Fontana flashback: Hornish by a nose over Jaques Lazier in 2002 - MotorSportsTalk

In the spring of 2002, the Indy Racing League (now the IZOD IndyCar Series) played to an mostly empty house for its inaugural run at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. But for those who did choose to see what the IRL’s brand of then-all oval racing was about, they were treated to a tremendous show at the two-mile oval.

Eight drivers swapped the lead 39 times in the Yamaha Indy 400, which came down to a wheel-to-wheel battle on the final lap between Chevy-powered drivers Sam Hornish Jr. of Panther Racing (pictured) and Jaques Lazier of Team Menard.

Leading up to their duel, Eddie Cheever Jr. had been in the mix as well, constantly stalking Lazier on the high side while running in second. But on Lap 191 of 200, Cheever’s powerful Infiniti engine let go in Turn 2 and the stage was set for Hornish and Lazier to settle things.

Hornish used the draft to catch up to Lazier and with two laps remaining, the future Indianapolis 500 winner finally was able to get side-by-side with him. The two drivers stayed locked together until Hornish cleared Lazier on the frontstretch as the white flag came out.

Lazier battled back on the inside and re-took the lead coming out of Turn 2. But after tucking in behind Lazier down the backstretch, he popped to the high line going into Turn 3 and held a slight edge coming out of Turn 4 that would last all the way to the checkered flag.

At the stripe, Hornish won by .028 of a second after a remarkable display of precision from both himself and Lazier in the last couple of laps. When asked about having to fight Lazier at speeds close to 220 miles per hour, Hornish couldn’t help but grin.

“Everything just seems to slow down except for when they move toward you,” he told ESPN’s Jack Arute after the race. “Then it seems like it speeds up real fast.”

After Cheever’s near-miss, the Infiniti camp was left to console themselves with the third-place run turned in by French rookie Laurent Redon, who fought off the Team Penske duo of Gil de Ferran and Helio Castroneves for what would prove to be his best result in an IndyCar.

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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