50 Fun Facts About Indy 500

Ray Harroun won the first 500 in 1911 driving which car, named for its sharp-pointed tail?

Harroun, a Marmon engineer, came out of retirement to drive it and never raced again after collecting the $10,000 first prize.

What device did the 1911 winner famously bolt onto his car, believed to be a first on a racing machine?

In an era of two-man cars he drove solo without a riding mechanic to watch behind him, and the mirror was his answer to complaints about safety.

Which Speedway founder went on to conceive the Lincoln Highway and develop Miami Beach?

Fisher made his fortune with Prest-O-Lite headlights before turning a swampy stretch of Florida coast into a resort.

What was the very first event held at the Speedway, in June 1909?

The first car races followed in August 1909, and the crumbling stone-and-tar surface caused fatal crashes that led straight to the brick repaving.

Roughly how many bricks were laid to pave the track in the autumn of 1909?

Five Indiana manufacturers supplied the 10-pound bricks, and most of them are still there, buried under layers of asphalt.

How much of the original brick surface is still exposed at the start/finish line?

When the Pagoda was rebuilt in 2000, the strip was extended across pit lane and into the plaza behind it.

What is the track's long-standing nickname, earned from its 1909 paving?

The last brick sections of the main straight were finally covered in asphalt after the 1961 race.

Which World War I flying ace bought the Speedway in 1927?

He had raced in the 500 himself between 1912 and 1916, and later ran Eastern Air Lines.

Who bought the dilapidated Speedway in November 1945 and revived the race after the war?

The Terre Haute baking-powder heir became the voice of the starting command, and his family owned the track until 2019.

Which team owner bought the Speedway and the IndyCar Series in November 2019?

His team already held the record for wins in the race, and he now delivers the starting command himself.

Which winner's request for a glass of buttermilk in 1933 started the Victory Lane tradition?

After his third win in 1936 he drank from a glass bottle instead, and that image is the one most winners have copied since.

What does the winner traditionally drink in Victory Lane?

It has been presented every year since the 1930s apart from a gap from 1947 to 1955.

What did Emerson Fittipaldi controversially drink first in Victory Lane in 1993?

He owned orange groves in Brazil and wanted to plug the citrus industry; he forfeited $5,000 and apologised to the American Dairy Association.

Which song has been performed before the start of the race every year since 1946?

It is a 1917 Tin Pan Alley tune, not the official state song, and its chord changes underpin the bebop standard 'Donna Lee'.

Which television star performed the pre-race song nearly every year from 1972 to 2014?

He missed 2007 and 2012 through illness and announced in March 2014 that that year's race would be his last.

The pre-race release of thousands of balloons was halted in 2020 for what stated reason?

The release dated back to 1947 and had been timed to the song since about 1950.

Who in 1977 became the first woman to qualify for the race?

That year the command was reworded to 'In company with the first lady ever to qualify at Indianapolis, gentlemen, start your engines.'

Which woman holds the best finish by a female driver, third in 2009, and is the only one to have led laps?

She led 19 laps as a rookie in 2005 while nursing fuel and finished fourth; her final race was the 2018 500, which ended in the turn-two wall.

Who became the first driver to win the race four times, with his 1977 victory?

The Texan is also the only driver to have won the 500, the Daytona 500, Le Mans, Sebring and the 24 Hours of Daytona.

The record for most career pole positions at the 500 stands at how many?

The holder is a four-time winner whose most famous victory came with an outside pass of Michael Andretti in turn one in 1991.

Which four-time winner spent his entire IndyCar career with Team Penske?

He came back from crushing leg injuries in a 1984 crash to win twice more, then retired at 41 in 1992.

Al Unser's fourth win in 1987 came in a year-old March that had been pulled from where?

Penske Racing grabbed the show car from a Sheraton in Reading, Pennsylvania, after Danny Ongais was hurt in practice.

Who is the youngest winner in the race's history, taking the 1952 race at 22?

He later drove a Formula One Grand Prix in France in 1958, one of the first Americans to race in the World Championship outside Indianapolis.

Which four-time winner is nicknamed 'Spider-Man' for climbing the catch fence after victories?

He won as a rookie in 2001, went back-to-back in 2002, and won season five of Dancing with the Stars in between his third and fourth wins.

What record average speed made the 2021 race the fastest 500 ever run?

The same race set a record for cars running at the finish, 30, and gave Meyer Shank Racing its first IndyCar win.

Who lost the 1992 race to Al Unser Jr. by 0.043 seconds after starting from last on the grid?

