The Ecstasy and the Agony of the 110th Indy 500

By Dennis Krause

History was made at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Sunday, as Felix Rosenqvist drag raced David Malukas to the yard of bricks to win the closest finish in Indianapolis 500 history by a scant 0.0233 seconds — less than half a car length.

The thrilling finish was set up when Malukas overwhelmed Rosenqvist’s teammate, Marcus Armstrong’s No. 66 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Honda on a restart to begin the 200th, and final, lap. As Malukas in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet took the lead with 2.5-miles to go, Armstrong and Rosenqvist battled side-by-side until the Swede pulled ahead in the No. 60 SiriusXM Meyer Shank Racing w/ Curb Agajanian Honda and set off after Malukas, catching him less than a second before the finish line with the checkered flag waving.

“Honestly, it's still kind of a blur,” Rosenqvist admitted. “I had that momentum going, and I was kind of like, I'm going to go on the high line, and I'm not going to ruin this momentum. If someone comes in the way, that's it.

“But no one did, and I was able to stay on the high lane through the whole thing, and I was getting a side draft at the same time from the other guys.

“But I thought I was second, to be honest. I was like, this is -- this sucks, now we're second in the 500. I guess it was a good day; we did what we could.

“Then it just kind of pulled, like the big Honda motor just -- yeah, I thought I didn't have it, and then I shifted up, and it was just kind of sucking up to David, and it was just enough to get me over the finish line half a foot ahead of him. You can't even dream up that stuff. It was just so cool. I'll watch it a million times.”

For Malukas, it was the complete opposite of emotions.

"Yeah, just disappointment,” a dejected Malukas said. “I just don't know what else we could have done. We were driving 150 percent that whole race. The guys did a fantastic job getting the car where it needed to be. We had the fastest car out there that whole race. It was ours to win, and I knew that.

“I've never pushed that hard in my whole life. Just to finish, like -- I can't believe it. This whole season, even before, just keep getting a lot of seconds, but we just can't get -- now it's like -- I don't know how much closer you can get to getting it. So yeah. Now we're even P2 in the championship. It's great, so many seconds.

“But on a high note,” Malukas continued, “this team, everybody from Verizon and the whole crew and even outside the 12 crew, but the 2 (Newgarden) car, the 3 (McLaughlin) car, everybody -- I've been through many different teams, although I'm still young, 2024, from the wrist injury, been to so many different teams, and nobody is like Team Penske. Everybody here is just so closely connected and truly feels like family. Obviously coming from all of that, Roger was one of the first guys to come to me and tell me that he believes in me and told me to keep on pushing.

“Because of him, I can sit here and cry that I'm going for a P2 position. I think that's why it's really emotional for me because I wanted to get a win for this team and just wanted to be written across those history books. Everything happens for a reason. I think there's a reasoning to this. We're going to just use it as more motivation and just keep pushing forward, and someday maybe it'll happen.”

For Rosenqvist, it was a finish he’d dreamed of, but never thought it would happen in the Indy 500.

“What an incredible finish, first of all,” said Rosenqvist. “That’s the way I've always pictured it in my head for some reason. It was almost like muscle memory when it happened because I've been dreaming about that last lap move. It's kind of weird, you never really get that last lap move in the Indy 500, and it just played out perfectly.”

Malukas tried to break the draft coming out of turn four but it really didn’t matter.

“I mean, he just had a really good run,” the 24-year-old said. “There's nothing else I could have done. I'm trying to think back, maybe something different with deployment here or there --

“There's just no way. In the car it looked a lot closer, which it was really, really close, but from the run I didn't know he had that big of a run. Watching the replay and seeing the run that he had, it actually made me feel better because I was like, to be honest, I don't think there's anything I could have done. Maybe could have shortened it by a couple thousandths. I think that was the IMS gods telling me that it's not my time.

“I mean, the pain is still there. It makes it feel a little bit better. Watching it, he just had such a big run. There's definitely nothing we could have -- yeah, there's just nothing. With the positioning, the timing of all of it, yeah, there's nothing we could have done.

“We did everything we could,” Malukas added, “and it's just a big thank you to this team. They gave me the best car out there.”

Running wide for an entire lap isn’t the quick way around at Indy, but Rosenqvist somehow made it pay off.

