Rossi earns $2.5m for Indy 500 win

The vehicle driven by Alexander Rossi is serviced during a pit stop in the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Sunday, May 29, 2016.

Rossi admitted he held his breath as the race neared conclusion, watching his gauges closely as his fuel supply was almost depleted.

Like Ray Harroun, the first victor of the Indianapolis 500, Rossi had to receive a tow from the safety crew to arrive in victory lane.

An American took the Andretti family to victory lane Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Rossi, who moved to IndyCar only this year after losing his seat with Formula One tailenders Manor Racing, found himself on top of the motorsports world after squeezing just enough fuel out of his Andretti Autosport Honda to win what is billed as the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing”.

The thing was though, a Newgarden and Munoz shootout likely would have been a better show for the fans rather than the somewhat anticlimactic final lap. Average speed on Sunday was 166.644mph.

The rookie summed up the feelings of everyone watching the race when he proclaimed that he had “no idea how we pulled that off”.

Ryan Hunter-Reay, the 2014 Indy 500 champion, led the most times (15) and the most laps (52) but could only muster a 24th-place finish after a pit road incident on Lap 117 with Andretti teammate Townsend Bell and Team Penske’s Helio Castroneves. He led 14 laps in what was his best finish in five Indy 500 starts.

But his options had grown cold, and when Bryan Herta needed a miracle to remain in IndyCar, he signed Rossi and merged his team with Andretti Autosport.

Alex Rossi will forever be known as the victor of the 100th Indianapolis 500. My team never was in the fight.

Andretti later took to Twitter to mark the occasion at the 100th Indy 500, writing, “I brought @ladygaga back safely to pit lane”.

Tony Kanaan came in fourth, followed by Charlie Kimball. “It’s always been a big event growing up, and this is my first time I’ve actually really got to enjoy it on a new level”. I tried to turn off the air-conditioning in the race auto, but I couldn’t find the switch. He clearly slowed down after taking the lead on Lap 183 in an effort to coax another two laps out of his Chevrolet engine.

As the laps wound down, it clearly became a fuel mileage race and American Josef Newgarden and Munoz both swapped the lead repeatedly.

“We had the vehicle to win today”, he said. “The fuel strategy didn’t work out”. They didn’t have as strong a chance to win, so they had to mix it up. Yeah, I mean, I think everyone saw when I got out of the auto I was just stunned, and I still am a little bit.

Kanaan overcame being struck in the hands by debris from a crash and his vehicle being hit in the pit lane by Australian rival Will Power, but like Newgarden had to stop late for fuel to doom his title bid.

The sellout crowd was a first in the 100-year history of the race.

For much of the race it had appeared another driver in the Andretti stable, 2014 victor Ryan Hunter-Reay, was headed back to Victory Lane running up front most of the day. It was an incredible event for the hundredth running of the Indy 500.

“I saw that he was very confident going into the race”.

Boles harkened to 2011, when Dan Wheldon won in the same No. 98 vehicle, then a joint project between Herta and Sam Schmidt.

Defending race victor Juan Pablo Montoya brought out the second of six caution periods when he crashed coming off the second corner after the back end of his auto broke loose.