The 98th edition of the Indianapolis 500 championship for the year 2014 which was held on Sunday came to an end with a very tight finish as Ryan Hunter-Reay managed to stay ahead of his closest rival Helio Castroneves by a car-length to win the race. The final lap was one of the most breath-taking ones as both the racers exchanged the first position a number of times. This finish was the second closest in the history of the race.
Hunter-Reay was overwhelmed with joy as he described how this win was a dream come true for him. He thanked his team for the encouragement and support that he received from them over the past few years. Ryan Hunter-Reay was very happy with the car that he got and made the most of it by denying Helio Castroneves a fourth Indy crown. He poured milk all over his body on the podium. Hunter-Reay’s team-mate Marco Andretti finished third followed by Carlos Munoz and Juan Pablo Montoya.
The race was not incident free as the final lap saw Townsend Bell crash which resulted in a lot of delay as the crew had to remove all the debris from the track. Castroneves was quite gracious in defeat as he congratulated the winner and thanked his team for making the race such a close affair. He admitted that the break in the dying moments of the race was the reason behind his loss of momentum.
Hunter-Reay had to make some daring moves like maneuvering an inside turn which helped him to take the lead against Castroneves. The result was a real confidence-booster for Hynter-Reay as he started the race from the 19th position. An interesting trivia associated with this race was how Kurt Busch who finished sixth and left the scene soon after to participate in another race.