Winning the 500 from the Back Is Possible, But Not Easy Say Indy Vets

By Dennis Krause

If, indeed, the 110th Running of the Indianapolis 500 is as wide open as some think, it’s not out of the question that the winner of this year’s race could come from deep in the field.

For example, 4-time winner Helio Castroneves will start from the middle of Row 5 in the No. 06 Cleveland Cliff’s Meyer Shank Racing w/ Curb Agajanian Honda. Since becoming a partial owner of the team, Castroneves says he now feels he’s a more complete driver.

“I tell you what, being in the (pit) stand, you learn a lot. As a driver before full-time, I didn't know what's going on much. Sometimes I was getting pissed off. Now I'm still getting pissed off, but I understand they have a lot more information than us that we can apply and use it.

“I feel that I'm actually even more complete, when you come to a race like this, to understand what we need to do, correct the things, mistakes that we had the past, so we don't do it again.”

Directly behind Castroneves in Row 6 is 2022 winner Marcus Ericsson in the No. 28 Phoenix Investors Andretti Global Honda. For Ericsson, pit sequences will play a big role in determining in who will win on Sunday.

“I have been studying last year's race quite a bit, and the last couple years, and obviously seems like the starts and restarts, it's crazier and crazier every year that goes by.

“I think the big one that I really think stands out is the pit sequence. That's really where you can make a big difference. That's where this race comes down to so much the teamwork, having a good pit crew, but you as a driver, in laps, out laps, stopping on your marks, making smart decisions on pit road. Especially on the yellow stops, there's always a lot of chaos down in pit lane.

“You look at a guy like Josef (Newgarden) last year, starting from the back, moving up to the top five, he didn't do that many overtakes on track, he was just executing really well with his team all day until they had an issue. I think that's the thing that you got to make smart decisions out there, you got to be aggressive when you have to.

“You need a team effort to really have a good day on Sunday.”

Kyle Kirkwood, second in the current NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship standings, lines up on the inside of Row 9 in the No. 27 Sam’s Club Andretti Global Honda. Like his Andretti teammates, Kirkwood has been really good in race trim and hopes that bodes well for Sunday.

“I hope so, right. I think there's a lot of people saying their cars are really good,” Kirkwood observed. “There's a lot of confidence amongst the field, which hopefully means we're going to have a really good race. I also hope for ourselves it's not a false confidence, right?

“We've seen most weather conditions now through the past week. I think Monday was like the only anomaly that was really hot and windy and greasy and everyone was struggling with their cars, but we still felt really good in that case scenario.

“So I think we're in a good spot, but only time will tell. We are starting deep in the field. I haven't really been that far back in a pack yet. I've been 10, 15 cars, which is usually about the same, but not 25. We think we're good. We're pretty confident.”

But the row to watch may be Row 8 featuring 2014 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay and two-time winner Josef Newgarden.

After a disappointing qualifying performance for the 2023 and 2024 winner, Newgarden was fastest in race trim in both Monday and Friday’s final practices. Will the speed the driver of the No. 2 Shell Fuel Rewards Team Penske Chevrolet had both days translate to Race Day?

“Hard to say. It's always hard to say,” said Newgarden. “I think we're in a similar position that we've been in the last couple of years here. We've got a great team as always. We've got a good car underneath us.

“I'm in good spirits, and I feel really positive about what we're doing and what we have, but that only gets you so much and so far. Race day is its own thing.

"That's when the car's got to be its best is on that day. So we'll see what the weather does. But we've been pretty flexible as far as having a good range on the car, different weather conditions. We just -- like I said, we've got to get it right on Sunday. That's the day that's going to count.

“We'll see. None of us know what's going to happen, but we've got to be prepared to ebb and flow with the race as it transpires and give ourselves an opportunity. I think that's what the Indianapolis 500 is always about. It's about giving yourself a chance.”

Newgarden was in a similar position a year ago, starting from Row 11 after a penalty for unapproved modifications to his car’s rear attenuator. He worked his way up to sixth place but retired from the race on lap 135 due to a fuel pressure problem, thereby ending his chances for a third consecutive win.

