![]() "Our guys did an amazing job and we won in spite of not going faster. "Shocking news (about he underwing)," he said. Within minutes, Helio himself was on Twitter doling out the same dismissals. After the race, ours was 7.575 inches because we neglected to tighten the braces that position the rear of the diffuser following pre-race inspection." "The rule in question states that the (rear wing) diffuser exit must measure 7.600 (inches). "Obviously we are very disappointed that the car did not pass post-race inspection after Saturday's race at Texas," said Cindric. ![]() Cindric went on to explain that the mishap was the result of a crew member not tightening the rear wing restraining bolts properly. 3: Helio Castroneves joins ‘The Club’ of four-time winners originally appeared on NBCSports.Some clever damage control by Team Penske principal Tim Cindric cited a quick trip to the wind tunnel on Monday that revealed (according to the Penske camp) that Helio actually suffered a competitive disadvantage by running an illegal rear wing diffuser configuration (7.575 inches of exit diffuser height rather than a spec-legal 7.600 inches). How the voters saw it: Nearly half of the ballots with the 2021 Indy 500 gave it a score above 90 with the highest at 99 (out of a perfect 100). He became the first Spaniard to win an Indy-car title. ![]() Palou lost out that day but went on to win the 2021 NTT Ind圜ar Series championship. Winning move: With two laps to go, Castroneves passed Palou for the lead entering Turn 1 and then held on to win. Daly’s car was never the same afterwards, and his own promising run faded into a 13th-place finish. After Rahal’s crash, the tire bounced off the wall and was then hit by Conor Daly, who led 40 laps earlier in the race. Further replays showed that the tire had not been secured to Rahal’s car before he left his pit box. But moments after he pitted from the lead on Lap 118, Rahal’s left-rear tire came loose while he was on the warm-up lane, causing him to spin and crash in Turn 2. Other contenders: Graham Rahal looked poised to be a late-race contender for the win thanks to saving fuel as part of an alternate pit strategy. NBC Sports has ranked the Top 10 Indy 500s through a panel that judged through scores of 1-20 in five categories: quality of racing, memorable moments, strength of competition, historical impact and spectacle. And so was the driver they call “Spider-Man.” We then saw something many of us wondered if we’d ever see again at Indy: Castroneves, out of his car, scaling the catch fence with his crew, all to a roar of the crowd that sounded unleashed. On the final lap, Castroneves faced a pack of lapped traffic directly ahead of him but was still able to hold off Palou and take the checkered flag. 24-year-old Alex Palou, driving for the powerful Chip Ganassi Racing, passed Castroneves for the lead with five laps to go.īut Castroneves stayed in striking distance, and with two laps to go, he whipped around Palou entering Turn 1 to reclaim the lead. Castroneves called upon his two decades of experience at the Brickyard to hang with, and then defeat, a group of talented young stars.Ĭastroneves’ final challenge came from one of those young stars. However, at this point, he was now driving part-time for Meyer Shank Racing, a team that had been successful in sports car racing but was still building itself up in Ind圜ar. ![]() INDY 500 PRIMER: Questions and answers for the world’s biggest raceĬastroneves had earned his first three ‘500’ wins (2001, 2002, 2009) as part of his long tenure with the mighty Team Penske. ![]() 23, 2020.īut as society began a path toward normalcy through the prevalence of vaccines introduced in early 2021, the 105th running of the race saw fans return to Indy – albeit capped at a capacity of 135,000 as part of health protocols.Īnd as Indy showed the world that we were coming back to life, a driver that’s proven time and again that he’s full of life emerged victorious. Its massive 235,000-seat grandstands were empty when the green flag fell on Aug. Just nine months before, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indy 500 was run under previously unthinkable conditions. But this race can’t be fully explained without noting the much bigger backdrop it was set against. Those two facts alone make this race stand out in Indy history. ![]()
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