The stars and flops of the Indy 500

SIMON PAGENAUD
#1 Team Penske (Chevrolet)

Start: 23rd
Finish: 14th

Rating: 5

After Pagenaud joined three of his four Penske team-mates in languishing in the lower reaches of the midfield in qualifying, the expectation was low for a driver who has always been fast at Indy but never managed to deliver a top result.

He did make some progress in the race, but Pagenaud never quite caught the eye like some of his team-mates did. Part of that is down to some bodywork damage to the rear of the car that added drag and required the team to do some re-balancing.

Had Pagenaud not had that damage, it's conceivable he could have finished in the vicinity of sixth-placed Montoya. But before that there was no indication he was going to be able to do much better than that.

In championship terms, though, the result wasn't bad considering the fates of many of his rivals.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN
#2 Team Penske (Chevrolet)

Start: 22nd
Finish: 19th

Rating: 6

Penske's new star had a difficult build-up to the race, crashing during practice and then, like four-fifths of the team, having a deeply underwhelming qualifying. But he spent much of the race chasing a workable balance and made little impact.

He was not at fault for crashing into the inside wall while trying to avoid the Hinchcliffe/Power clash that was, in turn, caused by the Servia/Davison collision. And other than that, he raced as well as you'd expect.

But it's hard to support Penske's suggestion Newgarden might have been on for a top five given the pace the American showed and the fact he was down in 15th, six places behind team-mate Montoya who did almost crack the top five, at that point.

HELIO CASTRONEVES
#3 Team Penske (Chevrolet)

Start: 19th
Finish: 2nd

Rating: 10

Castroneves was the only Penske driver to have a serious crack at winning the race, and despite the inferiority of the Chevrolet package around Indy he gave it a damned good shot.

Qualifying should have been better, as Power showed it was possible to crack the Fast Nine, but other than that Castroneves did a good job to avoid accidents, notably the Dixon shunt that was going on above him and that led to the loss of a rear winglet, and he made an offset strategy work to get himself into contention.

As you'd expect, he excelled at restarts and managed to take the lead from Sato late on, but despite having a good go at retaking it on the penultimate lap he couldn't quite make it work and had to focus on keeping Jones at bay.

The package probably wasn't quite up to winning, and Castroneves so nearly did with a great drive blotted only by getting a penalty for jumping the gun at a restart. No other Penske driver got close.

CONOR DALY
#4 AJ Foyt Enterprises (Chevrolet)

Start: 26th
Finish: 30th

Rating: 4

Daly was a little frustrated in qualifying that the car wasn't trimmed out more and he was suitably aggressive in the race, given the fact the Foyt cars didn't seem to have great speed.

But he got too attacking too early when the race got back underway after the red flag. While in a hectic midfield scrap after the restart, he tried to dive around the outside of Kimball after the Ganassi driver braked but succeeded only in having a slight moment and then firing himself into the wall in correcting.

It's forgivable that he wasn't that quick given the car, but that one bad split-second decision ruined the chances of salvaging the kind of solid result team-mate Munoz managed.

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE
#5 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports (Honda)

Start: 17th
Finish: 22nd

Rating: 7

Two years ago, Hinchcliffe suffered a potentially fatal accident that - a year later - he bounced back from by claiming pole position. If those two Month of May stories were at opposite ends of the spectrum, this one was in the middle.

But Hinchcliffe was at last consistent, suggesting he was extracting what he could from the package. And in the race, things were much the same as the Schmidt cars continued to underwhelm.

He was doing everything he could and was 10th when he was caught up in a crash not of his own making after being collected by Power, who had spun in avoidance of Servia/Davison. He likely would have delivered a decent result in the circumstances, possibly a top 10, without that.

MIKHAIL ALESHIN
#7 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports (Honda)

Start: 13th
Finish: 13th

Rating: 7

Aleshin's situation was much the same as team-mate Hinchcliffe's. An attacking driver on this type of track, he was the best-placed of the Schmidt trio in qualifying but knew it was going to be hard work in the race.

His race came unstuck when Carpenter spun while attempting to pass Aleshin at a restart, damaging the bodywork. At that point, Aleshin was 18th and having exactly the race you might expect.

Given he was having a very similar race to Hinchcliffe, he could easily have salvaged a lower top 10 finish, which would have been a good return for the Russian.

