IndyCar: Five surprises from the 2017 season

Takuma Sato drinks the milk

In his time in Formula One and IndyCar, Takuma Sato’s personal mantra of “no attack, no chance” has led to a bit of a star-crossed career for the 40-year-old from Japan mixed with brilliant driving and boneheaded mistakes.

In his eight seasons in IndyCar, Sato has amassed 16 top 5 and 39 top 10 finishes. He’s also had 40 races where he’s finished 20th or worse. Some of those finishes were the result of bad luck or someone else’s mistakes, but nonetheless, Sato has left a lot of wrecked race cars in his wake.

At Indianapolis, things hadn’t gone much better. In seven tries at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, his best finish prior to 2017 was 13th. He’d had one potential chance to win in 2012, when he dueled with Dario Franchitti into turn 1 on the final lap. His day ended in the fence, though, as his daring inside move failed to pay off.

Heading into the May of 2017, Sato was in what arguably could have been his best Indy ride with Andretti Autosport. That put him with a team with five previous 500 wins, including in 2016 when they combined forces with Bryan Herta Autosport to put Alexander Rossi into Victory Lane.

Sato put himself in a good position by qualifying fourth and was second on the speed charts on Carb Day. He then drove a patient race and kept himself near the front before taking the lead with five laps to go.

Already a popular champion

Though Sato has had his share of disappointments, his smile and sunny disposition has made him popular with both the fans and his competitors. He has already proven a popular and worthy champion.

That was obvious when he took the Borg-Warner Trophy home to Japan with him. The first winner from Asia in the history of the 500, Sato became like a conquering hero everywhere he went.

Sato may have been a surprise winner of the 500, but he’s already proven he will be a great champion.