History made: Japanese driver wins Indy 500

SCREEN CAPTURE

Japanese driver Takuma Sato celebrates after winning the Indy 500.

TAKUMA SATO's victory in the Indianapolis 500 today (May 28), made history when he became the first Asian to win the Formula One race.
"Unbelievable feeling!" Sato exclaimed as he jumped out of his car in the Victory lane to celebrate with his teammates and owner Michael Andretti.

Sato, who has been racing professionallly for almost a decade, could wind up winning $2.5 million for winning the the Indy 500.

Sato became the first Asian-born driver to win the race. It was Sato’s second career IndyCar victory. Sato previously won at Long Beach in 2013. It was the fifth Indy 500 win for Andretti Autosport and their third in the last four.

An Andretti driver has now won the 500 three times in the last four years.

Last year, it was with rookie Alexander Rossi. This time it is with Sato, who joined the team just this season and had largely been overlooked at Indianapolis Motor Speedway as the Andretti camp expanded to six cars for the 500 with the addition of Formula One driver Fernando Alonso.

Takuma Sato was congratulated by Indianapolis 500 Festival Queen Shivani Bajpai.

UPDATE: (MAY 30) Terry Frei, a sports reporter for the Denver Post, sent a controversial tweet shortly after Sato won the Indy 500, saying: 

"Nothing specifically personal, but I am very uncomfortable with a Japanese driver winning the Indianapolis 500 during Memorial Day weekend," he wrote.

The tweet immediately evoked a firestorm of criticism on social media which resulted in Frei losing his job at the newspaper, according to a report from NBC.

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