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Tuesday, March 19
The Indiana Daily Student

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Bold gamble helps Alexander Rossi win the 100th Indy 500

IndyCar rookie Alexander Rossi kisses the brick yard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Rossi stretched his car's fuel to win the 100th running of the Indy 500 on May 29, 2016.

Alexander Rossi’s car couldn’t complete a victory lap.

That didn’t matter.

Even with his car running on fumes, Rossi, an IndyCar rookie, won the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500.

“I have no idea how we pulled that off,” Rossi said. “We struggled a little bit in the pit stops, but Bryan (Herta) came up with an unbelievable strategy. We rolled the dice, and we came through and made it 
happen.”

Rossi decided not to pit for fuel in the last few laps after the race leaders had stopped to refuel.

The gamble paid off.

Herta, co-owner of Andretti Herta Autosport, said he admired the poise his rookie driver rode with, especially on the last lap.

“I was telling him, ‘Don’t let anybody pass you, but save fuel,’ and he did it,” 
Herta said.

Running out of fuel in Turn 4, Rossi said he clutched his car and coasted it down the straightaway. He had not received fuel for 36 laps, a long time to go without fuel.

Rossi became the ninth rookie to win the Indy 500 and the first to do so since Helio Castroneves won in 2001 as a rookie.

In February, Rossi hadn’t even thought about IndyCar, and three months later, the former Formula 1 driver became the winner of the Borg-Warner trophy.

The rookie had to contend with some veteran drivers.

Carlos Munoz finished in second after he, Josef Newgarden and Tony Kannan battled for the last forty laps.

“If I’m honest, I don’t know how he did it,” Munoz said. “It was a close one.”

Both Newgarden and Munoz pitted for fuel within the last five laps of the race. Newgarden said that’s what all the leaders did and it would have been foolish to do anything differently.

“That’s why none of the leaders did it,” Newgarden said. “When you have fast cars, you got to go flat out and try to win the thing without playing the fuel game.”

Newgarden said it was disappointing the race didn’t end on a shootout as he said he wanted to have a more interesting finish to the race.

It wasn’t a sprint to the finish, but that didn’t matter for Rossi as his limp to the finish sparked the crowd.

The race didn’t lack excitement as 13 riders led, and they battled back and forth all day.

Ryan Hunter-Reay looked to be in control of the race and led 52 laps, the most of any driver. Hunter-Reay’s day took a turn for the worst on lap 117 when he got involved in a crash with Townsend Bell as both drivers were leaving the pits.

That incident doomed both drivers.

Pole sitter James Hinchcliffe also looked to have a chance to win the race, but after Castroneves passed him on the lap 92, Hinchcliffe did not lead again and finished seventh.

Castroneves led for nine laps, but JR Hildebrand clipped Castroneves’ car and forced Castroneves to have to replace his back wing. That replacement took valuable time and Castroneves was never able to get back in contention.

Past winners battled the entire race, but Rossi was in contention even as a rookie.

This was only Rossi’s second career oval race, but that didn’t seem to matter.

“It’s phenomenal,” Rossi said. “I’m at a loss for words, but it will change my life.”

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