Last year was a rough year for race car driver Alexander Rossi. The 24-year-old originally from Nevada City, California, grew up in Europe wanting to fulfill his dream of being a Formula One driver. When that opportunity finally presented itself as a driver for lowly Manor Racing – the worst-performing team on the grid – Rossi came back with impressive results including a 12th-place finish in one race.
But when it came time for Manor to select their full-time drivers for the 2016 F1 racing season, they passed over Rossi. There was still an outside chance of being named to the fledgling American-owned Haas team that was beginning in the 2016 season, but they too, passed on the opportunity to have an American driver on an American-owned team.
But things turned out okay for Rossi today as he won the 100th anniversary edition of the venerated Indianapolis 500 as an Indycar rookie making his first appearance at the Brickyard for Andretti Motorsports in what can only be classified as a major upset. Rossi was flitting in and out of the Top 10 for much of the day but was never dominant nor did he have the fastest car – but his crew chief, Bryan Herta, had a wily fuel mileage plan that had him going 36 laps on a tank of gas coming out of his final pit stop.
That was all Rossi needed to cruise home – and cruise he did – running out of gas shortly after crossing the finish line and having to have his car towed into Victory Lane.
