Robbie McGehee and PDM Racing both made it to the finish of the 88th Indy 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway despite only taking to the track on the final day of qualifying and although the smallest team on the grid had their struggles and moments of drama on and off the track, they were well rewarded with a solid 22nd place finish.
The finish was McGehee's third in five career Indy 500 starts and PDM's second straight chequered flag in the ‘Greatest Spectacle in Racing.'
Burger King came on board with the team just 24 hours before Sunday's race, joining Natoli Engineering, Royal Spa and host of other sponsors on the familiar No.18 PDM Racing Dallara-Chevrolet.
It seemed like every driver wanted to share McGehee's pit stall on Sunday. First rookie Larry Foyt missed his pit and stopped in McGehee's, forcing McGehee to continue down pit road and pit again the next time around. Then an accident in turn four on lap 104 involving Darren Manning, Sam Hornish Jr,. and Greg Ray caused Manning and Ray's cars to career out of control down pit road and come to a grinding stop in McGehee's pits and scattering the PDM pit crew members.
The fuel nozzle on the team's fuel tank in the pits was hit and sprayed fuel everywhere, but luckily none of the pit crew members or the drivers involved were injured.
McGehee's car had a bad push initially and later it got very loose. But the PDM crew worked hard to dial in the car throughout the day, and towards the end of the race McGehee said it was “awesome.”
McGehee's biggest battle of the day was with Sarah Fisher, who held the upper hand for most of the race until McGehee was able to pass her near the three-quarters mark. He stretched that advantage but at the end he finished one spot behind her after he pitted on lap 168 in order to have enough fuel to complete the 200-lap distance.
The rain came again before that happened, however, and Buddy Rice won the event with 180 laps completed. McGehee completed 177 laps, the same as Fisher.
![Robby McGehee - PDM Motorsport [pic credit: Mark Reed]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/90463.jpg )
