Helio Castroneves makes history with electrifying fourth Indy 500 win

Castroneves, Indy 500 — Photo: © LAT Images

Indianapolis 500

Castroneves makes history with electrifying fourth Indy 500 win

Castroneves won an enthralling Indy 500

Ewan Gale

Sunday 30 May 2021 21:37 Updated: 21:50

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Meyer Shank Racing driver Helio Castroneves made history by winning a dramatic 105th running of the Indianapolis 500.

The 46-year-old becomes just the fourth driver to win the event on four occasions, joining AJ Foyt, Al Unser and Rick Mears on the list, adding to his tally 12 years after his third triumph.

Brazilian Castroneves battled throughout the final quarter of the race with Chip Gannasi's Alex Palou, with the last of multiple lead changes coming around the outside of turn one with just two laps remaining.

The win was Meyer Shank Racing's first-ever IndyCar series win.

The top five in the race were covered by just 1.242 secs with Simon Pagenaud third, Arrow McLaren SP's Pato O'Ward fourth and Ed Carpenter fifth.

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With cool conditions lending well to hard, exciting racing, polesitter Scott Dixon was happy to let Colton Herta and Rinus Veekay lead the way in the early stages as the chess-like fuel strategy game began.

The race settled into a rhythm until the first round of pit stops, with the Ed Carpenter machine of Veekay the first to pit. Dixon was able to stretch his opening stint out but the pit stop window was cut in half by a crash on pit road for Stefan Wilson which brought the first caution of the race out.

This meant that those at the front yet to stop like Dixon were forced to take an emergency stop to ensure they didn't run out of fuel. Dixon's Chip Ganassi team left it one lap too long, running the fuel tank dry and losing a lap whilst refining the Honda engine.

Rossi suffered the same issue to drop out of the top 10, whilst upfront, Conor Daly overtook team-mate Veekay for the race lead.

The Ed Carpenter Chevrolets were the shortest on the fuel strategy throughout, as O'Ward made his way to the top of the standings with a strong early strategy.

Rahal crash changes race

Graham Rahal had made the best of his strategy to sit pretty in the top 10 after extending each of his stints longer than anyone else.

However, on lap 119, the Rahal Letterman Lanigan driver lost a wheel out of the pit lane, spinning across turn one into the barrier as his wheel was collected by Daly and bringing out the second caution.

Former race winner Will Power added to his miserable month at Indy with a spin entering pit road on lap 152.

Veteran Ryan Hunter-Reay was unable to slow down his Andretti car entering the pits for his final stop, with the resultant penalty dropping him out of the top five.

Palou, Castroneves and O'Ward seemed to have made it a three-horse race with 15 laps to go but as they tussled and swapped places lap-after-lap, Pagenaud drew himself into striking distance for Penske.

The position swapping continued with Castroneves and Palou duelling for the lead, the Spaniard taking the lead with five to go before Castroneves hit back around the outside at turn one on the penultimate lap.

Traffic couldn't stop Castroneves from joining the illustrious list of four-time winners of the 500, 30 years since Mears became the last man before him to take his fourth win.