Juan Pablo Montoya recaptured the trophy he last held 15 years ago after a thrilling slipstreaming battle between himself, teammate Will Power, and 2008 “500” winner Scott Dixon over the closing stages of the 99th Indianapolis 500.

What made it more remarkable is that, just like Dario Franchitti in 2012, Montoya had to come from deep in the pack…and not just because of his mid-grid qualifying position. Under an early caution, the rear of Juan’s car was tagged by Simona de Silvestro breaking off his right-rear wheelpod, requiring a pitstop for a whole new wing assembly. Yet Montoya charged hard, and even survived a long stop after overshooting his pitbox, grabbing hold of the tail of the lead pack by lap 75.

Thereafter, the Colombian stayed in the mix in what became a Penske vs Ganassi battle. After a lap 186 restart, following a big shunt that involved Sebastian Saavedra, Stefano Coletti and Jack Hawksworth, Montoya was all over leader Power, as was Dixon initially. However, Dixon found his front-end was pushing out at Turns 2 and 4 and had to let the lead pair go. The win was decided by Montoya’s pass on Power around the outside at Turn 1. Power had less downforce than Montoya and just couldn’t hold on in the draft due to an imbalance. He crossed the line 0.1046sec behind.

“Yeah, it was fun,” said the 39-year-old veteran. “Our car was good all day. These guys at Team Penske did an amazing job. When I came through the field, I knew I had a good car. That fight there at the end… that was awesome. This is what racing in IndyCar is all about – awesome racing all the way down to the wire.”

Commented team owner Roger Penske: “I couldn’t believe it. To see those two guys out here… Ganassi was so strong all day long and they had a smart driver in (Scott) Dixon. Our guys stayed in there, and Montoya coming from all the way in the back… I’ll tell you, you give that guy the bit and put it in his mouth – as you know, he doesn’t give up. I’m just so thrilled for everyone who works for us, all the people who support us and all these race fans that here, what a great day.”

Said Power: “I had set my car for running up front; I got behind and had a lot of push. I got really close to him after Turn 2 but washed out and had to lift. That was the race. It was serious racing and a lot of fun. Full credit to the team for finishing 1-2. They’ve done an amazing job all month. That’s all I had. Congrats to Juan. He was very strong all day and had to come through the field. It sucks finishing second. I’ve done that a few times in championships.”

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Such was Dixon’s loss of momentum in the last five laps that he had to cede best to teammate Charlie Kimball who, like Power, achieved his best “500” result.

“Well I was hoping they [Montoya and Power] were going to push each other just a little bit too far and end up in the grey and I thought I was in the catbird seat.  We just couldn’t capitalize on it and get close enough at the end to be able to make a run.  But overall, the Novo Nordisk Chevrolet was quick when it needed to be and the guys made it better in the pit stops. They were money on Friday and they were money today.”

Another Ganassi star Tony Kanaan was very much part of the lead fight in the first three-quarters of the race, leading 30 laps but struck the wall in a one-car accident. Another driver who starred for much of the race – and looked the strongest Penske driver in traffic – was Simon Pagenaud who suddenly slowed out of Turn 2 on lap 176, after clipping his front wing on Dixon, just before the final crash of the day. A pit stop during that caution enabled him to take on new tires and charge back into the top 10.

“What a race!” enthused the Frenchman. “We led, we were just cruising behind Dixon, saving fuel. We had to come back in and we were last. We came back up to 10th in 10 laps. That just shows you how good the car was.”

For the third straight race in the IndyCar Series, Graham Rahal finished as top Honda driver, this time taking fifth, but described the Chevrolet-powered cars as being “in a different league.” He beat top Andretti Autosport driver Marco Andretti who moved into the top 10 in the final stint after some brave and aggressive restarts. His final scalp was Helio Castroneves, who only ever looked like scoring his fourth Indy 500 victory if problems hit the other Penske and Ganassi entries.

Defending Indy 500 race-winner Ryan Hunter-Reay struggled to a 16th-place finish. But that was still enough to be second of the Andretti cars, after an off-strategy Carlos Munoz and Justin Wilson were forced to pit for fuel with two laps to go.

Aside from Kimball’s excellent top-three finish, hopes for an American victory took an early dive when Conor Daly’s Schmidt-Peterson Honda went up in smoke even before the green flag, while Sage Karam hit the wall as Takuma Sato tried to go three wide with the Ganassi car and Hunter-Reay on the opening lap. Bryan Clauson slid into the wall at Turn 4 on lap 64.

Rookie of the Year honors went to Gabby Chaves, who reached the top 10 before losing his front-wing endplate during a passing maneuver. He’d finish 16th.

Oriol Servia and Ed Carpenter had a strange looking collision at Turn 1 where Ed looked too ambitious and Oriol took the corner not knowing he was still there. But aside from the three-car collision in Turn 4, the more alarming incident came when Dale Coyne Racing cars made contact in pit road. Davison swerved into the pit box of the No. 18 Tristan Vautier-driven car where its crew was still performing service. It forced both cars to retire, and sent two crew members to the infield care center for evaluation, one with a broken ankle.

For the statisticians, there were 37 lead changes, 47 laps of caution. Fastest lap was set by Charlie Kimball on Lap 102 (226.712mph) while teammate Tony Kanaan held fastest lap without the aid of a tow – 224.767mph on lap 22. Scott Dixon led the most laps (84), with Simon Pagenaud second (35), Kanaan third (30), and Power fourth (23).

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