The duo of Hunter-Reay and Rossi traded the lead three times between one another before Castroneves came calling, rebounding from a jumped restart penalty to take over the point for the first time on lap 96.

At halfway, it was Castroneves leading Hunter-Reay, Rossi, Alonso and Kanaan, but a slightly different pit strategy forced Castroneves to pit road on the 104th round as the battle for the lead continued to rage.

Following another cycle of pit stops, Hunter-Reay emerged with the biggest lead of any driver all day, holding a 3.5 second margin over Rossi and Alonso with 85 to go.

However a caution with 79 to go, for Buddy Lazier’s hard crash in Turn 2, erased that margin and began to set up the run to the checkered flag.

71 laps remained when the green flag flew again, seeing a quick lead change as Alonso passed Hunter-Reay before yellow conditions returned for debris on the frontstretch.

That pass was a harbinger of worse things for Hunter-Reay, whose motor blew with 64 to go to bring out another caution and end the day for arguably the race’s most dominant driver.

An immediate debris caution on the next restart with 58 to go set up green flag conditions five laps later, where Chilton pulled back into the lead over Kimball while Castroneves went five-wide down the backstretch to go from eighth to fifth.

But James Davison, subbing for the injured Sebastien Bourdais, was the star entering the closing stages. Davison charged forward from a shock fourth-place running, taking second from Charlie Kimball with 47 to go on the outside entering turn one.

Final stops began with 34 to go, when Chilton gave up the top spot to pit for fuel and tires, handing the point to Davison just as Kimball’s motor grenaded to bring out the yellow flag.

That sent everyone in the field down pit road for service and set up an economy run to the checkered flag, with 32 laps being just on the razor’s edge of the fuel window.

Green flag racing resumed with 29 circuits left, seeing Chilton lead rookie Ed Jones briefly before Castroneves charged into second with 23 to go and set his sights on a fourth Indianapolis 500 victory.

But no more had Castroneves taken second than Takuma Sato came calling for the position, taking it moments before heartbreak struck again for the Honda camp, with Alonso’s motor giving up the ghost with 21 to go.

That was followed up by a multi-car accident in Turn 1 with 17 to go, sweeping up the Penske pair of Josef Newgarden, along with Will Power, Davison, Oriol Servia and James Hinchcliffe in a melee that cleaned out the middle of the field and set the stage for an 11 lap shootout for all the glory.

Chilton led off the restart, but from fourth, Castroneves was coming. He quickly latched onto Sato’s rear wing and then made the pass for second in Turn 3 coming to six laps to go.

A two-horse race developed from there, with Sato’s pass of Castroneves on the frontstretch ultimately being the pass for the win and the milk.

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