Indianapolis 500 by year
1911 to 1919
1911: An accident disrupts the official timing and scoring stand mid-way through the race. Ray Harroun receives the chequered flag first but many believe Ralph Mulford, classified second, actually won the race. Had he pulled straight into the winners circle Mulford might indeed have been heralded as the winner, but he ran some 'insurance laps', ironically in case the scorers had missed a lap. Harroun did pull in, received the plaudits, and very little else was said on the matter; Harroun, the defending AAA champion, retires after winning the race in the six-cylinder Marmon Wasp, a car he personally designed.
1912: Ralph DePalma's Mercedes breaks its connecting rod after leading 196 laps. Joe Dawson, in a National, wins after leading the only 2 laps of his Indy career. No driver has ever matched DePalma's 196 fruitless laps in the lead, and only Billy Arnold's 198 lap domination of the 1930 race tops DePalma’s time at the front; no driver has equalled or undercut Dawson's 2 laps led by a winner, the fewest ever.
1913: A five-story, wooden pagoda-style timing and scoring tower on the inside of the main straightaway gives the Speedway an enduring landmark; the style reflects Speedway President Carl Fisher's apparent interest in Oriental architecture. French born Jules Goux drinks six bottles of champagne on his way to a record 13 minute, 8 second victory over second place Spencer Wishart. He averages approximately 10 miles per gallon of fuel — and an unknown quantity of champagne per stop. Goux's victory is the first race, excluding the first, won by a rookie driver.
1914: France takes its second consecutive 500 victory, this time with René Thomas, the first occasion for consecutive rookie winners. Also, in a technological breakthrough, inaugural race winner Ray Harroun, in charge of the United States Motor Company team, develops a fuel-sipping carburetor that runs on kerosene. Driver Willie Carlson's Maxwell chassis proceeds to run the race to an eventual ninth-place finish on a mere 30 gallons; with the price at $0.06 a gallon, Carlson's total $1.80 fuel bill stands as the most economical performance in motor racing history.
1915: Ralph DePalma's Mercedes again begins to slow with connecting rod problems late in the race. This time though he makes it to the finish to win.
1916: Dario Resta wins the race, which was shortened to 300 miles (500 km) due to the ongoing war in Europe. The field of 21 cars is the smallest ever.
1917-1918: Race is not held on account of World War I. Though closed to racing, the Speedway is used as a airstrip, serving as a fuel stop between Air Force bases in Dayton, Ohio and Rantoul, Illinois.
1919: With the track reopened after the war, local Indiana-born driver Howdy Wilcox breaks a four-race winning streak by Europeans.
1920 to 1929
1920: Ralph DePalma leads by 2 laps with 13 to go when his engine catches fire. Gaston Chevrolet, brother to Chevrolet company founder Louis, takes the lead and wins. DePalma finishes 5th. Seven months later, Chevrolet is killed during a race at Beverly Hills, becoming the first winner of the '500' to die.
1921: The race is won by Tommy Milton. Ralph DePalma leads 109 laps but once again his connecting rod breaks and he rolls to a halt. DePalma never leads another Indianapolis 500, retiring after the 1922 race. His final career total is 612 laps led for 1 win. DePalma's record number of circuits in front is finally topped by Al Unser 67 years later.
1922: Jimmy Murphy is the first driver to win the race from the pole position.
1923: Despite suffering loss of circulation and blistering in his hands due to shrinkage of his tight-fitting, 'White Kid' gloves, Tommy Milton becomes the first driver to win the race twice.
1924: Lora L. Corum's car is taken over by Joe Boyer, who goes on to win. Corum wins without leading a single lap in his racing career at Indianapolis, the first driver to do so.
1925: The race is won by Ralph DePalma's nephew, and former riding mechanic, Peter DePaolo.
1926: 23 year-old racing sensation Frank Lockhart wins the race as a rookie. He is the first winner born in the 20th century.
1927: Rookie George Souders wins by eight laps, the largest margin since 1913; consecutive rookie winners occurs for the second time. Many racing pundits view Souders' race as the most surprising, 'longest-shot' 500-Mile Race win in history until 1987.