MAX CHILTON
#8 Chip Ganassi Racing (Honda)

Start: 15th
Finish: 4th

Rating: 8

Chilton led the most laps after getting into contention for victory using a well-executed offset strategy and a bit of luck. And once up there, he made a good job of the opportunity.

After struggling at times on ovals in his rookie season, Chilton showed he had mastered some of the tricks of the trade - in defending at least.

Given he led at the final restart, Chilton is probably a little disappointed not to have held on to a top-three spot, but he didn't quite have the speed and the attacking tricks to fight back when his defences were finally broken down.

Overall, it was a good performance from a driver who looked very much to be the fourth-most likely Ganassi driver to get a result.

SCOTT DIXON
#9 Chip Ganassi Racing (Honda)

Start: 1st
Finish: 32nd

Rating: 9

Dixon crammed plenty into his two weeks of the Indy 500. His third pole position was a crushing one, as nobody seemed to have a potential answer to him over one lap on Pole Day, let alone stringing together four of them on the qualifying run.

He also led the first five laps before he was passed by team-mate Kanaan, then being shuffled back before the round of green-flag pitstops. But there's no doubt he would have been in the hunt all race once he and the team had troubleshooted some early handling problems.

He was then involved in the most memorable moment of the race for all the wrong reasons, launched over Howard's crashing Schmidt car and into the fence on the inside of the track. Thankfully, he escaped unharmed.

Dixon can't be blamed for the nature of his exit as he made the right move, going low, but he couldn't legislate for Howard's car dropping down the track rather than staying up against the wall.

TONY KANAAN
#10 Chip Ganassi Racing (Honda)

Start: 7th
Finish: 5th

Rating: 7

Kannan was thereabouts throughout the Month of May, making the Fast Nine and putting it on the inside of the third row, having a stint in the lead early on and delivering a decent result.

But while he was always in the mix, he was never quite able to work his way to the top of it when it mattered.

A good performance from a very capable driver, and his finish position was probably pretty much on the money.

SPENCER PIGOT
#11 Juncos Racing (Chevrolet)

Start: 29th
Finish: 18th

Rating: 5

Pigot was reunited with the new-to-IndyCar Juncos Racing team, which acquired the assets of the defunct KV Racing squad over the winter and ran him to the Indy Lights crown in 2015.

It was a difficult lead-up to the race, with a crash at Turn 2 during Fast Friday putting him onto the back foot for qualifying. A big moment at Turn 1 on his final lap meant his final lap was slow, but while it lowered his average significantly it probably only cost him two places on the grid.

Pigot's crash proved more costly than originally suspected, as he endured "the longest race of my life" trying fruitlessly to get the car to work well.

WILL POWER
#12 Team Penske (Chevrolet)

Start: 9th
Finish: 23rd

Rating: 8

Power was comfortably the strongest of the Penske drivers in qualifying, making the Fast Nine after a rapid run on Saturday. But he couldn't repeat it on Pole Day and ended up slowest of those in the shootout, which perhaps says more about the pace of the car in qualifying trim than Power's own speed.

The suspicions he might spearhead the Chevrolet charge seemed to be confirmed by Power surging to second on the opening lap, but it was all downhill from there.

Requiring rear wing repairs after collecting some debris from the Dixon/Howard shunt didn't help his cause, but the car simply wasn't there and Power, despite leading a couple of laps in the first half of the race thanks to a strategic offset, wasn't a factor.

Being eliminated after collecting Hinchcliffe while trying to avoid Servia and Davison was probably a merciful relief for a driver who unquestionably has the ability to win this race.

CARLOS MUNOZ
#14 AJ Foyt Enterprises (Chevrolet)

Start: 24th
Finish: 10th

Rating: 8

The 25-year-old always flies at Indy, finishing second twice, and the fact he was never a threat in 2017 says more about the pace of the Foyt cars than Munoz's own performance. He certainly wasn't happy with the car in qualifying and was unable to get it much more responsive with weightjacker and anti-roll bar adjustments.

Going into the race, Munoz would have been delighted had he been able to produce a largely trouble-free race to the top 10 in limited machinery, so in that context 10th place was a very good return.

A canny drive from a driver eminently capable of winning at Indy.

GRAHAM RAHAL
#15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (Honda)

Start: 14th
Finish: 12th

Rating: 7

There was a point during the race when things seemed to be coming to Rahal, but the team wasn't quite able to extract the same level of performance as leading Honda squads Ganassi and Andretti.

