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IndyCar: Matheus Leist is the Indianapolis 500’s ultimate dark horse

By Asher Fair

INDIANAPOLIS, IN - MAY 25: Matheus Leist of Brazil, driver of the #4 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
INDIANAPOLIS, IN - MAY 25: Matheus Leist of Brazil, driver of the #4 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images) /
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Matheus Leist has only ever finished one IndyCar race in the top 10. But he is the ultimate dark horse for the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500.

Matheus Leist joined A.J. Foyt Enterprises for his rookie IndyCar season last year and turned heads by recording a third place qualifying effort for the season opener on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida.

But the 20-year-old Brazilian was unable to convert on the speed that he displayed in the practice and qualifying sessions for this race into a solid result. He ended up several laps off the lead lap early on as a result of mechanical issues before he crashed, relegating him to a 24th place finish.

Throughout the rest of his rookie season, Leist continued to struggle. In fact, he never once finished a race in the top 10, and he ended up finishing in 18th in the championship standings as a result of it.

As far as full-time drivers were concerned, the only driver who Leist finished ahead of was Carlin’s Max Chilton, who also failed to finish a single race in the top 10 throughout the season.

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While it is true that Leist struggled throughout his rookie season, it is also true that A.J. Foyt Enterprises were simply not where they needed to be in order to give the rookie and his teammate Tony Kanaan cars they needed to compete for great results on a regular basis.

So far this season, much of the same has been true, although Leist is coming off of the first top 10 finish of his career in this past Saturday’s IndyCar Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. He finished this race in fourth place. His top finish of the season entering this race was his 15th place finish in the race on the streets of Long Beach, California. He currently sits in a 16th place tie in the championship standings.

Leist did show promise on several occasions throughout the 2018 season One of the highlights of his rookie season was his performance in the 102nd running of the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He entered this race at the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval in Speedway, Indiana having won the Indy Lights race, the Freedom 100, at the track in 2017 after leading all 40 of its laps from the pole position.

Leist qualified for his IndyCar debut at the Brickyard in an impressive 11th place, which is still the second best qualifying effort of his career, and he hovered around the top 10 to top 15 throughout most of the race en route to a 13th place finish.

No matter who you are, 13th place is nothing to write home about, but in the case of Leist of A.J. Foyt Enterprises, this result showed great promise.

Leist’s top finish of his rookie season was his 11th place finish in the race at Pocono Raceway, one of the two superspeedways on the schedule aside of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. His 13th place finish in the Indy 500, however, may be a tad more impressive because of the fact that 33 drivers competed in this race whereas only 22 drivers competed in the race at Pocono Raceway.

In fact, the Indy 500 was the lone race that resulted in Leist finishing higher than more than half of the field last season.

Regardless, it is clear that Leist, as a whole, has taken to the superspeedways better than any other type of tracks so far in his IndyCar career. Additionally, it is clear that A.J. Foyt Enterprises can actually be competitive in the Indy 500, as they demonstrated last year with the strength of Kanaan.

The 44-year-old Brazilian had his chance to win the race effectively taken away after a flat tire knocked him out of the lead pack, at which point he had led 19 laps and dominated the race along with polesitter Ed Carpenter of Ed Carpenter Racing and Team Penske’s Will Power. He worked his way back up into the top 10 late in the race before crashing with just 13 laps remaining.

With one of the best drivers in Indy 500 history as a teammate from whom to learn and a solid basis on which to build for success in the Indy 500 following his first start in the race last year, there could not possibly be a driver that fits the title of the ultimate dark horse for this year’s Indy 500 than Leist. And don’t forget the fact that he is set to enter this race coming off what was by far his career-high finish in the IndyCar Grand Prix.

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NBC is set to broadcast the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500, which is the sixth race on the 17-race 2019 IndyCar schedule, live from Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, May 26 beginning at 11:00 a.m. ET. The race itself is scheduled to go green at roughly 12:45 p.m. ET later that afternoon.