1928: Jimmy Gleason has a good lead when he stops for water on lap 195. A crew member misses the radiator and douses the car's magneto. Gleason is out and Louis Meyer wins.
1929: Race winner Ray Keech is killed in a racing crash just two weeks after the '500'.
1930 to 1939
1930: Billy Arnold takes the lead on lap three and is never headed again. Arnold's 198 laps led in a race has never been bettered.
1931: 1930 winner Billy Arnold is 5 laps ahead on lap 162 when his rear axle breaks and Arnold crashes. His wheel flies over a fence and hits and kills 12 year old Wilbur Brink who is sitting in his garden on Georgetown Road. Arnold and his mechanic are injured. Louis Schneider leads the remaining laps.
1932: Fred Frame wins the race from 27th starting position, and is the eighth different leader of the race, a record at the time.
1933: The largest field to date with 42 starters. Louis Meyer wins after one of the most violent races ever, with five drivers or mechanics killed and several others seriously injured. The standard Victory Banquet after the race is not held, and the predominance of safety as chief concern for race organizers begins 'in force'.
1934: Bill Cummings wins by 27 seconds from Mauri Rose, the closest ever finish at the time.
1935: The newly introduced yellow 'caution' light, requiring drivers to slow and hold position, makes its first appearance in race, to eventual race winner Kelly Petillo's advantage as many of the late laps are disrupted by rain, neutralising Petillo's race long battle with Rex Mays and Wilbur Shaw.
1936: Louis Meyer becomes the first driver to win a third time, drink milk (in actuality buttermilk) in Victory Lane, and receive the Borg-Warner Trophy.
1937: Wilbur Shaw leads most of the way but must slow late on to conserve engine oil. Ralph Hepburn falls short of catching Shaw by 2.16 seconds - the closest finish at that time.
1938: Floyd Roberts, driving the ill-fated Burd Piston Ring Special, dominates to win by three laps.
1939: Defending winner Floyd Roberts, driving the same car he drove into victory circle in 1938, dies in a crash coming off the second turn onto the backstretch on lap 107. Wilbur Shaw wins his second 500, driving a Maserati.
1940 to 1949
1940: Wilbur Shaw sets up a commanding lead until rain brings out the caution for the last 50 laps and guides Shaw to his third victory, and the first by a driver in consecutive years.
1941: Floyd Davis' car is relieved by Mauri Rose, who goes on to win. Davis joins L.L. Corum as a winner who not only didn't lead a lap during the race they won, but never led any laps at Indy. The race was marred by a morning fire which engulfed the entire garage area.
1942-1945: Race is not held due to World War II.
1946: Tony Hulman, the new Speedway President presides over his first race, won by George Robson. Sadly, Robson would be killed later that year.
1947: Bill Holland leads 143 laps before he is overtaken by team mate Mauri Rose. The team had displayed an 'EZY' signal, telling the drivers to hold station to the finish. Holland thought Rose was a lap behind and let him past. Rose wins again but on sheer pace next year and Holland finally wins in 1949. Rose is fired by the team when he again ignores orders and tries to pass Holland, only for his car to fail.
1948: Mauri Rose becomes the second back-to-back winner.
1949: After two years of failures to his teammate, Bill Holland finally wins one for himself, giving Lou Moore his third consecutive victory.
1950 to 1959
1950: Johnnie Parsons' engine has an irreparable crack in it so he decides to charge for the lap leader prizes. At 345 miles (555 km) the rain saves Parsons and he cruises to the win as the race is called at lap 138.
1951: Four days after winning the 500 Lee Wallard is severely burned in a sprint car race and lives the rest of his life unable to perspire properly and without the strength to drive a car.
1952: Bill Vukovich leads 150 laps until his steering pin breaks and he crashes on lap 192. Twenty-two-year-old Troy Ruttman takes the checkered flag, the youngest-ever winner.
1953: On the hottest day on record for the running of the 500, Bill Vukovich leads 195 laps and cruises to a win by nearly three laps over 1952 Rookie of the Year Art Cross. Vukovich wins without relief help in a race that sees one entry being driven by as many as five separate drivers, and suffers the death of driver Carl Scarborough due to heat prostration.