But Rahal is a good operator at Indy, had got himself up to fifth and was looking like he could get a strong result, albeit perhaps not the potential victory he hinted might have been possible. Then a puncture intervened and relegated him to a finish outside the top 10.

A good, capable performance from Rahal, who always looked under control in traffic.

ORIOL SERVIA
#16 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (Honda)

Start: 12th
Finish: 21st

Rating: 8

Returning for two races (this weekend's Detroit double-header the other) with the Rahal team, Servia did a good job on Pole day to qualify 12th but was disappointed not to have made the Fast Nine.

On his 200th start in this form of racing, Servia did the kind of job you would expect and was inching his way up the order in the second half of the race when Davison squeezed him and triggered a multi-car shunt.

At that point, he was on course for a decent top 10 finish, which would have been a very good result for the affable Catalan.

SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA
#17 Juncos Racing (Chevrolet)

Start: 31st
Finish: 15th

Rating: 7

After missing the 2016 race, Saavedra returned with the new Juncos Racing team for his seventh attempt at the 500 with a seventh different team.

Qualifying could have been slightly better, for a moment on his final lap led to a big drop off down into the 211mph range while his other three laps were in the 223-226mph bracket.

He kept out of trouble, made a few good passes when he had the chance to, finished on the lead lap with the help of the yellows and came home 15th. It wasn't especially spectacular, but it did the job.

JAMES DAVISON
#18 Dale Coyne Racing (Honda)

Start: 33rd
Finish: 20th

Rating: 7

Davison was expecting to sit out the 500 for a second consecutive year having failed to raise enough sponsorship dollars to land a seat at Coyne, among others. But that situation changed when Sebastien Bourdais crashed the #18 car during Saturday qualifying and suffered multiple fractures to the pelvis and right hip.

While delighted to make the race, all Davison could do was be a safe pair of hands given he didn't run until the penultimate practice session on Monday of raceweek and he was in a road-course car backup car.

His job was to bring the car home and actually he overachieved by fighting hard at the sharp end after getting there with an offset strategy.

But by clipping the back of Servia and sustaining damage, ignoring the call to pit to have his flapping front wing replaced for safety reasons, and then squeezing Servia into the spin that triggered a multi-car wreck, he undid a lot of the good work.

ED JONES
#19 Dale Coyne Racing (Honda)

Start: 11th
Finish: 3rd

Rating: 8

Jones ran well throughout practice, but his Month of May was transformed when team leader Sebastien Bourdais was put out of action on the first day of qualifying. The onus was then on Jones, in his first 500 and only his sixth IndyCar start, to be its frontrunner.

And he did a very good job, despite carrying a little extra drag thanks to a hole in the front of the car caused by hitting the back of Veach.

Without that, he thinks he could have won. Given the pace of the car and the fact he finished third, that's not impossible.

Jones is a driver making a very good name for himself in the US, and this was a very accomplished performance.

ED CARPENTER
#20 Ed Carpenter Racing (Chevrolet)

Start: 2nd
Finish: 11th

Rating: 7

Carpenter showed those who thought he might be past-his-best as an oval driver by sticking it on the middle of the front row, and duly had a couple of short spells in the lead of the race.

With his team's cars proving the fastest of the Chevrolets - and that includes the Penskes - Carpenter was looking nailed on for a good result when he made an error at a restart and half-spun into the side of Aleshin while trying to duck inside the lapped car of Mann.

It was a needless error from a driver of his experience and ability, and combined with a couple of slow stops meant he spent the rest of the race trying to battle his way back into contention for a top 10 finish, something he didn't quite manage.

JR HILDEBRAND
#21 Ed Carpenter Racing (Chevrolet)

Start: 6th
Finish: 16th

Rating: 7

Like his team boss, Hildebrand's 500 was a case of what might have been. He was certainly fast, and was generally to be found around the middle of the top 10. He'd have finished around there, too, but for an error at a restart on lap 183 when he passed Servia just before the green flag was thrown at a restart.

His excuse was that Servia was slow at the restart, and there's some truth in that as Servia did have several very average runs to the green flag, but it was still the kind of frustrating error that prevented Hildebrand getting the result he's capable of.

So much good work ended by one small error.

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA
#22 Team Penske (Chevrolet)

Start: 18th
Finish: 6th

Rating: 7

Looking at the results, you might think that Montoya was a serious contender in the 2017 Indy 500. But he wasn't, and sixth was reward for a workmanlike, rather than spectacular, race.

