Better late than never: Rossi is back in the saddle again in IndyCar

Breaks a three-year, 49-race winless streak. Unfortunately, it's too late to make him a championship contender for this season.

INDIANAPOLIS -- When the checkered flag flew after 85 laps of NTT IndyCar Series action at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, the podium was comprised of a driver snapping a winless streak of 1,133 days, a driver earning his first career podium and a driver that took the lead in the championship standings as he seeks his second IndyCar Series championship.

Alexander Rossi took the No. 27 Andretti Autosport Honda to victory lane, besting rookie Christian Lundgaard to the yard of bricks by 3.5441 seconds. Rossi’s car was strong, as he led 44 of the 85 circuits, but it was problems for Colton Herta, his Andretti Autosport teammate, that ultimately gave Rossi the lead and eliminated his biggest competitor.

Herta started ninth and drove to the lead by Lap 8, as it became apparent the Andretti duo was the class of the 25-car field. However, Herta lost power on his No. 26 Honda just before the halfway point and coasted to pit road from the lead, resulting in a disappointing 24th-place result.

Rossi was ready to pounce, taking advantage of his teammates' misfortune and earning the eighth victory of his career, snapping a 49-race winless streak dating back to Road America in 2019.

“It’s a relief, man,” Rossi said. “It’s been so many things for so long. Thankfully something came our way.

“I do feel for Colton; I do. I think he was definitely strong. We had pretty much the same race car. It would have been interesting. I don’t want to take away anything he did from ninth. To get to that position was incredible. But it was the 27’s turn. That’s awesome.”

While Rossi became the fourth driver to win on both the oval and the road course at IMS, it was the first career podium for second-place finishing Lundgaard, piloting the No. 30 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda.

“It feels amazing," Lundgaard said. "I think the best feeling right now is that the team really deserves it. They've worked super hard, and we've had such a struggling beginning to the season, and I think coming to Toronto was when things started to change. We saw sort of a streak where we started to perform better. Even Road America, Mid-Ohio was there. We were on the edge of a Top 10. To come here and finish second, I think the team deserves every bit of it.

“For me to get it done, it just proves that the car was there, which is why I really feel like the team deserves this podium, and I hope there's more to come.”

And finally, there was Will Power, who survived some Lap 1 craziness, rounding out the podium in the No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet. In Turns 1 and 2 of the opening lap, Power made contact with Pato O’Ward in a three-wide situation and also later had contact with Helio Castroneves, which relegated him to 16th position in the early going.

Power’s recover and strategy throughout the race resulted in a nine-point lead over Marcus Ericsson in the championship standings with just four races remaining in the 2022 season.

“Considering the start of the race, yep, great recovery, man, great recovery," Power said after earning his seventh podium of the season. "It's amazing some of the runs we've had this year. But yep, just kept my head and did what I could in the situation.” 

And while Rossi felt relieved, the series will head to Nashville next week and everything will reset once again.

“It's human nature to start to question things when it continually doesn't kind of fall your way," Rossi said. "You just have to remember that you've done it before, you can do it again type of thing. It's nice to reestablish that, and this sport is so much about you're as good as your last race, it doesn't matter who you are. You have to go out there every weekend and kind of reprove yourself.

“It's nice to kind of be back up there, but we have another one in five days, six days, so it all resets again.”