1954: Picking up where he left off, Bill Vukovich wins again by one lap over Jimmy Bryan, after taking the lead for the final time just past the halfway point. Incredibly, for the second straight year one entry on race day is driven by five separate drivers, in temperatures only just below the previous year's record.
1955: After two wins and 485 laps led of a possible 656 (74%), Bill Vukovich is killed on lap 57 after crashing out of the lead. Roger Ward broke a rear axle and a back marker tangled with him in front of Vukovich, whose car hits them and vaults over the backstretch wall into a car park. Bob Sweikert wins after Art Cross blows his engine on lap 169 and Don Freeland loses drive on lap 179. Sweikert dies in a sprint car race a year later. Interesting fact: Sweikert built the Offenhauser engine that brought him the victory.
1956: AAA drops out of sanctioning racing after the 1955 Vukovich crash and public outcry that briefly followed, and the tragedy at Le Mans that same year, so USAC is formed to sanction Indianapolis style racing. Pat Flaherty wins.
1957: After thirteen years of trying, Sam Hanks finally wins the 500, and then, amidst tears, becomes the second winner, after Ray Harroun in 1911, to announce his retirement in victory lane. Hanks' win comes in a radical "lay-down" roadster chassis design created by engineer George Salih that, with the engine tilting 72-degrees to the right, gives the car a profile of a mere 21 inches off the ground. Salih builds the car next to his California home, and is rewarded with victory as both designer and owner after stepping out on a financial limb in entering the car himself.
1958: A huge wreck in turn three on the opening lap wipes out several cars, and driver Pat O'Connor is fatally injured. Jimmy Bryan goes on to win.
1959: A record sixteen cars finish the entire 500 miles as Rodger Ward holds off Jim Rathmann for the win.
1960 to 1969
1960: Defending winner Rodger Ward takes the lead from three-time runner up Jim Rathmann on lap 194 but slows with tire trouble and Rathmann retakes the lead on lap 197 and wins. Tragically, two spectators in the infield are killed, and several are injured, when a homemade scaffolding collaspes at the start of the race.
1961: A.J. Foyt looks set for a win, leading Eddie Sachs, until his crew signal that Foyt's last pit stop didn't get enough fuel in car. Foyt gives up the lead on lap 184 for a splash-and-go. Sachs leads by 25 seconds until the warning tread shows through on his rear tyre and Sachs decides to play safe. Foyt returns to the lead when Sachs stops on lap 197 for tyres and wins (on the first of four occasions) by 8.28 seconds. Sachs is killed in a crash at the start of the 1964 race, a race which is won by Foyt. Also, Jack Brabham drives in this race in a low-slung, rear-engined Cooper-Climax.
1962: A historic pole day as Parnelli Jones breaks the 150 mph barrier in qualifying. Rodger Ward and Len Sutton finish 1-2 for Leader Cards Racing.
1963: Parnelli Jones wins despite his car (nicknamed "Calhoun") spewing oil from a broken tank for many laps. Officials put off black flagging him until the oil level drops and the trail stops. Colin Chapman, whose English built, rear-engined Lotus Ford finishes second in the hands of Scotsman Jim Clark, accuses the officials of being biased towards the American driver and car. Additionally, driver Eddie Sachs is punched by Jones at a victory dinner after Sachs tells Jones his win is tainted.
1964: A tragic day as fan favorite Eddie Sachs and rookie Dave MacDonald are killed in a fiery crash on lap 2. Fans look on in horror, and the race is stopped for almost two hours. When the race resumes, pole-sitter Jim Clark leads the early going before his Dunlop tyres shred and break the car's suspension. A.J. Foyt takes the checkered flag for the second time(the last win by a front-engined roadster), but is visibly subdued in victory lane, after losing his competitor and friend Sachs.
1965: The five-year old "British Invasion" finally breaks through as Jim Clark and Colin Chapman triumph in dominating fashion with the first rear-engined winning car.
1966: Jackie Stewart leads by over a lap when his oil pressure drops too low on Lap 192 and his car stalls. Fellow rookie Graham Hill leads a total of 10 laps to win, the first rookie winner since 1927. Eleven of the 33 starters, a whole third of the field, are eliminated in a first lap accident. Only seven cars, the fewest finishers ever, are still running by the end of the race.
