Franchitti: No extra pressure to win fourth Indy 500 - MotorSportsTalk

This year’s Indianapolis 500 will be the first since 1987 that will have two drivers — Dario Franchitti of Target Chip Ganassi Racing and Helio Castroneves of Team Penske — try to become four-time winners of the world’s greatest race. But one of those competitors, Franchitti, insists that the chance to make history isn’t causing him or his Honda-powered team to sweat.

“There’s no more pressure than there is on anybody else in the field,” the defending “500” champion said on Friday, which saw him post the ninth-quickest time at 227.080 mph in the final practice session before tomorrow’s Pole Day activities (11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. and 4:30-6:30 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Network).

“Doesn’t make you any faster. Doesn’t make the team work any harder. It’s simply, right now, about the mechanics trying to put ourselves in a position to challenge on Race Day — trying to make sure the Target car is fast [and] consistent. And then try and qualify well, ourselves — as I say, when we put ourselves in that position, go race and see how it all works out. Do the best job we can on that day.

“There’s no more pressure. It’s a great position to be in, trying to win that fourth one.”

Franchitti has already cemented himself as one of the greatest to ever run at the Brickyard, but as he tells it, the more often he competes in the “500,” the more it means to him. As one of just 67 winners in the race’s history, he recognizes the special tradition of the race and the enormity of being alongside the likes of A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, Al Unser and Rick Mears as past Indy champions.

In summary, the experience never gets old for him.

“Each time you come back here you just — it gets deeper, deeper,” he said. “It’s such a great event. You think what a challenge it is to race here, to try to win. People take most of their life to try to compete in this race. It means so much to all involved. It’s a special place.

“It’s a great, great feeling to win it. It hurts like hell when you don’t.”

Watch this weekend’s Indianapolis 500 time trials online and on your mobile device.

INDIANAPOLIS — The first Indy 500 victory for Josef Newgarden also was the richest in race history from a record 2023 purse of just more than $17 million.

The two-time NTT IndyCar Series champion, who continued his celebration Monday morning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway earned $3.666 million for winning the 107th running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

The purse and winner’s share both are the largest in the history of the Indianapolis 500.

It’s the second consecutive year that the Indy 500 purse set a record after the 2022 Indy 500 became the first to crack the $16 million mark (nearly doubling the 2021 purse that offered a purse of $8,854,565 after a crowd limited to 135,000 because of the COVID-19 pandemic).

The average payout for IndyCar drivers was $500,600 (exceeding last year’s average of $485,000).

Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Roger Penske, whose team also fields Newgarden’s No. 2 Dallara-Chevrolet, had made raising purses a priority since buying the track in 2020. But Penske but was unable to post big money purses until the race returned to full capacity grandstands last year.

The largest Indy 500 purse before this year was $14.4 million for the 2008 Indy 500 won by Scott Dixon (whose share was $2,988,065). Ericsson’s haul made him the second Indy 500 winner to top $3 million (2009 winner Helio Castroneves won $3,048,005.

Runner-up Marcus Ericsson won $1.043 million after falling short by 0.0974 seconds in the fourth-closest finish in Indy 500 history.

The 107th Indy 500 drew a crowd of at least 330,000 that was the largest since the sellout for the 100th running in 2016, and the second-largest in more than two decades, according to track officials.

“This is the greatest race in the world, and it was an especially monumental Month of May featuring packed grandstands and intense on-track action,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said in a release. “Now, we have the best end card possible for the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500: a record-breaking purse for the history books.”

Benjamin Pedersen was named the Indy 500 rookie of the year, earning a $50,000 bonus.

The race’s purse is determined through contingency and special awards from IMS and IndyCar. The awards were presented Monday night in the annual Indy 500 Victory Celebration at the JW Marriott in downtown Indianapolis.

The payouts for the 107th Indy 500:

1. Josef Newgarden, $3,666,000
2. Marcus Ericsson, $1,043,000
3. Santino Ferrucci, $481,800
4. Alex Palou, $801,500
5. Alexander Rossi, $574,000
6. Scott Dixon, $582,000
7. Takuma Sato, $217,300
8. Conor Daly, $512,000
9. Colton Herta, $506,500
10. Rinus VeeKay, $556,500
11. Ryan Hunter‐Reay, $145,500
12. Callum Ilott, $495,500
13. Devlin DeFrancesco, $482,000
14. Scott McLaughlin, $485,000
15. Helio Castroneves, $481,500
16. Tony Kanaan, $105,000
17. Marco Andretti, $102,000
18. Jack Harvey, $472,000
19. Christian Lundgaard, $467,500
20. Ed Carpenter, $102,000
21. Benjamin Pedersen (R), $215,300
22. Graham Rahal, $565,500*
23. Will Power, $488,000
24. Pato O’Ward, $516,500
25. Simon Pagenaud, $465,500
26. Agustín Canapino (R), $156,300
27. Felix Rosenqvist, $278,300
28. Kyle Kirkwood, $465,500
29. David Malukas, $462,000
30. Romain Grosjean, $462,000
31. Sting Ray Robb (R), $463,000
32. RC Enerson (R), $103,000
33. Katherine Legge, $102,000

*–Broken down between two teams, $460,000 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, $105,500 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports