It’s not just Swedish Top Fuel Motorcycle champion Rikard Gustafsson that goes “Balls Deep” for the win. His countryman Felix Rosenqvist revealed that he had to find the reserve of courage located between his legs to drive around the outside the whole final lap around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for his first Indianapolis 500 win. And in a much more exciting fashion than I’m describing here (because surely you’ve seen it by now), Felix nipped Penske driver David Malukas in the closest finish (.0233 of a second) in the 110 year history of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”

The one-lap dash to the checkered flag was set up when rookie Mick Schumacher brushed the SAFER Barrier in Turn 2 in his No. 47 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda on Lap 197.

“I’d say the balls arrived when they needed to,” said Rosenqvist. “I’ve never been flat around the high line for more than one corner. To do a whole lap on the outside, that was pretty cool. Like, it’s kind of unheard of at Indy, so yeah, that’s just how much you want it. It’s hard to explain that feeling that you want it so much, and you have so much adrenaline that you literally don’t care if you’re going to crash. You’re just going all in, and it was cool that that’s what it took to win it as well.”

As Rikard, who won the FIM/FIA race at Santa Pod Raceway the very next day would say, “Balls deep!” Very, very sadly, Rikard lost his life on his Top Fuel Motorcycle two days after this article was first published.

Rosenqvist became the third Swedish driver to win the 500, joining Kenny Brack (1999) and Marcus Ericsson (2022).

There are many ways that IndyCar driver Rosenqvist reminds me of my drag racing friends, especially those from Northern Europe (Sweden, Finland, etc). Although he looks shorter than his listed 5’7″, he’s no slender jockey. The beefy Swede with the baby fat face looks more wrestler than contemporary IndyCar racer, and now the new dad’s wallet is as chubby as his cheeks.

If only it could have been accomplished with a better looking car….The Meyer Shank “Morgan Wallen Radio” car is more Desert Storm olive drab/sand brown than the typical race car. But, Rosenqvist and Meyer Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian earned a record-high $4.34 million from a total purse of $30,906,400, so I guess beauty is in the belly of the wallet. That’ll buy some diapers and Busch Light.

Although the beer will likely not have to be bought. You might recall that when team owner Michael Shank won the 2021 race with driver Helio Castroneves, there were prodigious quantities of Busch Light drank in the on-track and winners circle celebrations. That didn’t escape the notice of his Pataskala, Ohio, beer distributor, who dropped stacks of cases on Shank’s porch for his return home.

Shanks’ wife and team partner MaryBeth assured me that despite success raging all around them, her husband still “heads for the mountains” with the working-class brew whenever he pops a tab. And that explains the grassroots appeal of this team, which boasts an arsenal of Grateful Dead themed t-shirts in their merch shop. The Morgan Wallen livery is not likely to sell as many shirts as the Dead livery, but it must be the most beautiful car in the world for Felix and Shank. I can hear the sound of cold ones now.

Described as a “journeyman” by my German colleague Phillipp Körner, Rosenqvist has a background every bit as grassroots as Shank’s. Some drivers are born with the financial backing to pursue their dreams, while some have to scrap for every dime and opportunity. Rosenqvist fits more in that latter category. “He was in Formula 3 for a long time—like 5 years,” Körner told me. F3 is a development series for young drivers to learn and move on, not to hang around for as long as Felix did. “He became like a mentor to the younger drivers who came along.”

Open wheel, sports cars, touring cars—Rosenqvist raced them all. He came into IndyCar with Chip Ganassi Racing, won at Road America, and moved on to McLaren before landing at Meyer Shank. Through it all, he wrecked some cars—as balls deep drivers sometimes do. Here’s what my camera has caught:

But Rosenqvist also learned how to keep his foot planted and the car under control, and now he’s won racing’s biggest event. “It kind of worked out the right way when I got back to third, and then I just had to flat-out lap on the high line, and it stuck,” Rosenqvist said. “It was just the coolest way you can finish and win an Indy 500.”

Meyer Shank Racing also earned its second IndyCar victory—both coming in the Indy 500 after Helio Castroneves captured his record-tying fourth Indianapolis 500 victory for the team.

“I really miss my wife (Emille) and my newborn child, Stella,” Rosenqvist said. “I wish they were here with me. This whole month, becoming a dad and winning the ‘500’ … We joked about it in the beginning: ‘Maybe you’ll win the ‘500’ and have a baby.’ It’s just unreal.”

