Indy serves up the fairy tale: Helio's fourth win

Mark Glover’s AutoGlo car reviews also can be seen in the Northern & Central California Cruisin’ News magazine published monthly out of Folsom, California.

Editor's note: Since 1961, Mark Glover has attended 57 Indianapolis 500s, as both a spectator and a working journalist. Here's his take on Sunday's 105th running of the world-famous race:

Just when you thought that you had seen everything ... Even as you watched a series of remarkable, unforeseen occurrences repeatedly twist the plot of Sunday's Indianapolis 500 ... And just when it appeared that a new generation of race drivers would seize the day and the future ... The Indianapolis Motor Speedway served up the fairy tale.

Helio Castroneves, age 46, became the fourth four-time winner of the 500, beating 24-year-old Alex Palou to the finish line by less than a second, following a spellbinding late-race duel between the two drivers.

Just how that occurred was the stuff of a weepy, over-the-top sports movie.  And yet in the end, Helio winning his fourth 20 years after his first Indy 500 triumph made perfect sense.

On the sports movie side, who could have predicted that Stefan Wilson crashing in the pits on the 32nd lap would close the service area, force pre-race favorite Scott Dixon and Indy veteran Alexander Rossi to run out of fuel and effectively take them off the chess board?

Who could have predicted that Dixon and Rossi would continue in a race with a record-low two caution periods for another record low of only 18 laps, negating any chance they had to catch back up to the leaders?  The lack of cautions also doomed strong race teams that banked their race strategies on a typical day of half a dozen cautions or more.

Who could have predicted that Graham Rahal, a savvy, hard-driving veteran, would be in an ideal position up front, only to lose an untightened wheel leaving the pits and crash out on the 118th lap? Popular Conor Daly was running well at the time -- he led 40 laps compared with 20 for Castroneves -- but his prospects were crushed when he smashed into the wheel that left Rahal's car.

You could even point to Felix Rosenqvist's untimely speeding penalty on his last pit stop. Rosenquvist, who had led 14 laps earlier in the race, was on fresh tires and came out of the pits in front of Palou, who was then holding off Castroneves. Rosenqvist was flying along, and Palou was happily riding in his speedy wake ... until Rosenqvist was called back into the pits to serve his speeding penalty, removing Palou's helper from the scene.

In the end, all of that added up to this ancient axiom: That's racing.

Anything can happen in a 500-mile race conducted at bullet-like speeds. The events that brought Castroneves into Victory Lane might stretch the imagination of the wildest Hollywood film director, but they happened nevertheless.

And because they did, the table was set perfectly for Castroneves, the driver on the track with the most 500 wins, and the hard-won knowledge of how to make those wins happen.

Castroneves drove a textbook perfect Indianapolis 500 -- always running up front, staying out of harm's way, executing excellent pits stops and then charging hard when it was "go time" in the final 20 laps.  Looking back at it now, all the fates led to Castroneves, driving a perfectly balanced car tuned to his liking.

The gigantic history Castroneves made with his win was appropriately celebrated by tens of thousands of adoring fans.  And I'll bet that the young guns of Indy -- whose future is every bright -- marveled at Helio's limitless energy as he climbed the fence at the finish line, ran up the front stretch and partied just as hard as any 20-something long after the checkered flag fell.

Can we expect a run at an unprecedented FIFTH Indy 500 in 2022?  Judging from the super-high level of skill and energy Castroneves showed on Sunday, I'd say it's a slam dunk.