For Rossi, Second Place Is A Hard Pill To Swallow

Alexander Rossi during the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500. [John Wiedemann Photo]

by Allan Brewer

Andretti Autosports’ Alexander Rossi put on a courageous and bold charge, even putting his car’s left wheels into the grass at over 230 mph, but was unable to overtake Team Penske’s Simon Pagenaud for good as the two battled for victory over the last thirteen laps of the 2019 Indianapolis 500.

After a red flag period caused by a multi-car accident involving Sebastian Bourdais and Graham Rahal, Rossi and Pagenaud resumed a race-long contest of swapped spots at the head of the field, lap after lap, bringing the massive crowd at the Brickyard to its feet. In the end, a drag race down the front straightaway between a Penske car and a competitor settled the contest, as it usually does, in the favor of Pagenaud.
“It was horsepower,” said Rossi,”unfortunately that’s the way it is.”

“We just didn’t have the straight-line speed, and there was not much I could do about that from inside the car. “ You saw on the last restart, he just drove by us. I had a hope that maybe he would lose ground behind me, and I would be able to have enough of a cushion for the final two laps.” But he was straight back by me into Turn 1, so there was nothing I could do.”

“That last yellow really hurt us because we were doing a lot better on fuel mileage than he was, so that was the first nail in the proverbial coffin. The second one was just we didn’t have the speed.”

Rossi’s game of daring, side-by-side corner challenges, and lightning-fast passes came so deftly as to defy retaliation from Pagenaud. Car control all around the circuit was the key to his hard-charging tempo throughout the competition.

“We had the superior car,” said Rossi, “but we just didn’t have enough there at the end.”

“The car was by far the best in the field in terms of what we could do and pass at will when I needed to,” he continued. “I didn’t see anyone else doing that.
It’s a huge testament to the whole Andretti Autosport organization for giving me a car that was capable of winning.”

“It’s nobody’s fault, not the team, not Honda . . .,” he continued. “I was flat all around the race course for the last fifteen laps. There’s nothing more you can do.”

In his previous win in the race (2016) Rossi used a cunning strategy of fuel conservation and brief, potent acceleration to take victory as a rookie at the Brickyard.

Alexander cited a malfunctioning fuel-delivery hose and valve that cost him precious seconds in the latter part of the race. “That is not acceptable,” he said. “I’ve raced here four times and this is the third time that has happened. One good time out of four is not good enough.”

“Ultimately it didn’t affect the result,” Rossi said. “I think we’re lucky that it didn’t. Our last pit stop was mega, got us back into the lead before that final yellow came out, which, as I said before, was probably the thing that ultimately cost us the race.”

Rossi is in a contract year, one that could become a lucrative, long-lasting deal with a major automobile racing outfit here or abroad.

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