
Tristan Vautier
10
33
James Davison
10
33
Rodolfo González
10
33
Bryan Clauson
10
33
Ed Carpenter
10
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