Indy 500 provides refreshing triumph as Hélio Castroneves joins Four-Time club

Fans call Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend “The Greatest Day in Racing,” and with reason.

Motorsport enthusiasts didn’t get to enjoy this day in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And this year, Sunday’s events featured just the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600. Typically, Formula 1’s Monaco Grand Prix occurs on the same day, but the race was held a week earlier this season.

Nevertheless, there was a true feeling of anticipation for Sunday. The Indy 500 would host about 135,000 fans after having zero spectators in attendance nine months ago. After being cooped up for nearly 15 months, Indianapolis residents and IndyCar fans were ready to witness the great spectacle in person again.

The Indy 500 grid featured a sharp contrast between youth and experience. Six-time IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon started from the pole for the fourth time in the 500 and shared the front row with 21-year-old Colton Herta of Andretti Autosport and 20-year-old Rinus VeeKay, who won on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course two weeks ago for Ed Carpenter Racing.

Other veterans and former Indy 500 champions such as Juan Pablo Montoya, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Will Power, and Simon Pagenaud were also in the race. But it was 46-year-old Hélio Castroneves — who outdueled Dixon’s 24-year-old teammate Alex Palou in the closing laps — that won his fourth Indy 500.

Castroneves is on the backend of his career — or at least one might think. For the last three years, he has been a part-time IndyCar driver for Team Penske and made the transition to full-time sports car racing. He won the IMSA DPi championship with Acura Team Penske in 2020, but that would be the end of the ride for his tenure with “The Captain’s” team. However, even at age 46, he appears to have just as much energy and skill now as he did when he won at Indy for the first time in 2001.

“It’s not the end; it’s the beginning,” Castroneves said in his victory interview. “I don’t know if it’s a good comparison, but Tom Brady won a Super Bowl, Phil (Mickelson) won the PGA, and now, here you go. The old guys still got it, kicking the young guys’ butts. We’re teaching them a lesson.”

Castroneves did his traditional climbing of the fence on the frontstretch to celebrate with the 135,000 roaring people in the stands. He then ran about a half-mile down the track towards Turn 3 to salute as many spectators as he could. If given a chance, he probably would’ve hugged not just his fellow competitors and crew members but every soul watching him from the other side of the fence.

“I love Indianapolis,” he said. “The fans, they give me energy.”

And that energy was reciprocated by the fans. Many of them started climbing the fence, too — a joyous tribute to the man who just joined A.J. Foyt, Al Unser, and Rick Mears as four-time winners of the race.

When Takuma Sato won his second Indy 500 last August, you could quite literally hear crickets in IMS as he celebrated his victory. It was a sight no one ever wanted or believed they would see — an empty Speedway while the greatest race on Earth transpired.

But Sunday made everything feel right with the world again — at least for one day in this central Indiana city. The pageantry was there again. As someone who’s twice covered the Indy 500, half the excitement of race day is the anticipation that builds the morning of it.

The pre-race ceremonies were everything one could want it to be — even in front of a 40% capacity crowd. The frontstretch was flooded with people, and the grandstands appeared to be an endless ocean of humanity. And when the bugler played “Taps,” the 135,000 people on site stood in silence with goosebumps. I challenge you to name a more powerful scene anywhere on the planet.

Roger Penske, who acquired IMS and IndyCar in late 2019, finally had the Indy 500 he deserved as its new owner. And with Castroneves, in his first start with Meyer Shank Racing, joining the elite Four-Time group, the 105th running is a race that will long be remembered.