Takuma Sato wins second Indy 500 as race ends under caution

INDIANAPOLIS -- At an eerily empty Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Takuma Sato snatched a second Indianapolis 500 victory in an odd and unsatisfying finish to "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing."

Sato held off Scott Dixon and won under caution after teammate Spencer Pigot crashed with five laps remaining in Sunday's race, held in front of empty grandstands for the first time in 104 runnings because of the pandemic.




"Are they going red?" Dixon asked. "They've got to go red. There's no way they can clean that up."


"It is a little silly to predict what might have happened. The reality is Takuma won," said winning car owner Bobby Rahal. "This isn't the first 500 to be flagged under yellow and there was a hell of a mess out there."

IndyCar said in a statement after the finish "there were too few laps remaining to gather the field behind the pace car, issue a red flag and then restart for a green-flag finish."


"Definitely a hard one to swallow for sure. We had such a great day," Dixon said. "First time I've seen them let it run out like that. I thought they'd throw a red."

Dixon had figured he would ultimately run down Sato as Sato worked through lapped traffic, and he believed Sato's team was cutting it close on fuel. Rahal said his driver had enough gas to get to the end.


"Let me just say, if someone said to me this morning at the end of the Indianapolis 500 that Takuma Sato and Scott Dixon and Graham Rahal would be racing for the lead, I would say that's a dream, that's a dream come true," Letterman said. "And I woke up and it turned out we won the Indianapolis 500."

Sato became the first Japanese winner of the Indy 500 in 2017. Graham Rahal, Sato's teammate at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, was third behind Dixon.


"I know Scott was coming right through, out of turn four, he was screaming coming," Sato said. "I had to hold him off."

The celebration was somewhat muted as the RLL team had a socially distanced winner's circle. Penske was forced to host his first 500 as owner of the iconic speedway without fans and it made the largest venue in the world was still. The speedway typically draws more than 300,000 spectators on race day; Penske said there would be only 2,500 in attendance Sunday.

"It's not a happy place," Sato said. "It's tough on everyone, not only for us. It was just fortunate, so fortunate, to be able to perform as a sport, be able to show millions of people watching TV today at home, get some energy on it."


"It's eerie. It's weird. Nobody likes it," said Rahal. "I feel bad. I hope our fans who watched it on TV really enjoyed the race. I know its not the same thing as being there, but I think everybody understands the situation."

It was Pigot, the third Rahal driver, whose crash set up the controversial finish. His nasty hit destroyed his car and he was prone on the track being treated before he was taken to a hospital for further examination. He tweeted later Sunday night a picture of him giving the thumbs up.

The Sato win helped Honda snap Chevrolet's two-year Indy 500 winning streak. Santino Ferrucui finished fourth as Honda took the fist four spots.


Mired in traffic, the Chevy group never contended.


"We had high hopes coming into the race ... but we didn't have it," Andretti said. "We didn't have the pickup we needed on the restarts, that left us a sitting duck and we weren't able to gain ground on pit stops to make up for anything. Everything combined left us 13th."

Fernando Alonso, attempting to win the final leg of motorsports' version of the Triple Crown, was 21st and never contended. This was his third attempt at winning Indy and the two-time Formula One champion is returning to that series in 2021.

"We didn't have one lap of kindness," Alonso said. "I'm happy to finish the race, cross the line and have one 500 miles in the pocket. We tried to race but luck was not with us."