Malukas, meanwhile, was gutted—weaping. “I don’t know what else we could have done,” said Malukas. “We were the fastest car that whole race. I gave it 150%. I almost crashed this damn car every lap and still end up with a P2. I can’t believe it. I don’t know what else I can give.

“We’ve had such a stellar season. This whole month they gave everything me everything I need. Just so close. This place, man. We’re going to come back again though. We’re going to bring everything. We’re going to give it 160% though. Thank you everybody here for staying here through the rain. Thank you to everybody at Team Penske. Thank you to Roger Penske for believing in me when nobody else did. We’re going to keep on going.”

It might be noted that Malukas was plucked from A.J. Foyt Racing, who I would assume also believed in him.

Malukas’ Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin finished third in the No. 3 Pennzoil Team Penske Chevrolet—a spiritual revival after his pre-race accident last year. “I don’t think we were fast enough in traffic, to be honest, like the other two cars were (Rosenquist and Malukas),” said McLaughlin. “But yes, I think the No. 12 car was the car of the race today, but the No. 60 made the strategy work, and we were 10th with four to go. I had two awesome late restarts. So, I was just sending and hoping and we came out with third. Anyway, one day David’s going to win one of these and hopefully I will too.”

Only .4360 of a second separated the top-five finishers, so there’s plenty to talk about here.

Pato O’Ward placed fourth in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, his fifth career top-four finish in seven “500” starts without a victory. “Disappointing Sunday,” said Pato. “We were in the mix again, but we didn’t have what we needed to go get it done. There is nothing left for us here other than winning.”

Rosenqvist’s teammate Marcus Armstrong rounded out the top five in the No. 66 Acura Honda despite taking the green flag in the lead on a one-lap shootout for the victory after a late caution. “I can’t believe how disappointed I am. I feel like I lost an Indy 500 for my team, for my 66 crew. I left it at the wrong moment. I’m very, very happy for Felix but I’m just so disappointed.”

MSR’s Helio Castroneves dropped out due to mechanical issues on lap 194 and finished 25th. On Lap 112, Helio Castroneves surpassed A.J. Foyt as the Indianapolis 500 all-time mileage leader and went on to complete 194 laps. Castroneves has completed 12,480 miles in the Indianapolis 500. The previous record was Foyt’s 12,272.5 miles.

“What a great day for the entire MSR team,” said Helio. “I’m stoked, to be honest, because I’m still wearing the racing suit and I wanted to be battling for the win. But I can’t believe this amazing win and also to have two cars battling for the win!

“I’m a blessed person to be connected with this team. Of course, so happy for Felix as he deserves it and he did a hell of a job. And Marcus as well, I saw towards the end how hard he was fighting for it and just amazing driving. Just great job to team MSR, Mike, Jim and everyone here and back in Ohio.”

Even though the race featured an event-record 70 lead changes, most of those were standard drafting past the leader and swapping positions. For instance, teammates Alex Palou and Scott Dixon traded the lead a record 26 times. And then with many, many yellow laps (mostly for sprinkles) along with a red flag just when it seemed the rain had stopped, this 500 just seemed to not find a groove. This is reflected in Rosenqvist’s average speed of 162.021 mph.

But the finish, as finishes often do, made up for the lackluster middle and left a spectacular aftertaste for everyone who witnessed it.

The finish was the final act of a dual-strategy drama that unfolded over the closing laps. O’Ward, Armstrong and Rosenqvist made their final pit stops on Laps 164, 165 and 166, respectively, right at the edge of the fuel window to finish the race without another stop under green-flag racing.

Meanwhile, Malukas, McLaughlin and pole sitter Alex Palou in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda were among a group of cars that were on a different sequence and had to make their final stops on Laps 175 (Malukas) and 176 (Palou and McLaughlin).

Malukas took control of that chasing group, but they were more than 20 seconds behind O’Ward, Rosenqvist and Armstrong with less than 25 laps to go. Rosenqvist, with two more laps of fuel than O’Ward, was content to ride in the draft of the Mexican and save even more fuel as both lapped nearly 10 mph slower than the chasing pack to ensure they could make it to the finish.

Rosenqvist finally pounced past O’Ward for the lead on Lap 185.

