71. Florida racer Ryan Hunter-Reay wins Indy 500 in nail-biter

INDIANAPOLIS -- A Florida racer, Ryan Hunter-Reay, driving the No. 28 for team owner Michael Andretti, won the Indianapolis 500 in a nail-biter over hard-charging Helio Castroneves a previous three-time winner.

The 2014 Indianapolis 500 win for Hunter-Reay of Fort Lauderdale turned out to be the second-closest margin of victory at .06 of a second.

“I’ve been watching this race since I was in diapers sitting on the floor -- I’m thrilled,” Hunter-Reay said, savoring the traditional quart of cold milk given to the winner in Victory Lane. “This is American history this race, an American tradition.”

“I’ve been watching this race since I was in diapers sitting on the floor -- I’m thrilled,” Hunter-Reay said, savoring the traditional quart of cold milk given to the winner in Victory Lane. “This is American history this race, an American tradition.”

The Fort Lauderdale racer's Indy 500 win comes in at No. 71 in the HeadlineSurfer.com countdown of the top 100 local stories of 2014.

Second place was no consolation for Castroneves who sat dejected in his race car, despite his grit and determination right up to the end of the grueling 500-mile race on Sunday of the Memorial Day Weekend.

“Second place kind of sucks but taking the positive out of this, it was a great race,” the Brazilian driver said bluntly, adding he believed the top two finishers "used every inch of the track."

Castroneves described the duel with Hunter-Reay, stoically: "At the end of the day there is stupid and then there’s bravery. I think we’re right there on the edge, both of us, really trying.”

Finishing third was Marco Andretti, the first member of the Andretti racing family to try and duplicate the 1969 win of his grandfather, legendary Mario Andretti. Marco Andretti and Hunter-Reay are teammates under Michael Andretti.

Finishing in fourth was Carlos Munoz, of Colombia, followed by fellow countryman  Juan Pablo Montoya, who returned to the Indianapolis 500 for the first time since winning the race 15 years ago, though he's probably more well known in Florida for being the former Sprint Cup driver who crashed into a jet dryer at the Daytona 500 three years ago, that resulted in a fire that burned a crater into the pavement and caused stoppage of the race for emergency patching.

And speaking of Daytona, Kurt Busch, the 2004 NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion, finished sixth in his first Indy race before flying out to Charlotte Motor Speedway in hopes of completing the "double" by competing in the stock car  in the night race under the lights. He didn't complete the task, though, due to a blown engine.

Like Montoya, Jacques Villeneuve of Canada, returned for the first time since winning the race 19 years ago. He finished in 14th place.

Pippa Mann, of Great Britain, the lone woman in the field finished in 24th.the only woman in this year’s field, was 24th. Pole-Sitter Ed Carpenter, out front at tyne start for the second year in a roam, gave way after the first lap to hard-charging Canadian James Hinchcliffe, but the two drivers and another pre-race contender, Scott Dixon, all crashed.

The race was caution free, actually until lap 149 when Charlie Kimball lost control of his car and struck the wall. Clearly, this ended up being a two-man race at the end with Hunter-Reay beating Castroneves to the finish line by half a car length.

Hunter-Reay became the 69th different driver to win (including co-winners in 1924 and 1941). And his victory brought Andretti his third Indianapolis 500 championship as a team owner, ending a seven-year drought. His former drivers, Dario Franchitti, since retired, took the checkered flag in 2007, and the late Dan Weldon won for Andretti in 2005.

The shootout in the closing laps was set up when INDYCAR officials red-flagged the race on Lap 192 for seven minutes for crews to fix the Turn 2 SAFER Barrier and clean up from the single-car incident involving Townsend Bell's No. 6 Robert Graham KV Racing Technology entry.

Bell had been running fifth -- 1.8 seconds behind Hunter-Reay.

Hunter-Reay and Castroneves alternated as the front-runner through lap 199 – Hunter-Reay leading by only .0196 of a second at the line on lap 198.

The closest margin of victory was .043 of a second by Al Unser Jr. over Scott Goodyear, who was an analyst in the ABC booth on this day, in 1992. Sebastien Bourdais, driving the KVSH Racing car that won the “500” last year with Tony Kanaan, placed a career-best seventh in the 500-mile race and Will Power finished eighth.

Power, who started on the outside of row 1 in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske car, was issued a drive-through penalty for a pit speed violation on lap 128 as he exited while running second to Montoya.

With double points awarded for the three 500-mile races this season – the Indy 500, Pocono Raceway on July 6 and Auto Club Speedway on Aug. 30 – Hunter-Reay took the championship lead over Power, 274-234.

Hunter-Reay entered the race trailing by one point. Sage Karam, the 19-year-old rookie from Nazareth, Pa., finished ninth in the No. 22 Dreyer & Reinbold-Kingdom Racing with Chip Ganassi car. JR Hildebrand, who was the race runner-up as a rookie in 2011, placed 10th.

Hunter-Reay led a field-high 56 laps, despite starting 19th. The last time a driver led the most laps of the race from a lower starting position was in 1975, when Wally Dallenbach led a race-high 96 laps after starting from the 21st position.

RECAP

The HeadlineSurfer.com Countdown of the Top 100 Local Stories of 2014...