Felix Rosenqvist has won the 2026 Indianapolis 500 by 0.02 seconds, capping the closest finish in the 110-year history of the race with a final-lap pass on David Malukas that handed Meyer Shank Racing its second victory in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.
The Swede dropped to third in the closing exchanges before launching one final attack, refusing to yield to Marcus Armstrong and then diving past Malukas to take the chequered flag by barely half a car length after a frantic one-lap shootout that featured a record number of lead changes.
"It was the coolest thing that I've ever done in a race car," Rosenqvist said. "It was just such gnarly racing, wheel to wheel, but fair. I have great respect for the other drivers, David, Pato and Marcus. You can't create a great spectacle without great drivers like that."
The winning margin — a published 0.02 seconds — was the smallest in the event's history. Rosenqvist was unequivocal about how he wanted it settled. "There's just no other way you want to win it," he said. "That's the way you want to win the Indy 500, by half a foot."
It was the second Indianapolis 500 triumph for Meyer Shank Racing, which previously won the race with Helio Castroneves in 2021, and Rosenqvist made clear how much the result meant to a team that has long worn the underdog tag.
"My team, they're like a family. This is the best team I've ever been in," he said. "We're tired of being called the underdog or the small team. We want to do this, and today everything worked out. It's such a good testament of strength of a team."
"It is the best month of my life by far," he said. "Already having our daughter was kind of nice, because I went into May thinking, whatever happens now, everything's good, I'm the luckiest man in the world. I think it changed my approach. I've been way more calm and collected, and confident as well. Becoming a dad definitely helped me a lot."
The car, he said, was the best he has had at the Speedway. After a clean opening to the race he believed victory was on, then watched the order scramble in the final stint as strategy shuffled the front-runners.
"That's the best car I've had around here," Rosenqvist said. "We had a perfect strategy, and then everything got flipped around there at the end. I fell down to third and then I had a really good restart and I just stayed flat out. One in a million, but it worked out."
There was also a nod to the crowd that he felt swung behind him through a strong month of May, including qualifying. "I feel like they really got behind me during the month," he said. "It's like I have all the support I never had before. The fans make this place magic."
Victory in the 110th running underlines a remarkable turnaround for both driver and team, and leaves Rosenqvist — by his own admission "kind of lost for words" — as the latest name etched onto the Borg-Warner Trophy.
---