1967: Parnelli Jones' STP Granatelli turbine car leads 171 laps until a transmission bearing fails on lap 197 and Jones coasts to a halt. A.J. Foyt wins a third 500.
1968: On lap 174 Lloyd Ruby’s engine misfires allowing Joe Leonard’s STP Lotus turbine into the lead. Leonard’s leading Lotus flames out on a lap 190 restart and rolls to a silent halt. Bobby Unser goes by to win.
1969: Mario Andretti crashed in practice and suffered burns about two weeks before the race, but he hops into a back-up car and wins going away. Andy Granatelli, who abandoned the turbine cars for 1969, plants a famous kiss on his cheek in victory lane.
1970 to 1979
1970: Following in the footsteps of his brother Bobby, Al Unser win the 500, leading 190 laps in the most dominating win since Bill Vukovich's leading all but five in 1953.
1971: Tragedy strikes at the start as local Indianapolis Dodge dealer Eldon Palmer wrecks the pace car into a photographer's stand. No one is killed, but several are injured, some seriously. Notwithstanding the distraction, Al Unser wins for a second year in a row. ABC television broadcasts the race for the first time in same-day tape delay.
1972: Gary Bettenhausen leads 138 laps until his engine blows on lap 176. Jerry Grant gets the lead but pits for new tires on lap 188 in team mate Bobby Unser’s pit. Bettenhausen’s Penske team mate Mark Donohue wins after leading 13 laps. After a post-race re-examination, scoring is stopped on Grant because of the pit lane violation. Bolt-on wings were allowed for the first time, and during qualifying Bobby Unser runs over 196 mph. During the race, Wally Dallenbach's car catches fire on each of his three refueling stops.
1973: The race was scheduled for Monday, however rain delays the start until late in the afternoon. At the start, Salt Walther tangles with another car and flips into the catch fencing, injuring several spectators. Rain prevents the race from resuming. On Tuesday, rain halts the race on the pace lap, preventing a start for the second day in a row. On Wednesday, rain threatens yet another washout, but the sky eventually clears well enough for the race to FINALLY get going. On the 58th lap, Swede Savage is involved in a fiery crash at the exit of turn four. In the pit area, a crew member from Graham McRae's team (Savage's teammate), is struck and killed by a fire truck. After a long red flag, the race resumes, with Gordon Johncock (Savage's other teammate) leading. On lap 129, rain begins to fall (again), and the race is called on lap 133, with Johncock the winner. Savage dies in the hospital a month later, on July 2.
1974: In the midst of an energy crisis, and as an infield of hippies storm the track, Johnny Rutherford comes from the 25th starting position, deepest in the field since 1933, to record his first victory. During the month, time trials were trimmed from four days down to two, and several days of practice were either reduced by several hours or eliminated outright. The race is also scheduled on Sunday for the first time, thereby ending the "never-on-a-Sunday" policy that had dated to 1911. The reduced practice time became a permanent change, but four-day time trial sessions are restored in 1975.
1975: Wally Dallenbach Sr. is 20 seconds in the lead when he retires on lap 162 with a burned piston. Johnny Rutherford loses the inherited lead to Bobby Unser when he pits. On lap 171 the yellow comes out for rain and the two leaders duck into the pits for fuel. On lap 174 a downpour stops the race and Unser is the winner. The rain stops a few minutes later.
1976: Rain stops the race on lap 102. Two hours later Johnny Rutherford is declared the winner, for the second time, and walks to Victory Lane, having completed on 255 miles (410 km), the shortest official race on record. Later in the year, all but three feet of the track surface is repaved.
1977: Gordon Johncock leads 129 laps and has a 16 second lead on A.J. Foyt one lap after final pit stops when his engine blows. Foyt becomes the first driver to win four times. Tom Sneva breaks the 200 mph barrier in qualifying, and Janet Guthrie becomes the first female to drive in the race. This also marks Tony Hulman's final Indianapolis 500 appearance; the man who resurrected the Speedway after World War II, dies in October at the age of 76.