Like all of the Penske drivers, Montoya didn't have the car under him to mount a serious challenge and he was unable to emulate Castroneves's sharpness in race situations. But considering this was the second part of a seasonal IndyCar two-off that's perhaps not a surprise.

So, remarkably, you'd say that a relatively anonymous run to sixth place is a pretty reasonable return even for a two-time Indy winner.

SAGE KARAM
#24 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing (Chevrolet)

Start: 21st
Finish: 28th

Rating: 6

Karam's first thought would have been to avoid posting a third-consecutive 32nd-place finish at Indy, and he did manage that. Although not by much, as he ended up 28th after an alternator problem resulted in a flat battery.

Up to that point, he did pretty much what you would expect in limited machinery and was probably on course for a perfectly respectable finish. But with no full-blown team-mate to compare him to (Dreyer & Reinbold did offer support to the Harding entry of Chaves), it's difficult to draw too many conclusions - save, of course, for the fact this is someone who was definitely putting the effort in behind the wheel.

TAKUMA SATO
#26 Andretti Autosport (Honda)

Start: 4th
Finish: 1st

Rating: 10

Ten? You might question this, but Sato flew under the radar at Andretti Autosport through much of the month and very much deserved this victory.

He was quick, as evidenced by qualifying on the inside of row two, good in traffic, error free, wasn't to blame for the wheelnut fumble that dropped him down the order and recovered well.

And most of all, when it came to the crunch, he excelled. When Castroneves got past after the final restart, Sato didn't panic, following him through in passing Chilton, took the lead and then drove perfectly to reel off the last few laps - repulsing the Brazilian's penultimate-lap challenge - for victory.

Yes, other leading contenders dropped out, but Sato was one of them already.

MARCO ANDRETTI
#27 Andretti Autosport (Honda)

Start: 8th
Finish: 8th

Rating: 6

Andretti surprised nobody by going fastest on the first day of practice, but thereafter took a more laissez-faire approach to topping the timesheets than he has at times in previous years.

With the Andretti package strong, he seemed a serious contender for victory. He made the Fast Nine, but qualified an unremarkable eighth, which was not that surprising giving this isn't his strong suit.

But in the race? It never came to Andretti. He was unfortunate, picking up a little damage that didn't help his cause, but he never quite showed the speed that team-mates Rossi, Hunter-Reay, Alonso and Sato did.

RYAN HUNTER-REAY
#28 Andretti Autosport (Honda)

Start: 10th
Finish: 27th

Rating: 9

Being the first of the Andretti Autosport cars to run during Saturday qualifying hurt him, and having bolted on too much downforce in track conditions made unpredictable by the vast quantities of water dumped on it earlier in the day there was nothing he could do to make the Fast Nine.

There was no repeat of that problem on Pole Day, as Hunter-Reay topped 'Group 1' qualifying with a four-lap run good enough to have put him fourth on the grid had he made the top-nine shootout.

He did everything right in the race, and can't even be blamed for failing to reach the Fast Nine given he was running a best-guess setup with too much downforce.

FERNANDO ALONSO
#29 Andretti Autosport (Honda)

Start: 5th
Finish: 24th

Rating: 10

The two-time Formula 1 world champion came to Indianapolis an oval-racing rookie and departed having proved he could hold his own against the best. A future Indy 500 winner? If he comes back, surely.

He slipped back a few places at the start, but let himself get settled and very quickly grew into the race, hitting the lead on lap 37 by passing Rossi and then running well with his team-mates when pressing home the Andretti advantage.

You could maybe say his inexperience showed a little when he was in the bottom half of the top 12 after being jumped by those on offset strategies, but at no point did he ever look anything other than in control.

Would he have won without the engine failure? Possibly. A top three? Almost certainly. And in the circumstances, that's outstanding.

ZACH VEACH
#40 AJ Foyt Enterprises (Chevrolet)

Start: 32nd
Finish: 26th

Rating: 6

A crash late on during Fast Friday ruined the rookie's run at qualifying, as he sat out the first day despite having the car prepped then took a cautious approach to Pole Day to lap slowest of the 32 cars that ran.

The objective in the race was to stay out of trouble and register a finish, but the battery made life difficult for him. Or that should be batteries, because he had two changes before the third let him down too far from the pits to make it back.

BUDDY LAZIER
#44 Lazier Partners Racing (Chevrolet)

Start: 30th
Finish: 29th

Rating: 5

The 49-year-old, winner of the 1996 Indy 500, returned for his 20th start in his self-run Chevy machine, not making it onto pit road until the end of Thursday practice and restricting most of his practice running to Fast Friday, Monday's traffic running and Carb Day.