Michael Andretti had led 160 of the first 189 laps before his fuel pump failed, and pole-sitter Guerrero crashed on the pace laps.

Who won the 2026 race by a record 0.0233 seconds, the closest finish in its history?

The race also produced 70 lead changes, beating the previous record of 68 from 2013.

Rain cut the 1976 race, the shortest on record, to how many of the scheduled 200 laps?

Johnny Rutherford famously walked to Victory Lane under an umbrella, the last win for the four-cylinder Offenhauser engine.

The traditional field of 33 cars lines up three abreast in how many rows?

The field was capped at 33 in 1912, when the purse was raised to $50,000, and has stayed there.

What figure stands on top of the Borg-Warner Trophy?

The sterling-silver trophy carries a sculpted face of every winner since 1911 and stays at the Speedway museum; winners get an 18-inch 'Baby Borg' instead.

Which rookie won the 100th running in 2016 by coasting across the line on fumes?

He ran dry on the cool-down lap and had to be towed to Victory Lane, believed to be a first for a race winner.

In 1996 Speedway owner Tony George formed which rival series and made the 500 its marquee event?

The CART teams boycotted and ran the U.S. 500 at Michigan the same day; the two series did not reunify until 2008.

The 1964 race was the last won by which kind of car?

The same race saw the lap-two fireball that killed Eddie Sachs and Dave MacDonald, prompting rules that pushed teams from gasoline to methanol.

Who in 1965 became the first driver to win the 500 in a rear-engined car?

The Scot led 190 of 200 laps in his Lotus 38 and won the Formula One title the same year, a double nobody has repeated.

The Andretti family's lone victory in the race came in which year?

Mario won in a back-up Brawner Hawk after crashing his Lotus in practice, and car owner Andy Granatelli kissed him on the cheek in Victory Lane.

Who led 196 laps in 1912, then pushed his broken Mercedes down the main straight when it failed?

Cars had to finish under their own power, so he was credited with 198 laps and Joe Dawson inherited the win; nobody has led more laps without winning.

Bobby Unser's 1981 win was taken away, then restored in October. Who was briefly declared the winner?

Unser was penalised a position for passing cars under yellow leaving the pits; a USAC appeals board voted 2-1 to reinstate him and fined him $40,000.

Which back-to-back winner of 1953 and 1954 was killed while leading the 1955 race?

He was 17 seconds clear on lap 57 when he was caught in a chain-reaction crash; his son and grandson later raced at the Speedway too.

Who became the first Asian driver to win the race, in 2017?

He held off a four-time winner over the closing laps and added a second victory in 2020.

Which Formula One champion skipped the 2017 Monaco Grand Prix to make his 500 debut?

He led 27 laps before his engine let go late on and was still named Rookie of the Year.

Because of the pandemic, the 2020 race was run without spectators in which month?

It was the first time the race had not been held on or around Memorial Day, and Marco Andretti took the family's first pole since 2005.

Which model has served as the official pace car more often than any other?

It has led the field 22 times, and since 2002 Chevrolet has supplied every pace car under an exclusive deal with General Motors.

In 1971 the pace car, driven by a local dealer, crashed into what at the end of the pit lane?

Eldon Palmer's Dodge Challenger overshot its braking point and injured several people; the winner has been given a pace car nearly every year since 1936.

Which NASCAR driver and his crew started the 'kissing the bricks' ritual after winning in 1996?

The 400 winner's gesture caught on, and 500 winners now kneel at the strip of bricks too.

Since 1974 the race has been fixed to which day?

Speedway management refused to race on a Sunday at all until 1974, so before then a rain-out could push the race into the working week.

How long is one lap of the Speedway oval?

Two 5/8-mile straights, four identical quarter-mile turns and two 1/8-mile short chutes make up the rectangle, unchanged since 1909.

Whom did Sam Hornish Jr. pass 450 feet from the line in 2006, the race's first last-lap pass for the win?

The 19-year-old rookie still won Rookie of the Year, and his father Michael, out of retirement, finished third.

Who won in 2011 after rookie J. R. Hildebrand hit the wall in the final turn of the final lap?

It was his second win and his last; he was killed four months later at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Which country got its first 500 winner when Álex Palou took the 2025 race?

It was also his first win on an oval, and he went on to take the IndyCar title in the same season.

The 2013 race set a then-record for lead changes. How many were there?

Tony Kanaan finally won after eleven previous attempts, at an average of 187.433 mph that was the fastest race until 2021.