Chilton Leads Most Laps at Indianapolis, Finishes Fourth

 By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer

INDIANAPOLIS — After a topsy-turvy race that saw two of his teammates eliminated before the finish and himself a lap down early, Max Chilton led the most laps en route to a fourth place finish at the 101st Indianapolis 500.

Chilton was a lap down right before the savage incident that eliminated teammate and pole sitter Scott Dixon but was able to get back onto the lead lap when the lead lap cars pitted. The former F1 driver managed to grab the lead on Lap 83 but his time to shine came later on.

The British driver led 47 of the final 63 laps, including Laps 169-193 but couldn’t hold off the advances of Ed Jones, Helio Castroneves and eventual winner Takuma Sato.

Still, to finish fourth was a great achievement considering he started 15th.

“It was tough,” said Chilton. “No one wants to come fourth, they want to win. I was in the leading position. I was leading for 50 laps, most out of anybody, problem was as long as I got drafted by my car I struggled in dirty traffic all day and that was sort of over from then.

“But I gave it my best shot. We were a lap down, to finish fourth, I’m happy.”

While being happy about his result, he wasn’t 100% content with it.

“I think I’m pretty happy, but [Alexander] Rossi won it last year as a rookie. Ed Jones just finished third as a rookie, so it wasn’t the best result but it was good.”