He did a good job with the limited resources at his disposal to earn a starting position off the back row for the first time since 2009.

Lazier made it deeper into the race than he has done since 2008, but eventually crashed out on his 119th lap. He was taken to hospital complaining of chest discomfort, but subsequently released.

It's hard to rate him fairly, because this is now a labour of love for Lazier run in a very different way to the established teams. But it was good to have a veteran former winner on the grid.

JACK HARVEY
#50 Michael Shank Racing/Andretti Autosport (Honda)

Start: 27th
Finish: 31st

Rating: 6

When he crashed emerging from the pits at Turn 2 on the opening day of practice thanks to a problem not of his making, it set the tone for the troubled Month of May for Harvey. And things never really got better.

There were plenty more troubles during practice, so qualifying was something of a write-off but he was confident there was pace in the car with a clean run in the race.

But given the way things went, it was never going to be that simple and the unfortunate Harvey's car was hit by debris from Daly's shunt. And that was that.

It's hard to judge Harvey's performance overall, but as a driver who has done well in every series he has competed in, there's no doubt he's stronger than the raw numbers suggest.

PIPPA MANN
#63 Dale Coyne Racing (Honda)

Start: 28th
Finish: 17th

Rating: 6

Making her sixth start in the Indy 500, Mann had a clean run through practice and qualifying, although a lairy moment during her Saturday attempt led to a loss of time and perhaps resulted in a more conservative approach to Pole Day.

But the inside of the penultimate row was an OK place to start and she kept out of trouble on her way to her best finish in the event so far.

But given the pace of the other Coyne cars, there was perhaps more speed to extract.

JAY HOWARD
#77 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports (Honda)

Start: 20th
Finish: 33rd

Rating: 5

On his one-off appearance for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, Howard acquitted himself well. Doubly so when you consider his last IndyCar outing was in the tragic 2011 season finale at Las Vegas.

He was disappointed with the pace during qualifying after earning 20th on the grid and was confident he should have been a few rows further forward. But the car was back showing decent pace come Monday practice in race week and in the race he was making progress before losing time when he ran out of fuel and then battling some electrical glitches.

His crash was perhaps the result of a ring-rusty error, despite his suggestion Hunter-Reay had forced him wide, but it's unfair to blame him for the spectacular shunt for Dixon that followed in that his fairly standard crash would not normally have had such enormous consequences.

CHARLIE KIMBALL
#83 Chip Ganassi Racing (Honda)

Start: 16th
Finish: 25th

Rating: 8

Kimball is something of an Indianapolis specialist, and although he didn't find the pace that Dixon and Kanaan did in the lead Ganassi cars in qualifying, he was always likely to go better in the race.

He did have a stint up front courtesy of an offset pitstop strategy, although his Honda engine eventually let him down and cost a shot at a decent result.

A decent enough performance, but ultimately he made the least impact of the four Ganassi drivers. That said, given his Indy credentials, might he have done better than Chilton were he leading for the final restart?

GABBY CHAVES
#88 Harding Racing (Chevrolet)

Start: 25th
Finish: 9th

Rating: 8

Driving for the new Harding Racing team was always going to make life difficult for Chaves, even though it had a technical partnership with the experienced Dreyer & Reinbold team and two-time Indy winner Al Unser Jr as driver coach.

But Chaves and the team worked well together, kept out of trouble and were rewarded with probably as strong a finish as might be hoped.

A good job from a rookie team and a driver who has always run well at Indy.

ALEXANDER ROSSI
#98 Andretti Herta Autosport (Honda)

Start: 3rd
Finish: 7th

Rating: 10

Despite his victory last year, Rossi admitted to still being annoyed that he didn't reach the Fast Nine in 2016. He made amends for that, and then some, by making it this time round and earning a starting spot on the outside of the front row and establishing himself among the favourites for the race with his pace throughout practice.

He delivered on that in the race and was in the group of four Andretti Autosport drivers who seemed to have the legs on everyone in the race. Had he not lost time at a pitstop to a problem getting the refuelling hose in, he would have been one of the favourites to win.

Rossi certainly proved his 2016 win was merited, and suggested he will be a force at Indy for years to come.

We want to hear from you!

Let us know what you would like to see from us in the future.

Take our survey

- The Autosport.com Team

Read and post comments