1978: Al Unser easily leads but bends his Lola's front wing in the pitlane on lap 180. Tom Sneva charges to catch the crippled Lola but is 8 seconds short at the finish. Unser leads 121 laps and holds on for a third win on a very hot day. Janet Guthrie finishes ninth on this day, the highest finish for a woman in Indy 500 history--a feat that is eventually topped 27 years later. For the first time, Mary Fendrich Hulman, widow of Tony Hulman, delivers the command for drivers to start engines.
1979: After a month of court hearings and controversy due to the start-up CART series, a field of 35 cars takes the green flag (the most since 1933), with second-year driver Rick Mears winning.
1980 to 1989
1980: After failing in its 1979 debut, Jim Hall's radically-new Chaparral chassis is driven to easy victory by Johnny Rutherford. Tom Sneva becomes the first driver to place second after starting last. Future NASCAR star Tim Richmond is this year's top rookie, despite running out of gas in the late stages.
1981: After a pitstop on lap 149 Bobby Unser and Mario Andretti pass cars under the caution flag lineup as they exit the pits. Unser goes on to win the race, his third career Indy victory, and Andretti finishes second. However, when official results are posted Monday morning, Unser was penalized one lap for the infraction, and Andretti was declared the winner. Unser's Penske Team appeals the decision, and in October, a USAC appeals court reverses the ruling, reinstating Unser to first place, and instead fines him $40,000. USAC later acts to clarify its vague yellow flag rules and bring them into line with CART's existing rules stating that cars rejoining from the pits during a caution must not pass any cars in front of them, lapped or otherwise. After being declared the winner following this long and contentious debate, Unser announces his retirement.
1982: After a thrilling duel, Gordon Johncock beats 1979 winner Rick Mears to the win by 0.16 seconds. On Mears' final pit stop, he lost several seconds after he bumped into a backmarker. His crew proceeded to fill the entire tank, which gave him more than enough fuel to make it to the finish. Two laps later, Johncock made his stop, but his crew only filled the tank with enough fuel to make it to the finish. With less than 15 laps to go, trailing Johncock by more than eleven seconds, Mears' fully-fueled car was handling much better. He started closing in, more than a second per lap. With one lap to go, Mears pulled alongside, but Johncock refused to give up the lead, blocking Mears in the first turn, and holding on for the win. The outcome, for the next decade, will be the closest ever in race history.
1983: Three-time runner up Tom Sneva is stuck behind the lapped car of Al Unser, Jr., who is helping protect the lead of his father Al Unser despite being shown the blue "move-over" flag. Sneva takes advantage of some more slower cars to pass both Unsers in daring moves on the mainstretch and third turn on lap 190 and goes on to win. Teo Fabi joins Walt Faulkner in 1950 as one of only two rookies ever to qualify for the pole-position.
1984: An exciting first half turns dull as defending champion Tom Sneva and Mario Andretti fall out late with mechanical trouble, leaving Rick Mears the winner by over two laps. Rookies Roberto Guerrero, Al Holbert, and Michael Andretti become a rare trio of first-timers to finish in the top five. Sportswriter-turned-racer Pat Bedard suffers a severe crash in the northchute, flipping and destroying his machine.
1985: Danny Sullivan beats Mario Andretti by 2.5 seconds despite spinning a full 360 degrees between the first and second turn when battling with Andretti on lap 120. Sullivan becomes the third driver to both spin and recover and later lead the same race, after Jim Clark in 1966 and Parnelli Jones in 1967. Sullivan does not, however, duplicate Clark's '66 feat of two spins and two saves in the same race. The Buick engine makes its first significant presence at Indy, qualifying drivers Pancho Carter and Scott Brayton first and second. However, both cars dropped out within the first 19 laps.
1986: Rain postponed the race Sunday and Monday, and Speedway management decides to hold the race the following Saturday. On a final restart on lap 198 Bobby Rahal takes the lead from Kevin Cogan. Rahal beats Cogan by 1.4 seconds and Rick Mears in third by just 1.8 seconds. Jim Trueman, Rahal’s car owner, dies of cancer eleven days later. This year's 500 is the first to be broadcast live from start to finish by ABC, instead of on the tape-delay basis dating back to 1971.
