Takuma Sato makes Michael Andretti an Indy 500 winner again

INDIANAPOLIS – The most star-crossed family in Indianapolis 500 history just keeps winning them now.

Over a span of more than four decades, exactly one Andretti visited the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s victory lane.

As drivers, grandpa Mario went 1 for 29, while sons Michael and Jeff, nephew John and grandson Marco have combined for a fruitless 33 starts.

But after the 101st running Sunday, Michael the car owner was back for the fifth time, with his third victory in four years.

He practically floated there to give Takuma Sato a bear hug.

“Obviously I could never win it as a driver,” said Andretti, who in 11 starts led the most laps of any non-winner.

“Well, maybe it was meant to be that I’d win it a bunch of times as an owner. Maybe when I’m 80, I’ll have more wins than Roger.”

That would be Roger Penske, whose teams have won a record 16 Indy 500s and who was denied a 17th when Sato outdueled and then outran Helio Castroneves to the checkered flag by 0.2011 of a second.

Rookie Ed Jones finished third and second-time starter Max Chilton an equally surprising fourth.

This day could have gone any number of ways for six-car Andretti Autosport, with three of its other drivers among the top lap leaders but two of them falling out with engine failures.

Honda had a clear speed advantage over Chevrolet through the run-up and up and race, but with the power came questions of reliability.

Ryan Hunter-Reay, who won for Andretti in 2014, was the first driver to lose an engine, on the 137th lap, and then two-time Formula One champion Fernando Alonso’s blew on 180.

Alonso brought international attention for skipping the F1 Monaco Grand Prix to give Indy a try and looked nothing like a rookie while he lasted, leading 27 laps in his first oval-track race.

“Obviously if I come back here, at least I know how it is, everything,” the 35-year-old Spaniard said. “It will not be the first time I do restarts, pit stops, all those kinds of things.

“Yeah, I need to keep pursuing this challenge because winning the Indy 500 is not completed.”

Alexander Rossi, the surprise 2016 winner, finished seventh in his second Indy start for Andretti, hindered by slow fueling on his final pit stop.

Marco Andretti was eighth, having lost a piece of a wing from contact. Rookie Jack Harvey got caught in a wreck and finished 31st.

With each failure, Andretti's heart sunk.

“When you have so many cars, not everybody's going to be happy,” Andretti said. “I got to tell you, I wasn't very happy there when we started losing all those bullets.

“Then you just started watching Takuma start picking 'em off. I was like, whoa, we might have a shot here because he had a really car strong all day.”

Sato drove masterfully, overcame a slow pit stop mid-race and passed on guts without crashing. That had been a problem for the 40-year-old Formula One and IndyCar journeyman from Tokyo, who didn’t start racing until he was 20.

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“I just kept never giving up,” Sato said. “I always challenge it. That's why maybe I failed so many times, too. But, you know, made a mistake, learn it, then try to get faster or better than all the drivers.”

One of Sato’s more memorable wrecks came in the 2012 Indy 500, when Sato couldn’t complete his bold pass of Dario Franchitti with three-quarters of a lap to go.

“Whether it was the first attempt or eighth attempt or you had a drama in the past, it doesn't really matter,” Sato said.

“But, yes, I do feel after 2012 I really need to correct something I left over. Today I was so happy that I made it and won in a good move. I have to thank to the Michael for that.”

Andretti hired Sato last fall after he had spent three seasons and earned one Verizon IndyCar Series victory with A.J. Foyt’s team.

Sato rewarded the move with a “mega big” victory for himself and the Japanese manufacturer Honda.

Castroneves — going for a record-tying fourth Indy win — brought the crowd to its feet when he pushed his Chevrolet past Chilton with six laps to go. Sato was better than both, though, making an inside move on Castroneves a lap and a half later and fending off his final charge.

“They had (17) engines; I’m like, man, I hope none of them last,” Castroneves said.

“I knew at least one would make it. I have to say, Takuma Sato prevailed.”

Before Sato reached victory lane, Andretti had headed that way.

He wasn’t the first to greet Sato, just maybe the happiest. 

In fact he looked like he wanted to plant a kiss on Sato’s cheek, the way Andy Granatelli did on his father back in 1969. Not quite.

“I’m saving that one for Marco,” he said.

INDIANAPOLIS 500 RESULTS

(Start position in parentheses)
C: Chevrolet; H: Honda
c - contact; m - mechanical; r - running

1. (4) Takuma Sato, H, 200 laps, r.

2. (19) Helio Castroneves, C, 200, r.

3. (11) Ed Jones, H, 200, r.

4. (15) Max Chilton, H, 200, r.

5. (7) Tony Kanaan, H, 200, r.

6. (18) Juan Pablo Montoya, C, 200, r.

7. (3) Alexander Rossi, H, 200, r.

8. (8) Marco Andretti, H, 200, r.

9. (25) Gabby Chaves, C, 200, r.

10. (24) Carlos Munoz, C, 200, r.

11. (2) Ed Carpenter, C, 200, r.

12. (14) Graham Rahal, H, 200, r.

13. (13) Mikhail Aleshin, H, 200, r.

14. (23) Simon Pagenaud, C, 200, r.

15. (31) Sebastian Saavedra, C, 200, r.

16. (6) JR Hildebrand, C, 200, r.

17. (28) Pippa Mann, H, 199, r.

18. (29) Spencer Pigot, C, 194, r.

19. (22) Josef Newgarden, C, 186, r.

20. (33) James Davison, H, 183, c.

21. (12) Oriol Servia, H, 183, c.

22. (17) James Hinchcliffe, H, 183, c.

23. (9) Will Power, C, 183, c.

24. (5) Fernando Alonso, H, 179, m.

25. (16) Charlie Kimball, H, 166, m.

26. (32) Zach Veach, C, 155, m.

27. (10) Ryan Hunter-Reay, H, 136, m.

28. (21) Sage Karam, C, 125, m.

29. (30) Buddy Lazier, C, 118, c.

30. (26) Conor Daly, C, 65, c.

31. (27) Jack Harvey, H, 65, c.

32. (1) Scott Dixon, H, 52, c.

33. (20) Jay Howard, H, 45, c.

RACE STATISTICS

Winners average speed: 155.395 mph. Time of race: 3:13.03.3584. Margin of victory: .2011 seconds. Cautions: 50 laps. Lead changes: 35.