The Five Greatest IndyCar Finishes Since 2012
By Asher Fair
No. 2: Sao Paulo, 2013
Not very often does a street course race present this kind of excitement and adrenaline-pumping action towards the end of a race. This race on the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil, however, did just that, and it did enough of it to make it the second best finish in the DW12 chassis era.
While there were several passes going on for the 2nd and 3rd place spots between James Hinchcliffe, Josef Newgarden, and Marco Andretti, Takuma Sato remained in the lead of the race. Coming off of the first victory of his career, Sato was trying to become the first driver to win his first two IndyCar races in back-to-back races since AJ Allmendinger did it in 2006.
A couple of controversial blocks by Sato on Hinchcliffe with under five laps to go led Race Control to review Sato’s actions. However, they determined that no penalty would be assessed.
With one lap to go and Sato leading Hinchcliffe down the backstretch once more, Hinchcliffe went to the inside of Sato before Sato blocked him yet again. Hinchcliffe then went to the outside for the final hairpin turn. When Sato washed out wide coming off of the turn, Hinchcliffe slid up the inside to take the lead and the checkered flag, winning the race by just 0.346 seconds.
It was the first race that the winning driver had only led the final lap in since Dan Wheldon won the 2011 Indianapolis 500.