The start of the race was a thrilling affair, with polesitter and sentimental pre-race favorite James Hinchcliffe leading the field of 33 to the green flag, but it was Hunter-Reay who snatched the point away to lead the first lap of the 100th running. The seesaw between those two was an unbelievable flurry of activity early on, with 12 lead changes in the first 20 laps and a frantic, caution-free pace all the way until lap 47, when the first yellow of the afternoon came out for debris with Townsend Bell out in front.
That gave way to a round of pit service for the front runners on the 48th round, and a second scramble at the top half of the field, with Hunter-Reay winning the race off and taking control of the field.
With his teammate Bell in tow, RHR would all but three laps on the next run, but a caution on lap 64 — where defending winner Juan Pablo Montoya lost his car off the exit of turn two and nosed into the outside wall — would shuffle the deck again and take one of the race’s pre-eminent favorites out of contention.
“People do a lot of dumb things on a restart and we were just being careful, trying to make up some ground,” Montoya said. “The car was really good and it felt okay. I went into two and got a big push and I got out of the gas and it just came around.”
Montoya is the third defending 500 champion to finish last the following year, following Jimmy Bryan in 1959 and Johnny Rutherford in 1977.
Will Power — who stayed out to assume the lead and make up track position after an early pit road penalty — led the race until it resumed at lap 75, but as the race approached halfway, Power fell back while Hinchcliffe and Hunter-Reay resumed their dice for the lead at the head of the field. They would trade the lead four times between themselves before Castroneves inserted himself into the fray for the first time, taking the Pennzoil “Yellow Submarine” to the top of the pylon on the 92nd round.
Just two laps after Castroneves’ move, the yellow flag flew for Sage Karam’s vicious crash in turn one, sparked as he and Bell were racing inside the top 10. While Karam climbed from his mangled Dreyer & Reinbold/Kingdom Racing entry, his shot at victory was gone.
“I’m more bummed than hurt,” Karam said. “It just seemed like I could run through anyone. I’m so disappointed. We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I wish I hadn’t gone into Turn 1 like that.”
Bryan Clauson led three laps under the caution period before Castroneves took the lead at the official halfway point of the race, but it was Hunter-Reay who again proved he was the master of the restart, taking the top spot back on the next green flag with 97 laps to go. The race’s fourth caution, however, would cycle a new bevy of players into the mix and begin to set the stage for Rossi’s improbable victory.
