Rookie Alexander Rossi Wins The Indianapolis 500

From Road & Track

This time last year, Alexander Rossi was a reserve driver for Manor Racing's Formula 1 program. At the Monaco Grand Prix, his assignment for the year was GP2, where he would finish a distant second in the championship to well-supported McLaren junior driver Stoffel Vandoorne.

This time six months ago, he finally earned promotion to the team's race seat, starting five of the last seven Grands Prix of the season. He was fighting for nothing more than a distant hope of points then, and though his twelfth at the United States Grand Prix came close, the best he could really hope for with the team was beating his teammate, which he consistently did.

This time three months ago, it seemed he was primed to stay with the team in an offseason that promised to bring significantly stronger entries from the program. Instead, he was pushed out for Mercedes development driver Pascal Wehrlein and the well funded Rio Haryanto. He seemed ready to enter 2016 without a full time ride and little more to his racing career than the often-meaningless title of F1 Reserve Driver that he had held for years beforehand without getting so much as a chance to race a car. That's when Bryan Herta Autosport came calling, looking to fill a car they were going to enter in conjunction with Andretti Autosport. He signed, he struggled in early races, but at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis he finally put a full race together to grab his first top ten finish in the series.

Then the Month of May began.

Over the past two weeks, Rossi has consistently been fast in Andretti Autosport's Honda-powered Dallaras. Quick to adapt to oval racing like Nigel Mansell and Juan Pablo Montoya before him (and not fellow American Formula 1 hopeful turned Indianapolis rookie Kevin Cogan), he impressed every time he got into the car. Come race day he found himself starting in the midfield, but a split strategy got him a brief chance to show he could lead the race on his own strength alone, and a second split gave him the chance to prove he could win it all.

100 laps earlier, an entirely different race seemed to be unfolding. Just before the halfway mark, favorites like Juan Pablo Montoya and Simon Pagenaud had already encountered trouble and it seemed destined to be a three-horse race between Honda drivers James Hinchcliffe, Townsend Bell and Ryan Hunter-Reay. An incident in the pits changed all of that, as Bell was released into Penske Racing's Helio Castroneves and spun into his teammate Hunter-Reay. The leaders had followed the same strategy all race long, but this caution led to the race's first real alternate tactic. Rossi and Alex Tagliani would stay out for half a stint in an attempt to get ahead on fuel mileage, and though it ultimately failed and left Rossi trapped at the back of the lead lap yet again, it gave the Nevada City, California native ample opportunity to show that he could run with the leaders and handle whatever strategy he was given. It marked the first time in the race that Andretti Autosport showed any willingness to split their strategies, having previously run all five of their strong cars on the same tactics even while Penske Racing split its three remaining cars in entirely different directions.

Once the strategies fell back in line again, the race looked to be between Chevrolets for the first time, as James Hinchcliffe's slowly-worsening car gave way to Castroneves, Tony Kanaan and Josef Newgarden. Andretti Autosport had three cars left and refused to split their strategies, leaving them with just fifth-placed Carlos Munoz to try his best to catch the leaders and both Rossi and Marco Andretti mired in the back of the top fifteen. Innovative strategy got Ed Carpenter Racing's JR Hildebrand into the mix late, meanwhile, and when the race was restarted with just over 30 laps to go, the team had him leading the race with a plan to short pit and push to the end while Josef Newgarden, restarting second, would try to save fuel. The plan gave them two chances to win and seemed to cover all options, but as the race wound down, it unraveled.

First, Hildebrand found himself unable to escape the leaders and get into clean air after his short pitting put him on fresh tires in front of the leading Newgarden. It meant that he'd never come out ahead of all the other cars that were about to stop with less fuel needed, opening up an opportunity for those looking to stop late. Andretti Autosport driver Carlos Munoz pounced, pushing Newgarden hard and eventually passing him before the pair deviated from what many assumed was their planned strategy to stop for a late splash of fuel. Andretti Autosport was now leading one strategy, and as more and more cars decided not to risk their fuel mileage, it seemed like Munoz's race to lose. That's when Andretti and team co-owner Bryan Herta made the decision to stay out, finally splitting their strategies and, incredibly, getting past Ed Carpenter Racing on both the primary and alternate strategy that they had previously led with ten to go.

Even still, this was to be Munoz's race. Surely, teams figured, if they couldn't make the end of the race, neither could Rossi? They seemed to be proven right as the #98 Dallara stumbled on the race's final lap, recording a speed of under 180 miles per hour as his massive lead dwindled, but it was just enough to make the finish, and Rossi would become the first Indianapolis 500 rookie to win the race since 2001, and given the considerable experience in CART of two most recent rookie winners Helio Castroneves and Juan Pablo Montoya, would be the first American Open Wheel Racing rookie to win the race since 1966, when another Formula 1 driver, the admittedly significantly more successful at that point Graham Hill, won the race in a mid-engined Lola chassis.

Munoz would finish second in a split strategy 1-2 for Andretti Autosport and Honda, while Josef Newgarden would finish in third for Ed Carpenter Racing as the leader of the Chevrolet contingent. Tony Kanaan would salvage fourth after fading late for Chip Ganassi Racing, while a similar fuel risk would land Ganassi teammate Charlie Kimball in fifth. JR Hildebrand would mark three northern Californians in the top six with his finish, while polesitter James Hinchcliffe would ultimately end up seventh, unable to compete on pace once the sun came out despite blistering speed when aided by cloud cover earlier in the race.

The win is not only Rossi's first in IndyCar, but his first-ever podium, his first top five, his second top ten, his first top ten on an oval and his first to include any number of laps led under green. All of that is irrelevant now, because no matter how he got here, and no matter where he goes next, his career will always be defined at least in part by the title of 100th Indianapolis 500 Champion.