Team Penske's Simon Pagenaud described winning the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500 as one of the 'biggest dreams of his life' as he fought his way to victory lane.
In the final stints of the race, the Frenchman had become embroiled in a nail-biting battle for the lead with Andretti Autosport's Alexander Rossi.
Pagenaud had led comfortably for the majority of the race, leading 116 laps in total. But he suffered from high fuel use in the early stages as a result and looked set to be forced into making another stop, but managed to eke out the laps he needed.
On the penultimate lap, Pagenaud made his move on Rossi and then had to defend hard to try and prevent the #27 car coming back at him.
"It's amazing," said the Frenchman. "It's another dream come true, and the biggest dream of my life come true. It's hard to fathom really.
"It's really hard to process it right now, but I'm just filled with a lot of joy. I drove really spirited today, but it's just incredible. I can't take all the credit because I think I definitely — and I think it showed I had the best car out there. What a day. Wow, incredible."
Pagenaud said the fate of his race was in his own hands as he went on the attack throughout: "Today was about attacking," added Pagenuad. "We had our strategy meeting this morning, and we decided we were going to attack, we were going to control the day, and we were going to take our fate in our own hands.
"Destiny is what we decided to control. It was pretty cool. Obviously everything played for us really well. The stars, like I've been saying, have aligned this month, incredibly, but especially today."