“I think it was the momentum that I had,” Rosenqvist explained. “I was like, I can't ruin this momentum because that's been a thing I've been caught doing here in the past. I think it was '22 when I finished fourth. Pato (O’Ward) got low and I basically had to brake on the final lap, and that was it. Like, the run is gone. You're never going to recover. I was like, whatever happens here, I've just got to keep my run, even if it's on the third lane. We've just got to do it.

"That's kind of the only option you have. You don't really have an option to go low because there wasn't any room, and it was just stacked down there, and I was just kind of -- I was going wheel to wheel with I think Marcus (Ericsson) for the whole back straight, so there wasn't a door open to go in. And I was like, yep, this is going to be it. Like, I'll stay flat and see what happens.

"It worked out perfectly that David was -- he was the perfect distance ahead to give me a little tow because, if he was closer, I probably would have just sat on his gearbox over the finish line.

“The hybrid, I think I deployed -- everything was just -- if you replay it a million times, it probably wouldn't happen that way. But yeah, I was very determined today. I've been very close -- I wouldn't even say close, but I've been in that position, top 4, towards the end many times here, and I had the car to do it.

"And this year we talked a lot, what does it really take to really do it. I felt I had more confidence today. I think that was the difference, and the hunger to do it. I think that's what it takes here to win it. You need to be ready to risk it all on the last lap. If it ended in the fence, I think I would have been proud for my run. That's the way you have to approach it.”

Runner-up for the second straight year at the 500, how will Malukas move on from the utter heartbreak of being so close to winning — yet still coming up short.

“Just use it to drive me even more,” Malukas stated. “Last year was more in the fact of, hey, I do belong here, I can be there in the end for the fight. Now it feels more of, okay, I've learned what it is to be in those last 20, 30 laps. I've learned from last year what I did wrong, corrected it this time.

“Of course a little different scenario, but whatever scenario we were in, I felt like we were on the right strategy and made all the right decisions.

“Going around this time we know we're there, we know we have it. This time it's just more of we've got to use it to build this drive, keep this momentum going. Obviously we still have our whole season for this year, and got 365 days until this, so we're going to keep going.”

Two weeks ago, Rosenqvist became a dad for the first time. Sunday, he won biggest race of his career. To say it’s been an emotional time for him would be an understatement.

“I think I've widened my spectrum of emotions by a million times this month,” said the normally stoic Swede. “But that's what's cool. These are the moments that you'll remember forever. I'm just trying to take it all in, to be honest.

“I feel so lucky. That's the number one thing I can -- like it's super hard to describe how it feels, but I'm just so lucky. First, having my daughter. She's healthy, my wife is healthy. I get to be part of this incredible team at Meyer Shank Racing that feels like a family. Everybody working in this team are proud to be in this team, I think you can ask each one of them, and there's just such a cool culture.

“Just super lucky to be in this position, to have the opportunity and the car and all these things. Yeah, it all happened to me for some reason.”

For Malukas, the pain of coming so close and not winning was very real.

"I just knew this whole month our car was spectacular, and I knew if we were going to be in a position like that, it was going to hurt. I was just so committed in my mind. I was not nervous, I was not anything on those last few restarts.

“For some reason in my head I felt like, we got this. We're going to get it. And we didn't, by just a few little bits. I think that's why it hurts because in my mind I really thought we were going to win it, and we didn't get that right.

“I think it's when you give yourself a goal and when you don't achieve it, it tends to hurt, and I think that's why it hurts so much.”

As Malukas looks to move on and put this year’s all-time classic 500 behind him, Rosenqvist says his win still hasn’t sunk in.

“No, it hasn't. I'm a pure racer, and all I really care about is -- obviously I was going to be happy if I won it on a yellow. You're always going to be happy winning a race.

“But to win it like that is just such a bonus. It makes it three times more special to me because I love when it's -- I would have loved to watch that. I would have paid a lot of money to watch that race. And that's what it's all about, to create a good show, fair racing, hard racing on the final lap like that. And to be the one doing the move, there's nothing like it really.

“I've never had a more exciting finish ever, and to have it here is just lucky, I guess.”

Two racers experiencing the ecstasy and the agony of the 110th Indianapolis 500.

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.

The Ecstasy and the Agony of the 110th Indy 500

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