Indianapolis - Two hundred laps and 500 miles still wasn't quite enough to officially decide who the winner of the 86th running of the Indianapolis 500 was Sunday.
Once the excuses, pleads and protests settled, Helio Castroneves became the first driver to complete back-to-back victories at Indianapolis since Al Unser, Sr. 1970-'71.
After several oddities throughout the day, such as a fuel tank explosion in Robby Gordon's pit, Gil de Farren leaving the pits without a tire correctly attached and two leaders hitting the wall throughout the day, it was a yellow flag controversy in the second to last lap that held up the official posting of the race results.
On lap 198 defending champion Castroneves lead Paul Tracy by .2244 seconds. On Lap 199, Laurent Redon and Buddy Lazier got tangled up in an accident exiting turn two, drawing the yellow flag.
The part in question Sunday was whether or not Tracy passed Castroneves in turn three before the yellow flag dropped.
Tracy claimed he did. Castroneves claimed he didn't. The Indy Racing League rulebook however, says it doesn't matter.
In such a situation, the field is reformed based on the dribver positions on the previous green flag lap. In this case, lap 198 - a lap Castroneves was leading.
Castroneves led only 23 laps Sunday, the fewest by a winner since Jacques Villeneuve who led 15 in 1995. "I didn't have the best car there and I was just trying to keep going, just trying to keep out of trouble, try to not crash, try to keep in the lead lap," Castroneves said. There was a great deal of question Sunday whether or not Castroneves had enough fuel to complete the race. "On lap 160, 162, I don't remember, Tim Cindric and I decided to stay out. And I couldn't believe it, everybody was coming in, and I said this is the chance that I want because I knew I have 20 gallons in the car, and it was like 22 laps to go, and normally it's a gallon per lap, and I was just trying to keep in good shape, lifting off." As far as the post race controversy went, Castroneves had a hard time understanding where Tracy was coming from. "I don't understand why people see that, OK, he passed me. The only reason he passed me, it's because the yellow came on, and I lifted off," he said. "No way he could pass me if it would be outside turn three if we were still racing. So he might have passed me on the front straightaway because I was lifting off." Tracy felt a little differently about the results. "There's going to be a lot of politics playing into this, and I don't want to dig too deep into it, but there's politics in everything, every form of motor sports, and I hope it doesn't come to that," Tracy said. "I've never heard of reverting back to the previous lap," Tracy said of the ruling. "When the yellow comes out, you find out where the cars were, where they were positioned, that's where they finish at." The win for Castroneves gave Roger Penske his 12th career win at Indiapolis. Penske, who was Castroneves' team owner last year as well has won consecutive Indianapolis 500's for the first time since 1993, Emerson Fittipalid, and 1994, Al Unser Jr. He has won back-to-back Indianapolis 500's a total of four times with the other two in 1984, Rick Mears, and 1985, Danny Sullivan, and 1987, Al Unser, and 1988, Rick Mears. It was reported by ESPN Monday morning that Tracy plans to protest the official results a second time this week.
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