The chasing trio of Malukas, McLaughlin and Palou appeared to be running out of laps to catch O’Ward, Rosenqvist and Armstrong, but the field was bunched on Lap 192 when rookie Caio Collet slammed the SAFER Barrier in Turn 2 in the No. 4 Combitrans Amazonia Chevrolet of A.J. Foyt Enterprises, triggering the sixth of seven caution periods in the race.

“I think it was an awesome race up until the crash,” said Collet. “We did a gamble there in the beginning with strategy. It didn’t pay off with the yellows. I think we had a really good car. We were up a few positions already on the first few laps. Got to lead a couple of laps after with the strategy we took and then we were basically fighting with the good guys there, like head-to-head, and that was pretty cool. And then at the end there, our strategy didn’t work out, we had to bail out of that and come back from last, and we were running P 10, fighting for the top 10 at the end.

“So big thanks to the Combitrans team, they’ve managed to put me back in the race, fighting for the top 10 there at the end. Had to save a little bit of fuel, but I think we had a really good car, and I was just pushing too much, trying to stay in the fight, and ended up losing the rear.  Just a silly mistake from my side, but I’m glad that I’m okay. These cars, they are really safe, because I have to look back at the video, I think it was pretty sketchy. But no, I’m glad that I’m fine. I think we had a really good month, just a little bit frustrating to end like this. I think we can be proud of what we did, and we’ll come back stronger.”

Race officials immediately red-flagged the event for accident cleanup, with all cars pulling into the pits. “It was the perfect situation for us before that,” Rosenqvist said. “We kind of had everything lined up. Pato was struggling with fuel, and we were pretty rich (on fuel) to the end. I was like: ‘This is going to be great. At some point you’re just going to pass him and hopefully cruise to the win.’ But then in the end, everything flipped upside-down.

“But you just have to reload. I was a little negative at first. I was like, ‘Of course, this happened.’ But then you just had to think forward. It actually was good when I got back to third because it felt like I was hunting instead of being hunted.”

Rosenqvist led the field to green flag on the Lap 196 restart after the 10-minute red flag period, with O’Ward second and Armstrong third. But Armstrong powered to the front in the four-wide restart with a bold outside move in Turn 1, with Malukas riding his aerodynamic coattails to second. But then Schumacher made contact with the SAFER Barrier to bring out the final caution on Lap 197, setting up the one-lap dash for glory.

Local hero Conor Daly, did his annual thing—leading and looking in contention before finishing 12th. He recorded the fastest lap (225.126 mph) of the race on Lap 182. “Wow, we had a fast car,” said Daly. “I appreciate the way the team worked. We got screwed on some strategy today. I really don’t know what to say. The second to the last restart, I got shoved into the wall and then, Marcus (Ericsson) hit me on the last restart. It’s a shame because it was complete waste of day. This car and team deserves so much better. Our fuel strategy was different than some of the others today. The car was really good but you have to be there at the end, and we weren’t where we wanted to be. All you can ask for is to be competitive and race up front. We did that. But this place always throws you a curveball. I just have to keep working hard and get another chance to win here.”

GP winner Christian Lundgaard finished 17th“It was a very long day and certainly not the result we were working towards. We felt like we were making good progress throughout the month, but when it came down to it, we just didn’t move the needle and the strategy gamble didn’t pay off. It’s incredibly frustrating for the whole team.

We’ll learn from this and put it behind us as we shift our focus entirely to Detroit. The objective is clear, to get a win for Team Chevy on their home turf. A victory there wouldn’t make up for today, but it would certainly be a massive boost and get us back on the right track.”

Ed Carpenter completed his 23rd career “500” start without a victory after crashing on a restart. It’s most winless starts of any driver in event history. George Snider made 22 starts between 1965-87 without a win.

This is the 17th Indianapolis 500 victory for a Honda engine, second to Offenhauser’s 27 wins. Mick Schumacher was the top-finishing rookie, in 18th place, and won Rookie of the Year.

Romain Grosjean advanced more positions than any other driver, finishing ninth after starting 24th. Dixon led 32 laps, extending his career laps-led record to 709 laps. He has also led a record 17 races. Pole sitter Palou led the most laps (59) in the race. This is the 28th time the pole-sitter has been the top lap leader of the race. Santino Ferrucci completed the full 500-mile distance for a record eighth consecutive year, all of his career “500” starts.

story and photos by Tim Hailey with help from IMS, Chevrolet, and Honda