Felix Rosenqvist needed to try a different strategy than the rest of the Indianapolis 500 field on Sunday.
Sometimes, it pays to go your own way.
The driver known as “FRO” managed his fuel and saved enough gas to prevail at the Indy 500, winning the closest race in the event’s history on a stunning last-second pass of David Malukas after a late caution made the race a one-lap scramble to the finish. It’s the 34-year-old Swedish driver’s his first victory in the world’s biggest auto race.
The wild finish featured two restarts in the last eight laps. The first came when rookie Caio Collett suddenly slammed the wall and his car burst into flames, and IndyCar officials decided to throw a red flag to preserve the final laps rather than run out the race under caution. Rosenqvist was leading at the time, with Pato O’Ward right behind him, both stretching their fuel to the maximum.
On that restart, Marcus Armstrong surged ahead to the front before another caution came out with just five laps to go. The race restarted again with one lap to go, and Malukas surged to the lead.
But Rosenqvist tracked Malukas down, edging him out moments before the finish line to take the checkered flag.
FELIX ROSENQVIST WINS THE CLOSEST FINISH IN INDY 500 HISTORY! pic.twitter.com/BBGobsgX3I
— INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) May 24, 2026
“I don’t even know what to say, what a car, what a car. Massive thanks to the team,” Rosenqvist said on the Fox broadcast. “… I think we were the best car today. I felt like we were in all situations. We kind of had it under control. That last (caution) didn’t help us, but it kind of worked out the right way.”
It’s been quite a month for Rosenqvist: He and his wife had their first child earlier in May.
“We joked about it in the beginning, ‘Maybe you’ll win the 500 and have a baby,’” Rosenqvist said. “It’s just unreal.”
The 24-year-old Malukas has now finished second in consecutive Indy 500s. He was in tears talking to Fox after the race.
“I don’t what else we could’ve done,” he said. “We were the fastest car that whole race. I gave it 150 percent, I mean, I almost crashed this damn car every lap, and we still end up with a P2, man. I just can’t believe it. I don’t know what else I can give.”
How the race played out
From first and second at the start, Álex Palou and Alexander Rossi took turns in the lead through the opening stages, only for Rossi to fall back after a slow stop under the first caution. A short, second caution followed when Ed Carpenter hit the wall on the restart, leaving rookie Caio Collet to take a turn in the lead after opting to stay out, running an alternate strategy.
Palou, who was seeking to become just the seventh driver to win back-to-back Indy 500s, retook the lead on Lap 41 after passing Conor Daly, who had passed Palou for second behind Collet, while Josef Newgarden also managed to battle his way from 23rd at the start to sit in the top five as the race neared quarter-distance.
Palou managed to retain the lead through the second round of stops despite going one lap longer than Daly and the Penske trio of Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin and Malukas. The Spaniard was joined at the front by the recovering Rosenqvist, who cycled up to second, and Scott Dixon, who picked off Rosenqvist before starting to work with Ganassi teammate Palou at the front, exchanging the lead back and forth.
Dixon and Palou were able to retain Ganassi’s stranglehold on the race when they pitted on Lap 97 under a third caution, winning the race off pit road ahead of Malukas as Rosenqvist slipped behind the Penskes and McLaren’s Pato O’Ward rose to sixth.
With the race hitting 101 laps and hitting the required distance to be declared official, attention turned to the weather. Light drizzle prompted race control to extend the caution period in the hope the rain would pass.
A red flag was eventually thrown during Lap 105, but the rain quickly passed, allowing for engines to be fired back up just 12 minutes later so the race could resume, going back to green on Lap 110. Dixon’s slow restart allowed Malukas and Daly to pass him and put pressure on Palou, with Malukas moving into the lead before another caution due to the weather conditions. A crash for Newgarden delayed the planned restart at the end of Lap 125, further reducing the window before the anticipated heavier showers forecast later on.
McLaughlin moved into the fight for the lead when the race went back to green, going three-wide at one stage with Palou and Daly, but Malukas managed to claw his way back to the front before the penultimate round of pit stops. Despite emerging from the pits behind McLaughlin, Malukas swept past his teammate on the out lap before also picking off Palou, putting him ahead of the two yellow cars once again.
Rosenqvist and O’Ward enjoyed a stint at the head of the field as they opted for an off-sequence fuel strategy, pitting under the caution of Newgarden’s crash for fuel. It allowed them both to make an early final stop and emerge right behind the leading trio of Malukas, Palou and McLaughlin, albeit with a need to fuel save through to the end. Although O’Ward had track position, Rosenqvist had gone two laps longer, giving him extra breathing room.
Malukas, Palou and McLaughlin made their final stops on consecutive laps to again release O’Ward and Rosenqvist, the pair balancing their eagerness to push and fight with the need to eke out their fuel.
Using his two-lap fuel advantage over O’Ward, Rosenqvist seized his moment and passed for the lead with 15 laps to go, appearing to put himself on the brink of victory before Collet’s crash led to the late red flag.
On the restart with five laps to go, Armstrong, who had followed the save-fuel strategy, swept to the front just before another caution was called for a wall touch from Mick Schumacher, leaving just enough time for a one-lap shootout.
Malukas initially jumped Armstrong and held the lead right through the four corners, only for Rosenqvist to slingshot around and win the drag race to the finish line, securing a sensational first Indy 500 win by just 0.02 seconds.
It left Malukas to settle for P2 ahead of Penske teammate McLaughlin, with O’Ward and Armstrong crossing the line fourth and fifth.
Big names run into trouble
There were troubles for a variety of notable names on Sunday.
One of the hometown favorite drivers, veteran Ed Carpenter, got squeezed by Takuma Sato on Lap 27 while running three-wide and spun, crashing out of the race.
Carpenter said Sato’s move was “unwise” and “really disappointing.”
“Two-time (Indy 500) champion, I would expect way more out of him,” Carpenter said.
On Lap 91, Will Power appeared to suddenly blow an engine and spun onto the exit road of pit lane. At the same time, Rossi came to pit lane with his car smoking and quickly climbed out.
Rossi, who was injured in a practice crash earlier in the week and had to undergo a procedure on his leg, has been using crutches to get around. His crew helped him reach the pit wall as he hopped on one leg.
Newgarden was another former winner who failed to make it to the checkered flag, spinning out on the restart on Lap 126. Newgarden’s car snapped as he swooped through Turn 4 after getting his front-left wheel on the low rumble strip. He careered into the wall on the outside, marking his second straight DNF at the Indy 500 after back-to-back wins in 2023 and 2024. The Penske driver was able to get out of the car unaided before being checked and cleared at the medical center.
Legge out early in ‘Double’ attempt
Katherine Legge, who was attempting the Indy 500/Coca-Cola 500 “Double” this year, was surely relieved to see the race begin as scheduled after rain gave Kyle Larson issues the past two years. But her Indy 500 came to an end after just 18 laps when she spun out while trying to avoid Ryan Hunter-Reay’s spinning McLaren, sparking the first caution period of the race.
Legge was scored with a last-place finish (33rd) and said it was “desperately frustrating” to be taken out of the race so early, particularly not by her own doing.
“I’m gutted,” she said. “We were just back there, saving fuel and chilling out, just riding and trying to get through the majority of the laps and be really sensible. Because I wanted to make the 1,100 miles. And then wasn’t expecting that.”
Legge said she couldn’t see where Hunter-Reay’s car was because of the smoke, so she went for the high side as he was sliding down the track.
“Then he came back up the track, and so last minute I had to go left and it just wasn’t enough time for the car not to spin out,” she said.
