“It’s unbelievable,” Sato said, “the entire Rahal Letterman Lanigan team.”

Letterman is an astute enough racing aficionado to know winning the Indianapolis 500 is no easy task, even though it may have once seemed like it. He had bought a share of the team formed by 1986 race winner Bobby Rahal in the mid-90s, but he began spending more time in the garage area in 2004, when the team adopted its current name.

That’s when Rice won just about everything — the pole, the pit stop competition and ultimately the race.

There have been plenty of near-misses in the intervening years. Vitor Meira was second to Dan Wheldon in 2005, and Sato crashed while challenging Dario Franchitti for the win in 2012. Graham Rahal fifth three years later, and Sato finished third behind Simon Pagenaud and Alexander Rossi just last year.

Perhaps it was all those close calls that made for some emotional words from Letterman to his winning driver on Sunday.

“God bless you my friend,” he said. “Thank you very much. Hell of a job.”

Graham Rahal did a fine job in his own right. He laid low most of the hot, sunny afternoon at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, steering clear of wrecks that claimed Rossi and others, and putting himself in position for the biggest win of his career.