INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – A little history was made at the Brickyard on Sunday.
Takuma Sato became the first Japanese winner of the Indianapolis 500 as he denied Helio Castroneves (EH’-lee-oh kas-troh-NEH’-vehs) a record-tying fourth victory. Castroneves briefly took the lead in the closing laps but couldn’t make it stick. Sato grabbed it back and gave Andretti Autosport its second consecutive win at the Brickyard.
The margin of victory was just over 0.2 seconds and served as redemption for Sato, who crashed while trying to beat Dario Franchitti (fran-KEE’-tee) on the final lap of the 2012 race.
Ed Jones finished third, followed by Max Chilton and Tony Kanaan.
It was only the second IndyCar victory for Sato, who won driving for A.J. Foyt at Long Beach in 2013. Sato is a regular driver on the Formula One circuit.
An Andretti driver has now won the 500 three times in the last four years, and five times since the late Dan Wheldon captured the 2005 race.
Fernando Alonso had a spectacular race before falling victim to his engine late in the race.
Pole-sitter Scott Dixon suffered an ankle injury in a spectacular crash, one of several wrecks that left just 19 cars on the track at the end of the race.
