{"id":9577,"date":"2017-05-28T18:44:17","date_gmt":"2017-05-28T23:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=9577"},"modified":"2017-05-28T18:48:59","modified_gmt":"2017-05-28T23:48:59","slug":"max-chilton-scores-career-best-finish-at-indy-500-on-sunday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2017\/05\/28\/max-chilton-scores-career-best-finish-at-indy-500-on-sunday\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Chilton scores career best finish at Indy 500 on Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Josh Farmer<\/em><\/p>\n

INDIANAPOLIS – A career best day for Max Chilton<\/strong> ended so close, but yet so far.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Max Chilton flies through Turn 1 at the Indianapolis 500. Photo by Chris Owens<\/p><\/div>\n

Chilton rebounded from falling a lap down to finish fourth at Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 and lead a race-high 50 laps after starting 15th. He found himself out in front for the first time on lap 84 by way of pit strategy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s obviously mixed feelings,\u201d he said. \u201cFrom where we were, I\u2019m really happy but fourth is the third of the losers. It\u2019s not ideal but I\u2019ll take it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chilton fell to 27th during the race\u2019s opening 52 lap stint but a caution for a scary crash between Scott Dixon and Jay Howard allowed Chilton to move back to the lead lap.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Max Chilton sits in his No. 8 Gallagher Honda prior to the 101st Indianapolis 500. Photo by Chris Owens<\/p><\/div>\n

The out of sequence strategy allowed for the 26-year-old Britton to retake the lead in the race\u2019s waning stages. He caught a lucky break on lap 167 as the yellow flag flew just one lap after he pitted. That suddenly put the No. 8 Gallagher Honda back in the lead.<\/p>\n

That set the stage for Chilton to be in full defense mode. He first thwarted a challenge from James Davison but Helio Castroneves and Takuma Sato soon arrived on the scene.<\/p>\n

A chain of yellow flags set up an 11 lap shootout for the win.<\/p>\n

Castroneves made an easy pass on Sato and stalked Chilton for two laps before taking the on lap 192. Chilton fell back and was overtaken by Sato and rookie Ed Jones. Chilton ended up fourth while Sato inhaled Castroneves and took his first Indianapolis 500 win.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Max Chilton squares up for Turn 4 during the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday. Photo by Walter Kuhn<\/p><\/div>\n

While he ultimately lost the race, Chilton did not feel intimidated when Castroneves overtook him in the final laps.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just knew it was a car behind,\u201d he said. \u201cHe couldn\u2019t overtake me particularly easy. He got a run on me. It wasn\u2019t because I lifted. I\u2019m pretty sure I kept it flat so it\u2019s not like I can look back and be angry.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he lost a chance at racing immortality, Chilton felt elated given how the race started on a sour note.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was struggling like hell on the first stint,\u201d he said. \u201cI had every problem under the sun. In this race, you need a few things to go your way. We got the right calls at the right time. The good thing was I was comfortable up front. I was fast out front. It\u2019s just I lost it with eight laps to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the whole, Chilton walked away from Indianapolis with his head held high.<\/p>\n

\u201cI gave it everything out there,\u201d he said. \u201cTo come back from a lap down and lost it by less than a second and a half, that\u2019s how close this race is. I tried everything I had, and I\u2019m really happy with Chip Ganassi Racing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Josh Farmer INDIANAPOLIS – A career best day for Max Chilton ended so close, but yet so far. Chilton rebounded from falling a lap down to finish fourth at Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 and lead a race-high 50 laps after starting 15th. He found himself out in front for the first time on lap 84 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":675,"featured_media":9581,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12],"tags":[230,421,125,22,438,83],"class_list":["post-9577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indycar","tag-indianapolis-500","tag-indianapolis-motor-speedway","tag-indy-500","tag-indycar","tag-max-chilton","tag-verizon-indycar-series"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/16C_7559-1.jpg?fit=4451%2C2963","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-2ut","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/675"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9577"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9585,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9577\/revisions\/9585"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}