INDIANAPOLIS -- This was road rage at the Indianapolis 500. This was Alexander Rossi pounding a fist onto his steering wheel, furious that his pit crew couldn’t get the fuel pump to work on lap 137. This was Rossi showing that fist to Oriol Servia as he passed him minutes later, outraged that the lapped Servia wasn’t getting the hell out of the way.

This was Alexander Rossi screaming through the field of the 2019 Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, starting eighth but working his way to the leaders and staying there, trending internationally on social media because the world loves a fighter. And Rossi was in a fighting mood.

Alas, this was not to be. Rossi won the day but Simon Pagenaud won the 103rd Indianapolis 500, passing Rossi once, twice, three times in the final 13 laps, the final time on the 199th lap, then holding off Rossi on Lap 200 to win by 0.2086 seconds. It was the seventh-closest finish in race history, an epic ending that will go down in Indy 500 lore.

It will be remembered for the icy cool of Simon Pagenaud, and for the raging fire of Alexander Rossi, whose conversation during the yellow flag on Lap 187 was broadcast to the world by NBC. With Rossi yanking his steering wheel left and right, his car ominous and swaying like the head of a cobra as he readied for the race’s final restart, this is what the world heard:

“I’ve got a bunch of angry cars behind me,” Rossi told his crew. “Little do they know: I’m angrier.”

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The disastrous pit stop for fuel

One, two, three …

Above Alexander Rossi’s head, in bright green numbers, the LED display panel mounted on his Honda’s roll hoop is counting the seconds of his pit stop on the 137th lap. This pit stop, for fuel only, should take six or seven seconds.

To his left, a member of his crew is inserting the hose into his fuel tank. Nothing comes out. The fueler pulls out the hose and tries again. Nothing. He tries a third time, a fourth, a fifth.

… seven, eight, nine …

In the cockpit, Rossi is waving his hands in frustration.

“Can’t happen,” Rossi will say later.

The fueler tosses a helpless look over his shoulder. The error here is mechanical, not human. A second crew member runs over, grabs the hose, inserts it again. Nothing.

… 13, 14, 15 …

In the car, Rossi is pounding on the steering wheel with his right fist. To his left, the fueler inserts the hose one more time. Now it works.

Rossi is shaking his head as his tank fills.

… 19, 20, 21 …

Finally it is over. The fueler pulls the hose, and Rossi takes off. This disastrous pit stop has taken 23 seconds, enough to knock Rossi from contention unless he catches a break.

Rossi catches a break.

Shaking his fist at Oriol Servia

On pit row, where cars have been skidding and spinning out all day — Will Power running into one of his crew members, Jordan King running over one of his — Marcus Ericsson spins out on Lap 138. For Ericsson, the timing is preposterous. For Rossi, it’s fortuitous. Out comes the yellow flag and it stays for 10 laps, allowing the field to bunch up one more time. Instead of losing 20-plus seconds and perhaps that many spaces of track position, Rossi is in fifth place on the restart in Lap 147.

Two things happen:

Conor Daly, whose car has been fantastic all day, passes Rossi for fifth.

And now Oriol Servia, uncompetitive Oriol Servia, is in the way.

Rossi is sixth in the race but seventh in line, with Oriol Servia — who is a lap down — riding with the leaders, behind fifth-place Sebastien Bourdais. Rossi mounts some speed to pass Servia on Lap 153 … but what’s this? Servia isn’t letting it happen. He’s cutting off Rossi, polluting his air, keeping him back.

On the radio, Rossi is screaming: “Does he not know he’s a lap down? What is he doing?”

Two laps later Rossi dekes left and passes Servia on the right, taking one hand off the wheel to shake his fist as he roars past Servia at close to 230 mph. Two laps later Rossi passes Bourdais for fifth, almost scraping the wall to do it. Six laps later Rossi blows by Daly on the left, turning Daly into his 24th passing victim. Rossi is in fourth.

Soon he will be in third, then second, setting the stage for an epic duel down the stretch with Pagenaud. Ultimately, none of the reasons for his rage — not the fuel issue, not Oriol Servia — had an impact on the final result. Well after the race, though, he’s still angry about Servia.

“One of the most disrespectful things I've ever seen in a race car,” he says of Servia’s tactics. “He's a lap down and defending, putting me to the wall at 230 miles an hour. It's unacceptable. It's unacceptable for him, and it's unacceptable that IndyCar allowed it to happen as long as they did.”

Rossi can still win, though, and probably will. Unless he catches a bad break.

He catches a bad break.

The wreck that cost him the race

With 22 laps to go, Pagenaud doesn’t have enough fuel to finish this race. Not if he wants to hold off a car as fast as Rossi’s.

Pagenaud has been playing a dangerous fuel game, charging from the pole into dominant position, running from the front — pitting every 32 laps but using the speed to lead most of the race — until his crew calls to him over the radio and tells him to slow down.

Rossi, meanwhile, is in great position. He has managed to pass cars while going 35 or 36 laps on a full tank. It is what he did in 2016,when he and team owner Bryan Herta played the fuel game to perfection, stopping one fewer time than the competition but using that to build a huge lead. He runs out of gas a half-mile from the finish line and coasts over the bricks in first place, winner of the 100th Indianapolis 500.

The fuel game, coupled with a great car and driver, will work again this year. Unless …

Unless Graham Rahal goes low to pass Bourdais on Lap 178, and Bourdais won’t let it happen. Bourdais dips down, rubs tires with Rahal and triggers a wreck that claims five cars and sends the race to a yellow flag, then red. What it means for the leaders: Pagenaud can slow down, conserve fuel, as the laps mount. He has gone 179 laps, then 180. Then 181, 182.

Now 183, 184, 185, 186.

When the race goes green for the final 14 laps, Pagenaud has enough fuel to make it at full speed. And his Chevrolet has more horsepower than Rossi’s Honda. They trade the lead several times, but Rossi needs one more burst in the final two laps and can’t find it.

“It was pretty inevitable,” Rossi says of his second-place finish, sitting at the podium in the IMS media room.

Rossi rises and heads for the elevator. He shares the ride down with a handful of people, including rookie driver Santino Ferrucci, who finished seventh. Ferrucci is asking Rossi what happened at the end.

“Speed,” Rossi says. “He had more speed. I passed him on the straight, and he was around me after the next turn. I was like, ‘Cool.’”

The elevator doors open, and Rossi heads outside to a waiting golf cart. He is riding shotgun now, heading to his trailer, when two fans descend on him. He signs autographs, and the driver mashes the gas before the next group of fans can arrive.

As the golf cart starts to pull away, a fan in a blue tank top and ballcap bearing the image of the American flag runs to catch him. Rossi doesn’t see him, but he hears. With his left hand, he gently asks the driver to stop the golf cart. With his right hand, he signs an autograph.

Rossi is still angry, but he is trying to smile. He almost pulls it off.