The good, bad and ugly of the 2026 Indianapolis 500

• Rosenqvist, who had one of the fastest cars throughout practice and qualifying, found himself up front throughout the race and led 25 laps but was sitting in third when the green and white flags waved for the last lap.
• The Swedish driver in his eighth Indy 500 start won by 0.0233 of a second — less than half a car length.

Zoom in: Here are the rest of the highlights, pitfalls and hilarity from Indy's biggest weekend.

The good

🏎️ The racing was thrilling this year, even before the photo finish. We saw drivers battling for position all day long as rain threatened to shorten the race, making every lap count.

• We saw the lead change hands a record 70 times and truly didn't know who was going to come away with the win until the last fraction of a second.

🌭 The Oscar Mayer Wienermobile race on Carb Day was back and we've never been more frankful.

• New York was top dog this year, taking home the Borg-Wiener trophy and relishing in the glory of the mustard spray in the Wienie 500 victory lane.
• It was perfectly over-the-top and everyone leaned in to the ridiculousness, including comedian Andy Richter, this year's "Commander in Beef," joining in the singing of the Oscar Mayer theme song in place of the National Anthem before the start of the race.

🚁 The Blackhawk helicopters were back, too, pacing the field at the start. Never not epic.

• The drone American flag was new this year and also pretty flippin' epic.

📺 Another sellout, another blackout lifted. I think we'd all love to see this become the next Indy 500 tradition.

The bad

😞 Where there's a winner, there's a loser and while coming in second or even Top 5 in any other IndyCar series race may feel like a good day at work, that's not the case at Indy.

• You can't help but feel for Malukas, openly devastated after coming so close to immortality at the 500.
• Marcus Armstrong, who was leading at the start of the last lap but finished fifth, was also in tears after the race — it goes to show just how much this race means to these drivers.

☹️ Katherine Legge was taken out early, spoiling her attempt at completing "The Double."

• Ryan Hunter-Reay lost control in Turn 2 on Lap 17 and Legge spun out trying to avoid him.
• She had plenty of time to get to Charlotte, North Carolina, for NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600 but finished 31st after a loose tire issue set her back 12 laps.

🗑️ It's a perennial problem — the trash.

The ugly

🌧️ Race day weather wasn't ideal, with showers creating a red flag delay at lap 106.

• Yes, but: It was better than early forecasts predicted and we were able to get the whole race in — something that looked far from certain earlier in the week.

⚠️ A chaotic start saw three cars out early. There was the Hunter-Reay/Legge incident and then veteran 500 driver Ed Carpenter spun out on Lap 27 after getting squeezed out in the turn by Takuma Sato — something Carpenter was really, really not happy about.

• It was also a tough day for Alexander Rossi, who came back from that rough crash in practice Monday only to be out with mechanical issues after his car seemingly caught fire for the second year in a row.
• Rookie Caio Collet and two-time winner Josef Newgarden took hard hits into the wall.

🚙 Traffic. Look, 350,000 people is just a lot of people to get in and out of one place. There's no getting around it. But whew, is it ugly.