Simon Pagenaud Wins 103rd Indianapolis 500

Simon Pagenaud
Simon Pagenaud

(INDIANAPOLIS, IN) – Pole-sitter Simon Pagenaud would not be denied victory as he outdueled Alexander Rossi to claim victory in the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500.

Pagenaud and Rossi traded the lead multiple times in the final 14 laps after a red flag restart with the Frenchman taking the lead for good with a lap left.

“It’s pretty amazing,” Pagenaud said. “It’s a dream come true, a lifetime of trying to achieve this. I’m just speechless. We executed perfectly.”

Pagenaud led 116 of the 200 laps and edged out Rossi by 0.2086 of a second. After Pagenaud and Rossi was Takuma Sato in third.

A red flag on Lap 178 came after six cars were involved in a wreck as Sebastian Bourdais and Graham Rahal bumped tires sending them into the wall and taking Scott Dixon, Felix Rosenqvist, Charlie Kimball and Zach Veach with them.

With double points available on Sunday, Pagenaud vaulted into the NTT series points leader by a single point over teammate Josef Newgarden.