A review five months after the race
INDYCAR revisited the Indianapolis 500 finish in a review of competitive races published on 22 October 2026. The race examined here took place on 24 May, when Felix Rosenqvist defeated David Malukas by 0.0233 seconds. That is 23.3 milliseconds, replacing the previous record of 0.043 seconds between Al Unser Jr. and Scott Goodyear in 1992. This APEX analysis follows how that finish developed, from different fuel strategies to the decisive final lap.
Two sequences of final stops
Pato O’Ward, Marcus Armstrong and Rosenqvist made their final stops on laps 164, 165 and 166, at the edge of the fuel window for reaching the finish under green. Malukas stopped on lap 175, with Scott McLaughlin and Alex Palou following on lap 176. The earlier group conserved fuel while the later-stopping cars chased at a higher pace. Rosenqvist passed O’Ward for the lead on lap 185, before the caution periods changed the conditions of the contest.
Cautions compressed the contest
Caio Collet’s crash on lap 192 brought a caution and then a red flag for track cleanup. Mick Schumacher’s contact with the barrier on lap 197 caused the final caution, setting up a one-lap fight for victory. In APEX’s interpretation, those interventions explain why the different stopping sequences did not produce a straightforward result. The cars were brought together again, making track position and the use of another car’s slipstream central to the outcome of the restart.
The final lap in sequence
Armstrong led as lap 200 began, with Malukas second and Rosenqvist third. Malukas took the lead entering Turn 1. Rosenqvist remained alongside Armstrong on the outside until the exit of Turn 4, finally clearing his teammate before using Malukas’ tow for the run to the line. Winning therefore required two successive overtakes within a single lap. The final change of lead happened close to the finish, after Rosenqvist had first resolved the separate battle for second place.
| Stage | What happened |
|---|---|
| Final stops | O’Ward 164; Armstrong 165; Rosenqvist 166; Malukas 175; McLaughlin and Palou 176 |
| Lap 192 | Collet crash; caution and red flag |
| Lap 197 | Schumacher contact; final caution |
| Start of lap 200 | Armstrong, Malukas, Rosenqvist |
| Finish | Rosenqvist 0.0233s ahead of Malukas |
What the two margins measure
McLaughlin, O’Ward and Armstrong followed Rosenqvist and Malukas home, with the entire top five covered by 0.4360 seconds. The race produced 70 lead changes, surpassing the previous event record of 68 from 2013. APEX’s reading is that the 0.0233-second winning margin captures the decisive duel, while the 0.4360-second spread shows how tightly the following group was compressed. Together, those measurements describe the finish more fully than the winner’s name or the record margin viewed alone.
A result with its own milestones
Meyer Shank Racing earned its second Indianapolis 500 victory after Hélio Castroneves’ 2021 success. Rosenqvist became the third Swedish winner, following Kenny Bräck and Marcus Ericsson. For this race analysis, the central point remains the sequence of decisions: fuel shaped the options, cautions regrouped the contenders and Rosenqvist built his attack from third. October’s retrospective provides an opportunity to examine that closing sequence with the complete race chronology available, five months after the event itself.
