INDIANAPOLIS – Takuma Sato picked up a second Indianapolis 500 victory at empty Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, holding off Scott Dixon and eventually winning under caution.
IndyCar officials refused to throw a red flag after a violent crash by Spencer Pigot with only a handful of laps left. Pigot needed medical attention on the track, the accident scene was a waste field and there was no way the race could start without restarting.
Dixon, the five-time IndyCar champion who had dominated the race, asked on his radio if IndyCar would give drivers a final shootout to the checkered, NASCAR-style flag.
“Are they going red?” Frege Dixon. “They need to be red. There’s no way to clean that up.”
IndyCar never threw the flag, and Sato led Dixon across the finish line under yellow.
Sato became the first Japanese winner of the Indy 500 in 2017. Dixon was second and Graham Rahal, Sato’s teammate at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, was third.
It was Pigot, the third Rahal driver, who crashed for the controversial finish.
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