1987: After leading 170 laps Mario Andretti's Lola-Chevrolet loses blower-pressure on lap 177. Roberto Guerrero assumes a lap lead over Al Unser, but disaster strikes on his final fuel stop on lap 182. Guerrero's car had suffered nose damage, and damaged the clutch as well. During the stop, Guerrero could not get the car out of gear, and stalled as he tried to pull away. A lifeless car sat in the pit as Al Unser flew by to take the lead. Unser quickly put Guerrero a lap down, as he finally got restarted. Within a few laps, however, the race again became more interesting as a caution came out shortly after Guererro unlapped himself, bunching up the field. However, Unser holds enough in hand to become the second driver to win for a fourth time. Tragically, a spectator in the grandstand is killed when Guerrero's car hit a loose tire that came off of the car of Tony Bettenhausen. Unser is, at 47, the oldest Indy 500 winner.
1988: Roger Penske's team dominates the month, qualifying all three teammates Rick Mears, Danny Sullivan and Al Unser on the front row.Their cars have unique solid wheels instead of the conventionalspoke designs used on most of the other cars. On race day the three teammates combine to lead 192 laps. Sullivan dominates the first half, but then hits the south short-chute wall on lap 102, after his car steadily loses steering capability; Mears, at one point more than a lap down, takes the lead only 9 laps later, and outduels Unser to take the checkered flag.
1989: On lap 196 Al Unser, Jr. takes the lead from Emerson Fittipaldi, who has lead most of the race. Three laps later Fittipaldi tries to get it back in turn 3. Both cars run side-by-side until the Brazilian’s Penske drifts slightly high and the cars bang wheels. Unser spins around into the turn 3 wall. The pace car escorts "Emmo" to his first Indy win, with "Little Al" giving a congratulatory thumbs-up to Fittipaldi. Joe Dawson’s record from 1912 for the latest lead change in a race is equalled. Unser, who gives the winner a sporting thumbs-up as he stands by his wrecked Lola, is still classified second, with third place Raul Boesel finishing some six laps behind the front two dominant Chevrolet-engine powered machines.
1990 to 1999
1990: Emerson Fittipaldi runs a blistering pace and sets a record by leading the first 92 consecutive laps. Blistering tires, however, send him to the pits about 30 laps later and Bobby Rahal takes over, looking for his second career Indy victory. An ill-handling car slows Rahal down, and Arie Luyendyk takes over the lead, winning the fastest-ever 500, at a speed of 185.981 mph, a record that still stands. The victory is Luyendyk's first ever in championship-level competition.
1991: Michael Andretti leads Rick Mears by 15 seconds when a caution flies on lap 182. Andretti pits for fuel and then smokes around the outside of Mears in turn 1 on the restart. A lap later Mears repeats the move on Andretti and another caution doesn't alter the result as Mears powers away again to his fourth win in 14 years.
1992: A cold, windy, near-winterish day turns the race into a wreck-filled, marathon-long afternoon; the pre-race pace lap crash by polesitter Roberto Guererro setting the pace for the event. This year also marked Ford's return to Indy racing, with the incredibly powerful Cosworth XB.This engine powered Michael Andretti to a one-lap lead of the entire field; but with just 11 laps remaining, the fuel pump failed and the Lola rolled to a stop. After a tense duel, Al Unser Jr beats Scott Goodyear to the win by 0.043 seconds, the closest finish ever. Goodyear had started the race in 33rd place, the second second-place-finishing driver to do so, after taking over Mike Groff's car at the behest of sponsors, and Unser had started 12th. The distance between Goodyear and Unser on the starting grid turned out to be more than enough to swing the result. Oddly, had Goodyear just managed to inch past Unser, he might still not have been registered as the winner. Unser's Galmer-Chevrolet had to have its timing transponder placed in the nose rather than the side-pod, the standard location in all the other cars. So Goodyear's Lola could have had its nose in front of Unser's Galmer, but its transponder would have still been behind. This potential discrepancy between the visual and computerised results was quickly resolved by specifying a standard transponder placing.
