Scintillating! That describes the finish of the 110th Running of the Indianapolis 500 in one word. In multiple words – the closest finish in Indy 500 history! This year’s race had the usual twists and turns, ups and downs, encouragement and disappointment. However, no matter who you were rooting for, the last lap was one for the ages. Just when you thought you had it figured out, it changed right at the end.
Felix Rosenqvist of Meyer Shank Racing won the race by a scant 0.0233 seconds – the closest finish in Indy 500 history. He did this over Team Penske’s newest driver, David Malukas, who was perhaps more devastated by finishing second than Pato O’Ward a couple of years ago. After the last re-start, Rosenqvist hung his car on the outside lane for a full lap while he tried to dispense with his teammate, Marcus Armstrong. He had just enough momentum at the end to pip Malukas for the thrilling victory.
Of course, the race didn’t start that way. It looked like Alex Palou had the field covered whenever he was near the front. Conor Daly, Malukas, Dixon, McLaughlin and even rookie Caio Collet led early. O’Ward led late as he and Rosenqvist were on an alternate fuel strategy to all the Team Penske drivers and the same for Ganassi.

However, with the late race cautions and red flags and the lapped cars moved out of the front running order it truly was a last lap dash for cash. By the way, Rosenqvist’s haul for winning? A record $4.34 million!

The first caution of the day fell when Ryan Hunter-Reay was battling a loose car from the start and finally lost it. Unfortunately, he hit the wall just in front of Katherine Legge who swerved to avoid him and lost it thus ending the day early for both. Alexander Rossi’s car quit along with Will Power’s. Other notables who crashed out were Josef Newgarden who dropped his left front tire onto the rumble strips and lost control and smacked the wall. Ed Carpenter got pinched into Turn 1 when Takuma Sato on the outside squeezed down on Carpenter. He was livid and if you could read lips on the TV broadcast the two words he yelled at Sato started with FU!

Rookie of the year was Mick Schumacher who lightly brushed the wall near the end, yet managed to be the top finishing rookie. Caio Collet seemed to be a lock for that prize and even led nine laps early but it was his fireball crash on lap 192 that set the stage for the final run to the checkered flag. When the checkered flag dropped it was the top five cars within half a second of each other with Scott McLaughlin in third narrowly besting Pato O’Ward and Marcus Armstrong.

Other notables in the race included Conor Daly who led the race to the overwhelming delight of the raucous crowd and set the fastest lap of the race, yet faded to finish 12thon a different pit strategy. Meanwhile, Santino Ferrucci continued his streak of Top 10 finishes (eighth) with eight, and Romain Grosjean was ninth and also led his first three laps at the Brickyard. Alex Palou led a race high 59 laps but also faded due to an alternate pit strategy. Same for his teammate Scott Dixon (15th) who led 32 laps to extend his record to 709 laps led at this hallowed ground. He was leading at the halfway point when light rain halted the race. His wife Emma (kiddingly) thought that they should call the race to an end at that point! Takuma Sato recovered from his contretemps with Carpenter to nail his third top ten finish in the last four races. Finally, Rinus VeeKay earned his best-ever finish here with sixth place while also leading six laps.

The teams didn’t have much time to celebrate or commiserate as the series moves onto the mean streets of Detroit.

Note: Felix Rosenqvist was very hungry to win. He earned the pole at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach this year and was beat out by Alex Palou to finish second. In 2024, he won pole at Long Beach, but faded to finish ninth. He mentioned the disappointment of Long Beach after his Indy win. We interviewed Rosenqvist after his post-race press conference at Long Beach where we asked him about that. That short interview is here.

By Larry Mason

All photographs courtesy of Penske Entertainment with photographer listed.