Sato steals thunder at Indy 500

Holds off Castroneves in thrilling finish

INDIANAPOLIS • At the end of 500 miles around Indianapolis Motor Speedway, it was a former Formula One driver who took the checkered flag.

He even drove for Andretti Autosport.

It just wasn’t Fernando Alonso.

Takuma Sato became the first Japanese winner of the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday when he denied Helio Castroneves a record-tying fourth victory as the two traded the lead in the closing laps.

“This is going to be mega big” in Japan, said Sato. “A lot of the Japanese fans are following the IndyCar Series and many, many flew over for the Indianapolis 500. We showed the great result today and I am very proud of it.”

The Andretti family has struggled for decades to win this race, but as a car owner, Michael Andretti certainly knows the way to victory lane.

Sato’s victory gave Andretti a second consecutive win in “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.” An Andretti driver has now won the 500 three times in the last four years, and five times overall dating to 2005 with the late Dan Wheldon.

Last year, it was with rookie Alexander Rossi. This time it is with Sato, who joined the team just this season and had largely been overlooked at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The Andretti camp expanded to six cars for the 500 to add Alonso, Takuma Sato of Japan celebrates after winning the 101st Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motorspeedway Sunday. The member of the Andretti Autosport Honda team is the first Japanese driver to win the fabled race. a two-time F1 champion who brought massive European interest to the race.

Alonso did have a spectacular race and simply fell victim to his engine late in stick as Sato grabbed it back. Castroneves was disappointed to fall short of the fourtime winners club — particularly since it was his third runner-up finish.