1993: Reigning Formula One World Champion Nigel Mansell, leading his first-ever oval-track race, is too hesitant on a lap 185 restart and both Emerson Fittipaldi and Arie Luyendyk move past to take, and keep, the top two positions. Mansell taps the wall on lap 190 but manages to make the finish in third, aided when his shunt triggers another caution.
1994: After leading 145 laps in the 1000 hp (750 kW), 250 mph (400 km/h), pushrod engined Penske-Mercedes, defending winner Emerson Fittipaldi attempts to put second placed teammate Al Unser, Jr. a lap down on lap 185 but runs too high in turn 4 and smacks the wall. Unser leads the last 15 laps for his second career win.
1995: For 1995, the rules loophole that allowed the pushrod Mercedes is closed. Neither Unser nor Fittipaldi qualify when their new Penske suffers from abnormal aerodynamic instability and refuses to traverse the Speedway flat-out. Early on in the race Jacques Villeneuve, unaware that he is the leader due to a series of pit stops, passes the pace car during a caution. Officials rule a two-lap penalty for the infraction and Villeneuve drops from contention. However, thanks to fortuitous timing of yellows and pit strategy, Villeneuve comes back from two laps down to be in fourth position as the race nears crunch time. He is promoted to second when first Jimmy Vasser, and then Scott Pruett crash out while trying to pass Scott Goodyear for the lead. On lap 190 Goodyear mis-times the last restart and passes the pace car before it enters pit-road. Goodyear wins on the road but is not scored after lap 195 because he fails to serve the black flag penalty in the pits. Villeneuve is the winner of his own "Indy 505".
1996: In the first Indianapolis 500 held under IRL sanctions (though technically remaining under the sanction of USAC), Davy Jones grabs the lead from teammate Alessandro Zampedri on lap 190. Buddy Lazier moves in turn past Jones on the main straight on lap 193, and wins as a multiple shunt in the last turn wipes out Zampedri, leaving him with severe leg and foot injuries. Scott Brayton was the original pole winner for this race, but was killed in a practice accident the next Friday after, leaving teammate Tony Stewart, who had qualified second, to line up as the new pole-sitter race day morning.
1997: The race is scheduled for Sunday, May 25, but rain delays it until Monday. On Monday, the race begins, but rain halts it after 15 laps. Instead of rescheduling it for the weekend, track officials decide, due to an upcoming IRL race on that date at Texas Motor Speedway, to finish the race Tuesday, although many fans are not able to return. Late in the race, Scott Goodyear runs second to teammate Arie Luyendyk. The race restarts for a one-lap dash to the finish but the caution lights on the mainstretch stay yellow. Luyendyk accelerates as instructed but Goodyear sees the yellow and hesitates, ending his chance to challenge after the act allows Luyendyk to pull away slightly on the last lap to win his second race. The race is the first to be run under a new engine formula requiring normally-aspirated engines. Confusion regarding qualifying procedures results in 35 cars on the grid, the most since 1979. Five of them drop out before the initial green flag: three in an accident, and two others because of mechanical ills.
1998: In the aftermath of the uncertainty surrounding the final restart the year before, Speedway management appoints the IRL to replace USAC as full sanctioning body for the race. Eddie Cheever, a rookie in 1990, caps off his racing career with his lone Indianapolis win. 1996 winner Buddy Lazier mounts a strong challenge, but can't keep pace with Cheever at the finish, and settles for second, 3.19 seconds back.
1999: Gambling on not stopping during the last round of pitstops and using a long fuel stint doesn't work for Robby Gordon, as all the laps run to the end are green. Gordon exhausts his fuel halfway around lap 199, and longtime leader Kenny Bräck takes the lead to win, equalling Joe Dawson in 1912 and Emerson Fittipaldi in 1989 for the latest lead change in a race.
2000 to Present
2000: Jimmy Vasser and Juan Pablo Montoya break ranks from the CART series and race at Indianapolis. Greg Ray wins the battle for the pole position, but Montoya dominates on race day, becoming the first rookie winner since Graham Hill in 1966. Buddy Lazier, able to run with Montoya when nearing lap 160, is unable to keep pace during the final 100 miles, and settles for second for the second time in four years. Montoya's victory is the first for a rookie since 1966. This race also features Lyn St. James and Sarah Fisher on the grid. Although they crash on lap 71, they are the first female drivers to start the same Indianapolis 500.
