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Takuma Sato after winning IndyCar's 2019 Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway.
(Photo: Joe Skibinski/Penske Entertainment)

Revisting Takuma Sato’s Greatest Moments

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With Tuesday’s (March 11) announcement that Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing will once again field a one-off entry for Takuma Sato in this year’s Indianapolis 500, it seems clear that the Tokyo native is settling into the twilight of his IndyCar career.

Sato’s time competing at the highest level of American open-wheel racing did not bear overwhelming success but to say he will be a passing mention in the history of IndyCar would be to sell his legacy short. Throughout his 13 full-time seasons in IndyCar from 2010-2022, Sato’s aggressive driving style, inspired by his motto “no attack, no chance,” built him a reputation as a deceptively fast driver who could be magnificent on his best days and a threat to himself and others on his worst days.

This in mind, a look through the best moments in Sato’s IndyCar career is warranted.

Breaking Through at Long Beach, 2013

Sato had shown flashes of pace through his first few IndyCar seasons. His 2011 campaign featured top fives at St. Petersburg, Texas and Mid-Ohio while the 2012 season saw him take podiums on the street circuits of Sao Paulo and Edmonton.

His hiring at A. J. Foyt Enterprises, which had not seen victory lane since the 2002 Indy Racing League season, was something close to unexpected. To say the team was in great shape would be short of honest, no doubt, but nothing about Sato screamed “hire me” following his first two seasons (his two 2012 podiums were balanced by seven finishes outside the top 20).

Sato began the race near the front and never left contention for the victory. His pit stop on lap 28 proved pivotal as it allowed him to jump both Dario Franchitti and Will Power just as a caution came out on lap 30. Sato never relinquished the net lead of the race and drove to his first and, to date, Foyt’s last IndyCar win, becoming the first Japanese driver to win in IndyCar competition.

Forcing the Issue at Texas, 2017

The 2017 season was one of IndyCar’s best in terms of the racing product on ovals. The high-downforce, massive-drag-generating aero kits of the era produced massive runs and quasi-pack racing on high-speed ovals and the steep banking at Texas Motorspeedway took this phenomenon to another level.

By the end of the race, the leaders were running two-by-two with two proper racing lanes established. Drivers who ventured higher through the turns, such as Josef Newgarden, found themselves sliding out of control on the rubber marbles that littered the upper groove.

The race’s final laps were shaping up to end just as the running in 2016 had; somebody was going to have to do something special to get around the leading cars of Power and Scott Dixon.

Despite the way the track had bitten some courageous drivers in the third lane, Sato threw his No. 26 Andretti Global Honda to the high side lap after lap as the end of the race drew closer. While his zeal got the best of him in the end, as the clip below shows, his tenacity had to be applauded all the same.

At the end of the day, the biggest shame was seeing the same car in which he won the 2017 Indy 500 totaled under the lights in Texas.

See also
Takuma Sato Back With RLL for Indy 500

Winning the Indianapolis 500, 2017

Speaking of the 2017 Indy 500, Sato was a factor all day, much like Long Beach in 2013.

A late restart with 11 laps to go saw the leaders ordered as: Max Chilton, Sato, Ed Jones and Helio Castroneves. Naturally, all eyes were on Castroneves as he had been chasing a record-tying fourth win in the 500 since 2010.

Castroneves quickly dispatched of Jones while Sato searched for a way around Chilton’s No. 8 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. The Briton put up an impressive defense which allowed Castroneves to close in on and pass Sato while Chilton continued to lead. After a few laps of hassling Chilton, Castroneves took the lead and Sato quickly assumed second while Chilton faded behind Jones.

The final six laps played out like a game of tug of war. With five to go, Sato took the lead into turn 1. Castroneves made repeated attempts to retake the lead with Sato meeting his effort with a proportionate defense each time.

Castroneves’ last proper shot at the win came and went as the pair approached turn 1 with two laps to go. Sato again defended the inside line and from there drove on to the win, making peace with the race he came so close to winning in 2012.

Winning the Indianapolis 500, 2020

How convenient it is to hop from one 500 to another. But don’t be fooled, just about everything that could change had changed by the time the 2020 Indianapolis 500 rolled around.

The race was held at an empty Indianapolis Motor Speedway in August that year, with no fans present as a result of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, the show must go on and the race went ahead on August 23.

Again, Sato was at the front all day, but the race was drifting toward a contest of fuel mileage toward the end. As is often the case at Indianapolis, Dixon was looking to be in control when Sato passed him for the final time on lap 172. Dixon appeared content to ride behind Sato and use the draft to save fuel for a time. When the New Zealander decided to go on the attack, he was met by Sato’s characteristic defense which even the commentary booth had to admit was on the verge of penalty-worthy as Sato moved in response to Dixon’s attempts to pass more than once.

Any hope Dixon had of retaking the lead was dashed on lap 196 when Spencer Pigot crashed into the pit lane attenuator, dealing significant damage to the pit wall and throwing debris across the frontstretch. The resulting caution flag, and the impending August dusk, left IndyCar with no choice but to finish the race under caution with Sato at the front.

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Discovering Dawson Sutton, Part I: A Truck Rookie Who Wants to Win

Redemption in St. Louis, 2019

The 2019 Bommarito Automotive Group 500 from World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway came off the back of a weekend that forced IndyCar to seriously examine its own identity.

The week before the paddock rolled into Gateway, the series had visited Pocono Raceway, a track with which IndyCar’s relationship could best be described as shaky. The Tricky Triangle was the site of Justin Wilson‘s fatal crash in 2015 and the year prior had been the venue where Robert Wickens was paralyzed from the midsection down after his car flew into the fence above turn 2.

When a multi-car pileup again erupted in turn 2, this time on the opening lap of the race, Sato was involved and placed squarely in the crosshairs of drivers, commentators and fans alike.

Sato was accused by Alexander Rossi and Paul Tracy, among others, of irresponsibly turning left into Rossi as they approached turn 2, triggering the pileup. The reaction was so harsh, in fact, that both Sato and the RLL team took to social media to share Sato’s onboard camera feed which showed he did not make a sudden change of direction.

Sato was penalized for avoidable contact by IndyCar all the same and entered the weekend at Gateway under a microscope. His race got off to a slow start and he wound up at the back of the field — and on an alternate strategy — in the early stages of the race.

However, by the end of the night a series of luckily timed cautions had shuffled Sato, Ed Carpenter and Tony Kanaan to the front of the field. Carpenter mounted a vicious charge at the No. 30 Honda but was a lap short of the time he needed to find a way around Sato. This victory, the second of 2019 for Sato, reset the discussion around his place in IndyCar and earned him his only season with multiple wins.

IndyCar Content Director at Frontstretch | Website

Alex is the IndyCar Content Director at Frontstretch, having initially joined as an entry-level contributor in 2021. He also serves as Managing Director of The Asia Cable, a publication focused on the international affairs and politics of the Asia-Pacific region which he co-founded in 2023. With previous experience in China, Japan and Poland, Alex is particularly passionate about the international realm of motorsport and the politics that make the wheels turn - literally - behind the scenes.