The red-hot driver capped off what his team’s owner, Roger Penske, called “the perfect month for us.”
INDIANAPOLIS — Simon Pagenaud had perhaps as good an explanation as any for how he won the 103rd Indianapolis 500 on Sunday.
“This race chooses its winners,” Pagenaud said after holding off Alexander Rossi in a frantic finish. “Today, I was the chosen one.”
Also helping Pagenaud was his uncanny ability to anticipate Rossi’s moves, holding off the driver who won the race in 2016, who was driving “eleven-tenths” the final 12 laps, trying to wrest away the lead.
“Nothing else matters here but winning,” said a disappointed Rossi, who came up just two-tenths of a second short. “I know that. This one will be hard to get over.”
Among the obstacles Rossi had to overcome was a perilous blocking move Pagenaud put on him the final lap, swerving back and forth across the track in his path. Asked if he considered lodging a protest, Rossi said: “It was the final lap of the Indy 500. Simon was leading. I don’t think anybody will do anything about it. It was unfortunate.”
Rossi was also thwarted by a backmarker who refused to yield, pushing him into a wall. A driver nearly blocked him off the track, and a stuck fuel valve during a pit stop cost him valuable time and track position.
Rossi said that his general observation about this year’s race was that drivers failed to show one another proper respect on the track. They bumped one another out of the way, cut one another off in a dangerous manner, and caused accidents as a result.
