2018 Indy 500 results – Will Power wins his first

In his 11th Indy 500 attempt, Team Penske’s Will Power was victorious for the first time in the 102nd running of the race.

For the first time in 11 attempts, 2014 IndyCar champion Will Power was finally able to win the Indianapolis 500. He did so in the 102nd running of the event on Sunday afternoon at the four-turn, 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval in the first Indy 500 of the new UAK18 aero kit era.

Power, who started the race in third place, finished higher than he started in the Indy 500 for the first time since he started in ninth and finished in fifth back in 2009. He led more laps than all drivers in the field except race polesitter Ed Carpenter, as he led 59 of the race’s 200 laps in his #12 Team Penske Chevrolet.

Carpenter finished 3.1589 seconds behind Power in second place in his #20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet after leading a field-high 65 laps. Scott Dixon, who started the race in ninth, was the highest finishing Honda driver in third in his #9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.

Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi, who started the race all the way back in 32nd, and Ryan Hunter-Reay, who started the race in 14th, rounded out the top five in their #27 Honda and #28 Honda, respectively.

The race featured 30 lead changes among 15 leaders. Aside of Will Power, who also won the IndyCar Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course earlier this month and is now just the second driver to win two races through six races in the 2018 IndyCar season thus far, and Ed Carpenter, 13 drivers led at least one lap of the race.

Those 13 drivers were Tony Kanaan, Oriol Servia, Graham Rahal, rookie Zachary Claman DeMelo, Sebastien Bourdais, Carlos Munoz, Stefan Wilson, Spencer Pigot, Josef Newgarden, rookie Robert Wickens, Alexander Rossi, Simon Pagenaud and Ryan Hunter-Reay.

The race also featured seven caution flag periods for laps. The first caution flag period of the race began on lap 48 when Takuma Sato hit James Davison in turn three. The second caution flag period of the race began on lap 58 when Ed Jones spun out and hit the wall in turn two. The third caution flag period of the race began on lap 68 when Danica Patrick spun out and hit the wall in turn two.

More from IndyCar

• IndyCar: Two teams with no drivers confirmed for 2024
• IndyCar: Chip Ganassi Racing news hints Alex Palou announcement
• IndyCar: ‘Addition by subtraction’ could pay off in a big way
• Team Penske should make a bold driver signing for 2024
• IndyCar: 5 teams that still have open seats for 2024

The fourth caution flag period of the race began on lap 139 when Sebastien Bourdais spun between turn three and turn four and hit the turn four wall. The fifth caution flag period of the race began on lap 146 when Helio Castroneves spun coming out of turn four and hit the inside retaining wall. The sixth caution flag period of the race began on lap 154 when Sage Karam hit the turn four wall.

The seventh and final caution flag of the race, which set up the exciting final restart of the event, began on lap 189 when Tony Kanaan spun coming out of turn two and hit the inside retaining wall.

On the final restart of the race with seven laps to go, Power was in fourth place behind three drivers who were attempting to stretch their fuel loads to the end of the race. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Oriol Servia led Andretti Autosport’s Stefan Wilson and Meyer Shank Racing’s Jack Harvey to the restart, but it was Wilson who passed Servia to go out in front before he opened up a sizable gap over the rest of the field.

With just over four laps to go, Wilson still had a sizable lead over the field. However, he needed a caution flag to come out and effectively end the race if he wanted to win since the previous caution flag period was not long enough to allow him to save enough fuel to make it to the end of the race.

That didn’t happen, and to the disappointment of nearly the entire crowd at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the younger brother of the late Justin Wilson ended up peeling off the track and into the pits along with Harvey, which allowed Power, who had previously passed Servia, to take the lead and go on to win the race.

Of the 33 drivers who competed in the race, 24 finished it, and of the 24 who finished it, 18 did so on the lead lap. Power’s win made him the eighth different winner of the Indy 500 in the last eight years. Of those eight drivers, five are still driving.

Here are the full race results of the 2018 Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Next: Top 10 Indianapolis 500 drivers of all-time

The next IndyCar race is Race 1 of the Chevrolet Dual in Detroit at the street circuit at Belle Isle Park in Detroit, Michigan. That race is set to take place on Saturday, June 2, and it is set to be broadcast live on ABC starting at 3:30 p.m. ET on that date.