INDIANAPOLIS — The payouts for Sunday’s 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500 was announced on Monday evening. The record setting purse of $17,021,500 was distributed among the 33 starters.

When looking at it, some have questions. The main one is, why third place finisher, Santino Ferrucci only received $481,800 but fifth place finisher, Alexander Rossi, got $574k.

Well, that’s simple, but unless you follow the NTT INDYCAR SERIES closely, you wouldn’t know why. So let me explain.

The reasoning behind Ferrucci’s lower payout is because the No. 14 Dallara-Chevrolet for AJ Foyt Racing isn’t part of the Leaders Circle program. What that is, pertains to the top 22 finishers in the entrant points standings from the year before.

The top 22 in the entrant points receive a bonus the following year for the Indy 500 payouts. Think of it somewhat like a charter is to NASCAR.

The top 22 in entrant points last year are: Will Power, Josef Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin (Team Penske), Alex Palou, Scott Dixon, Marcus Ericsson (Chip Ganassi Racing), Colton Herta, Alexander Rossi (Kyle Kirkwood now), Romain Grosjean, Devlin DeFrancesco (Andretti Autosport), Felix Rosenqvist (Alexander Rossi now), Pato O’Ward (Arrow McLaren Racing), Graham Rahal, Christian Lundgaard, Jack Harvey (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing), Conor Daly, Rinus VeeKay (Ed Carpenter Racing), Simon Pagenaud, Helio Castroneves (Meyer Shank Racing), David Malukas, Takuma Sato (Sting Ray Robb now) with Dale Coyne Racing and Callum Ilott (Juncos Hollinger Racing).

Those cars get the payouts this year so if there was a driver change in the case of Rossi last year to Kirkwood this year, Rosenqvist to Rossi with McLaren and Sato to Robb with Coyne, the money stays with the car not the driver.

For teams that expanded like McLaren adding a third full-time car to bring Rossi over but with Rossi in Rosenqvist’s 7 ride last year, Rosenqvist is driving a car not in Leaders Circle this year but if it is in the top 22 at the end of this season, it will be for 2024.

So, that’s why 22 cars among the 33 got more this year than the other 11.

4 more cars like Ferrucci, Benjamin Pedersen, Rosenqvist’s, Agustin Canapino are full-time drivers and will get a bit more of a bump than those that aren’t full-time.

You can tell the base for an Indy only entry is $102k. That’s why Katherine Legge got that for last place. 32nd place as a part-time Indy only entrant was $103k for RC Enerson. That also explains the bump to $462-$465k for 28th-31st placed finishers because they’re full-time entries in the leaders circle money.

Canapino is full-time but not in the leaders circle and that’s why he got $156 but not a lot payout like $102k.

Tony Kanaan and Marco Andretti are in an Indy only seat and is why they only got $105k and $102k respectively compared to nearly $500k for those around them.

Also, the controversial ending was a $3-million one. Josef Newgarden received a record 3.6 million in winnings. Second place Marcus Ericsson got $1,043,000. If that red doesn’t come out, Ericsson wins and Newgarden is in second.

Ericsson would have received what Newgarden did, plus the $420k extra from Borg Warner for being a repeat winner, to what would have pushed him over $4-million in winnings.

We all know the leader was a lame duck, so going green was never going to allow Ericsson to win, which is why he was as upset as he was after the race.