He did weave but unless I missed something he did not move over directly in front of Rossi. Rossi will cry baby about it I'm sure. I usually turn the TV off the moment the checkered falls. All that confetti BS and spraying of champagne doesn't interest me. Neither do the post race interviews. You either won or you didn't.

No excuses are needed. Although I am happy for someone who finishes and agrees with his/her results.

You are not allowed to block but you have the right to make the first move. You may also move again to take the correct line going into the corner. Pagenaud made sure Rossi never got the bottom line at the corners by moving low really fast and made his car as wide as possible the rest of the time.

On the back straight, on the last lap, Simon made an extra pair of moves that he hadn’t made all race.

Great race! Rossi drove like a mad man, wouldn’t be surprised
If he ended up at Penske next year. What was Seabass thinking??? Was hoping Rossi or Sato would win

Great race. Watched the last 75 laps or so, had to watch the last 20 via DVR.

Some questions.
1. Pit window was between 29-31 laps before the end of the race, why the hell do they break to commercial during the pit window? Stupid.
2. I sped through the post red flag safety car, but why have the pace car do 6 laps? Can’t they warm up the tires faster? Seems silly.

Final laps were great though!

As I understand it, as long as it was not a reaction to the car behind him it is legal. He didn't run Rossi off the road, he just made the Pruitt fade.

Pagenaud may have snaked his way down the back straight, but Rossi was never close enough for it to be considered blocking.

That's the difference. Rossi was too far back. SP was not moving to block a passing attempt.

I'm not a Pagenaud fan but I am thrilled Rossi came up short. He is a pr-ck who has run a number of others off the road over the last year or two. I wonder if he is getting payback from some of the back markers for his previous moves.

^^^
This. Pagenaud was just taking a line through the corner that shut down Rossi's preferred line. It's racecraft, and he did it brilliantly. I thought Rossi would win it--beneath that cool exterior, he's an animal. I was there when he got his rookie win in 2016. That was another great race.

It seemed like Pagenaud was trying to keep Rossi from being able to get a tow from him in those last few laps, more than blocking passing moves from behind.

I thought the announcing team did a good job of adding to the interest of the race, even tho it was totally dominated by Pagenaud.

Exciting last laps

Cheers Richard

The point I am making, that everyone seems to be missing, is that the normal line for Simon was to duck down to the inside on the straights after finishing the second and fourth corners to keep Rossi from going underneath him and to take the car back out to the wall prior to entering turns one and three. On the one lap that I’m talking about, he exits the corner and ducks to the inside, as he normally does, but then he moves back outside again, then back to the inside, then back to the outside for entering the next turn.

Who knows if Rossi had the speed and whether or not this had any effect... It’s just something that I don’t like to see and neither Simon or Alex did that during the previous laps.

#2

The men who make the rules decided to spend another 1-2 laps getting all the lapped cars to the back of the line behind the safety car so they would not impact the final run to the flag.

As was demonstrated after the prior safety car a 1 lap down back marker was racing a lead driver (Rossi) blocking and keeping him behind and almost ruining his race with the front runners.

The last yellow was about 4 laps too long.

And it is good race craft and totally legal unless Rossi makes the first move or is close enough to pass. Weaving to break the draft is just good racing. Unlike running a competitor off the road or into the marbles which Rossi has done. Rossi's race setup weakness was identified and he was beat fair and square.

My comment (and the one immediately after it) address exactly your complaint. I know Pagenaud deviated from his "normal" line, but not in a manner that can be construed as blocking. ( IIRC Gordon Johncock did a similar thing for his 2nd win.). Pagenaud led a conga line down the back straight, which is different than moving across the bow of Rossi in response to a move by the 27 car. At least that's the way I saw it.

With a red flag, you would think they would sort all the cars out as they were leaving the pits, as opposed to 5 laps after they'd been following the pace car around out there.

It’s pretty obvious you turn off the TV after the flag - at least for the 500.

I thought NBC did a pretty good job for their first one. I think having Mike and Danica separate from the booth was interesting at times, but distracting at other times. I thought she did a good job.

Its hard to tell the personalities of the drivers from TV. Someone I know that lives in my town knows all of them-- some of them really, really well. He is a motorsports journalist. I wonder if he has favorite drivers.

I thought the red flag period was too long. And the running under yellow as well. It is possible that it just took a long time to clear the track and get all of the safety personnel back in place. But I suspect the NASCAR drama creation machine was at work. I think there is often evidence of that machine working in Indy Car broadcasts.

It seemed to me that Pagenaud and Rossi were both pretty hooked up, but in the end the Chevy had more power.

Amongst the first things Rossi said. I think it made the broadcasters nervous.

Interesting... a Frenchman caused the wreck that gave a Frenchman an opportunity to recover from excessive fuel consumption. In both cases an American driver got pimped.

I though that the Rahal and Bourdais interviews were pretty telling. Both seemed pretty sober about what happens and what's at risk at the end of the 500.

I remember visiting with a "buy a ride" Indy car driver back in 1997. With the Payton-Coyne team. I asked him why he was not going to run ovals. He was very,cvery candid. We were at Laguna and the next race was Fontana.

The risks are high at Indy.

We listened to the race on the radio while traveling about 650 miles yesterday. Had to find 4 different stations (AM and FM) as they faded in & out. They called SPs moves at the end as trying to disturb Rossi's aero. Good interview with Ferrucci - a guy I want to hate because of his stupid behavior last year (in F2?) - but he sounded genuine and in some disbelief over his top 10 finish.