2001: Team Penske is among several CART teams to break ranks and race at Indianapolis. Rain plays a factor on race day, halting the event twice, once under lengthy yellow, and again for a red flag. When the race restarts, rookie Hélio Castroneves breaks away for the win, marking the third occasion of consecutive rookie victories, and then proceeds to engage in his CART-career customary celebration of climbing the catchfence, an action which, when witnessed, begins to be emulated thereafter throughout American stock car racing.
2002: A bizarre and controversial finale is set in motion when Tomas Scheckter, son of 1979 Formula One World Driving Champion Jody Scheckter, aiming to be the youngest winner ever, crashes out of the lead on lap 173. Second place Gil de Ferran looks set to inherit the lead with the newly fastest car in the race, but the Penske crew fail to attach his right rear wheel properly in the ensuing pit stop, allowing it to come loose and force him to slowly crawl back round to the pits on three wheels. Team mate Hélio Castroneves makes his final fuel stop on lap 158 and cautions and good fuel management allow him to make it all the way to Lap 198. Just as he is running dry and Paul Tracy is passing him on the outside in the third turn for the lead, a crash in the second turn brings out the caution. Castroneves has the fuel to make the last lap under yellow and wins because Tracy is ruled to have passed after the caution flew. In an echo of the first Indianapolis 500 back in 1911, the Penske team celebrate with an impromptu Victory Lane on the yard of bricks, while the driver who many think has actually won sits and waits. The result is confirmed in July amongst more controversy. The Speedway dismiss Tracy’s appeal on the grounds that judgment calls by the officials cannot be appealed, and these calls constitute the only possible official result. Castroneves leads 76 laps to win in the second of his first two starts and add a twelfth, though still to present day controversial, win to car owner Roger Penske's record.
2003: The "curse of the Indy three-peat" prevails again on lap 169, as pole-sitter and two-time defending champion Hélio Castroneves is held up behind lap car A.J. Foyt IV coming out of the second turn, allowing teammate Gil de Ferran to pull to the inside and pass for the lead. With downforce settings chosen throughout the race field for the day inhibiting passing with ease in the open, de Ferran is able to hold off his teammate to the end for the win, almost equalling the outcome of 1949, where Bill Holland, teammate to then two-time defending winner Mauri Rose, won a third straight race for their car owner, as de Ferran does for Roger Penske. Castroneves' second place ties Al Unser in 1972 for the highest place finish for a driver going for his third consecutive.
2004: The combination of impending rain and pitstops threatens to turn the result into a lottery, with the winner being the driver that hasn’t been forced to pit for fuel. First to go is Bruno Junqueira, who originally gains the lead earlier by not pitting in hopes that rain comes before his fuel runs out. Junqueira pits on lap 151, handing the race back to the day’s pacesetting trio of Buddy Rice, Tony Kanaan and Dan Wheldon. Kanaan and Wheldon, respectively, come in soon afterwards. Rice, who has steadily become the dominant car past lap 145, comes in next and gives up the lead on lap 167 to Bryan Herta, who stops in turn on lap 169. Adrian Fernandez makes it to lap 172, but the rain still hasn't arrived. After several anxious laps, Fernandez pits and puts Rice back into the lead ahead of second place Kanaan and third place Wheldon, which remains the running order when the rain finally falls to bring a halt to proceedings at lap 180, 450 miles. With the victory, Rice becomes the first American winner since Eddie Cheever in 1998.
2005: The first year a woman, Danica Patrick, leads the race. Patrick leads three separate times for a total of 19 laps, including laps after spinning and recovering between the third and fourth turns on a restart, the fourth driver in history to do so. However, she slips back from the lead to fourth place during the last seven laps, with Dan Wheldon winning to become the first English victor since Graham Hill in 1966. The television broadcast of the race concluded with The Finn Brothers song "Luckiest Man Alive" being played during the credits. One would assume ABC had a "backup song" available if Danica Patrick had managed to pull off the victory.
2006: The 90th running of the Indianapolis 500 is scheduled for May 28, 2006.