Also in last year’s race, Hunter-Reay started 24th and charged to the front, leading 48 laps before running one lap too long on a tank of fuel in the closing laps, ending his chances of winning a second Indy 500.

While both Newgarden and Hunter-Reay say starting up front makes the race easier, they agree the key is to have a good plan.

“The preference is to start up front,” noted Newgarden, “but you saw with Ryan, I think Ryan's a master of this too. He just knows -- he knows how to put a great race together.

“At the end of the day, it's what matters here. You can kind of pound the drum on that all day, but until you really understand it, it's just about -- you don't even have to have the fastest car on the day necessarily. You've got to be pretty good. You can't be bad.

“You can just have a good, decent car, have a good team underneath you, and make the right moves at the right time, which is really what these guys did. They gave themselves an opportunity to win the race, and that's 90 percent of the battle is doing that, is getting yourself in position and then trying to close the deal.

“That's the last little bit is closing the deal, but you've got to be in the fight first.”

According to Hunter-Reay, a 500-only entry this year in the No. 31 PrizePicks Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, getting yourself in the fight comes with experience.

“Yeah, it just comes with experience, I think. You have to know when to go, you have to know when to pull back a bit.

“You can start the race and feel like you're doomed, the car's not right, whatever, you've got some understeer, and you don't like it. Well, as you go through those (pit) stops, you tune it. You've always got to keep yourself in a positive state and always charging hard.

“Yeah, you get used to it through years of doing it here for sure.”

While experience counts, confidence plays a significant role, as well, both in your team and in your car.

“Yeah, it can be tough,” said Newgarden. “If you don't have a good cadence to the month and you've never had -- or you haven't had many good sessions, it's hard to feel confident about what's going on. That's kind of 360. You want to instill confidence in the mechanics and what they're doing and you want them to be in good spirits. You want the driver certainly to feel confident in the car underneath them.

“For us, I think we're in a good spot. It's hard to speak for everybody. I will say I think everyone looks pretty good this year, more so than I've ever seen. I see a lot of good cars in the pack. It seems like there could be a lot of confident people out there on Sunday.”

When it comes to having confidence in your team and car, last year, Hunter-Reay started the race in a back-up car after a mechanical issue caused his primary car to catch fire on Carb Day’s final practice.

“Well, I started the race in a pit stop practice car,” Hunter-Reay said. “So it wasn't really a backup. It literally had an electric motor in it 48 hours prior. It's wild because you have to kind of -- You just get on with it, right?

“Like Josef said, you have a well-balanced car. If your car is good in traffic, it doesn't need to be the fastest thing out there. You get a good driver behind the wheel of a car that's in the window, and you're going to be all right.

“Yeah, I went into turn 1, lap 1 of the race without having driven a lap in it.”

As far as working with Hunter-Reay to get to the front, Newgarden isn’t so sure.

“Yeah, it's tough. The nice thing is you have to have a good kind of book in place. What I mean is you kind of compile your notes on everybody in the field, and you sort of at least get a couple passes by hopefully most cars during practice, and you sort of know what you're working with.

“It's nice when you're racing people that you feel like you can race a certain way and you can trust. It's almost impossible to help each other work through the field. We're going to run our own races. It's just nice to be next to some people that you trust is probably the only thing about it.

"Certainly when it comes down to the end, it's every man for himself. We're all trying to win this race. It would be fun if it's Ryan and me and we can have a shootout, but we're both going to be going for it. That's the way it is. You're going to try and win the race as best you can.”

The green flag in Sunday’s 110th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge is scheduled to wave at 12:45 PM (ET).

Dennis Krause has spent decades covering all forms of motorsports, including over 40 Indianapolis 500s, with stints at WIBA Radio, PIT PASS - Radio’s Premier Motorsports Magazine and Motorsports Minute. Follow him on X @DennisKrause500 or motorsportsminute.bluesky.social or motorsportsminute on Threads or MotorsportsMinute+ on Facebook.

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