IndyCar driver
Simon Pagenaud arguably had the greatest month of May of all time at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
He won the
mid-month IndyCar Grand Prix at the track, then won the
pole position for the Indianapolis 500 and finished things off Sunday by edging
Northern California's Alexander Rossi in a breathtaking, 13-lap, high-speed
duel in the Indiana sunshine.
The $2.66
million Indy 500 winner's check presented to Pagenaud at Monday's victory banquet felt pretty good too, I'm sure.
But it was so
much more than even all of that.
Pagenaud
entered the month of May as a man seemingly on the brink of a big fall. He was winless in 2018, and when you drive
for the Roger Penske-run super team, that was like a top-tier PGA golfer
missing the cut of every tournament he entered in a year.
The rumor mill had Pagenaud on the chopping block.
Ironically,
Rossi's name was being whispered as one of the drivers most likely to replace Pagenaud
on the Penske team.
That all went
away on Sunday as Pagenaud turned in a nearly flawless performance, leading 116 of the race's 200 laps and putting a couple of blazing passes on Rossi in the
final laps ... as electrifying a race-ending showdown as I've ever seen in all my years at
Indy.
The crowd
loved it.
Pagenaud,
emotions flying somewhere in a sub-orbital zone after the checkered flag fell,
opted to roll his Chevrolet-powered machine to the finish line, climb out and
salute the fans. It was a perfect example of what makes
the Frenchman so irresistibly likable.
He's long been relentlessly smiling and buoyant, even amid heartbreak.
How much of a
gentleman is Pagenaud? He actually
apologized to the fans and officials for taking so long to have his car pushed
into victory circle for the traditional post-race celebration of milk, high-fives and kisses. Rival drivers came up and happily
congratulated the man who beat them all on Sunday. Unprompted, Pagenaud praised Rossi's
spirited, all-out drive at the end, noting that Rossi competed like a
gentleman.
In short, a
nice guy won the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, with a performance that will
long endure in Indy lore.
And those
skeptics who questioned Pagenaud's future when May began? ... Bid them adieu.
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