Race History

The Beginning: A Track Built for Speed (1909–1910)

The story of the Indianapolis 500 begins before the first race was ever run. In 1909, a group of Indianapolis businessmen — Carl Fisher, James Allison, Arthur Newby, and Frank Wheeler — purchased 320 acres of farmland northwest of the city with a single goal: to build the world's premier automobile testing facility.

The original surface was compressed gravel and tar, but it was so rough and dangerous that the owners repaved the entire 2.5-mile oval with 3.2 million bricks, earning the track the nickname that endures to this day: The Brickyard. The brickwork was completed by 1910. A narrow strip of those original bricks still sits at the start-finish line — a yard of history preserved in the modern asphalt surface.

After a series of shorter races that proved the circuit could handle sustained high-speed competition, the owners decided to stage a single, definitive event each year: a 500-mile race on the last day of May. The prize purse of $27,550 — massive for 1911 — guaranteed it would attract the very best cars and drivers on the planet.

The First Race and the Rearview Mirror (1911)

On May 30, 1911, forty cars lined up for the inaugural Indianapolis 500. Ray Harroun, driving the distinctive yellow-and-black Marmon Wasp, won the race at an average speed of 74.59 mph — completing the 500 miles in 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 8 seconds.

The Marmon Wasp's most historically significant innovation was not its engine or its aerodynamic shape — it was the small mirror mounted above the cockpit. Harroun had chosen to race without a riding mechanic (the other cars all carried a second person to watch for overtaking cars), so he devised the rearview mirror to compensate. It is widely considered the first use of a rearview mirror on a racing car.

From the very first running, the Indy 500 demonstrated what would become a consistent theme: winning here required not just speed, but intelligence, ingenuity, and the willingness to do things differently.

The Formative Years: American Dominance (1912–1945)

Through the 1910s and 1920s, the Indy 500 established itself as the definitive test of the American automobile. European manufacturers occasionally entered, but American machinery — and American drivers — dominated. The Peugeot, Delage, and Mercedes entries from Europe were competitive but rarely victorious.

Ralph DePalma holds one of the most famous stories in Indy history: in 1912, he led 196 of the 200 laps before his Mercedes broke down just three miles from the finish. He and his riding mechanic pushed the car toward the line — they were passed by the winning car before completing the distance. DePalma returned and won in 1915.

The Duesenberg brothers — Fred and August — became the dominant force in American racing through the 1920s, winning in 1924, 1925, and 1927. The Miller-powered cars of the late 1920s and 1930s pushed speeds past 100 mph and redefined what was possible on an oval.

The race was not held in 1917 and 1918 due to World War I, and again in 1942, 1943, 1944, and 1945 during World War II — accounting for the difference between the calendar years and the edition number.

The European Challenge and the Rear-Engine Revolution (1950s–1960s)

In the post-war era, Formula 1 emerged as the global standard for open-wheel racing. The FIA briefly included the Indianapolis 500 as part of the Formula 1 World Championship from 1950 to 1960 — though most F1 drivers didn't enter, and most Indy regulars didn't participate in European rounds, making it an awkward marriage.

What the F1 connection did bring was technological transfer. The American establishment ran large-displacement front-engined roadsters — powerful, fast on straights, and proven over decades. European constructors had been developing smaller, more efficient rear-engine cars.

In 1961, Jack Brabham entered a small Cooper T54 with a 2.75-litre Coventry Climax engine — half the displacement of the dominant Offenhauser roadsters. The car was slower in a straight line but handled dramatically better in the corners. Brabham finished ninth. The Indianapolis establishment laughed. One year later, they stopped laughing.

Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt, among others, saw the future. By 1963, rear-engine cars were leading the race. By 1965, front-engine roadsters were gone entirely. The technical revolution had taken just four years to complete — one of the fastest technology shifts in the race's history.

The American Greats: Four-Time Winners (1960s–1990s)

The Indy 500 has produced a small group of drivers who have won the race four times — a feat that defines the very summit of Indianapolis achievement.

A.J. Foyt was the first to do it. The Texan won in 1961, 1964, 1967, and 1977 — a span of sixteen years. Foyt was a fierce, unapologetic competitor who drove every car on the limit and expected everyone around him to do the same. He is one of the most decorated drivers in American motorsport history, winning in NASCAR, USAC, and sports cars as well as Indy.

Al Unser Sr. matched Foyt's four wins in 1970, 1971, 1978, and 1987. His 1987 win — at age 47, driving a car borrowed at the last moment after his primary ride fell through — is one of the most improbable victories in the race's history. Unser is part of a remarkable motorsport family: his brother Bobby also won Indy twice, and his son Al Unser Jr. won twice as well.

Rick Mears won four times for Team Penske: 1979, 1984, 1988, and 1991. Mears was the master of qualifying at IMS, earning six pole positions — still a record — and converting his front-row starts into victories with cold-blooded precision. His four victories with Penske established the team as the most successful in the race's modern history.

The fourth four-time winner came from Brazil: Hélio Castroneves, nicknamed "Spider-Man" for his habit of climbing the catch fencing in Victory Lane after wins. He won in 2001, 2002, 2009, and — most dramatically — in 2021 at the age of 46, becoming the oldest winner in the modern era. His 2021 victory brought tears to the paddock; Castroneves had waited twelve years between his third and fourth wins.

The CART Split and Reunification (1979–2008)

American open-wheel racing suffered a painful schism in 1979 when the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) organization broke away from USAC and formed a rival series. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the top CART teams — including Penske, Ganassi, and Andretti — dominated the Indy 500.

The split deepened in 1996 when Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Tony George founded the Indy Racing League (IRL) as a rival to CART. For several years, the IRL and CART existed as competing open-wheel series, with the IRL holding the Indy 500 (using lower-budget, lower-profile entries) and CART running its own championship. The damage to both series was significant.

The schism finally ended in 2008 when CART's successor series (the Champ Car World Series) merged with the IRL. The reunified series — now called IndyCar — brought together the top teams, drivers, and manufacturers for the first time in over a decade. The results were immediate: the quality of the Indianapolis 500 field improved dramatically.

The Modern Era: IndyCar Unified (2008–Present)

The reunified IndyCar era has produced several distinct dynasties at the Indy 500. Dario Franchitti won three times (2007, 2010, 2012) before a career-ending accident at Houston in 2013. Hélio Castroneves added his fourth win in 2021. Simon Pagenaud and Marcus Ericsson each won dramatic late-race battles in 2019 and 2022 respectively.

The most recent chapter has been written by Josef Newgarden, the Tennessee-born Team Penske driver who won back-to-back Indy 500s in 2023 and 2024. Newgarden's victories were both last-lap or late-race charges — the kind of aggressive, high-risk racing that defines why the Indy 500 is so compelling. A third consecutive win in 2026 would put him alongside Wilbur Shaw (1939–1940) as one of only two drivers to win three or more consecutive Indy 500s.

The 2026 race marks the 110th edition of this extraordinary event — 115 years of the Indianapolis 500, minus the six editions lost to world wars. The race has survived the Great Depression, two world wars, multiple series schisms, technological revolutions, and the rise of Formula 1 as the global standard for open-wheel racing. It remains, by any measure, the largest single-day sporting event on earth.

Recent Winners (2012–2024)

All-Time Records

Most Indy 500 Wins — Drivers

• A.J. Foyt — 4 wins (1961, 1964, 1967, 1977)
• Al Unser Sr. — 4 wins (1970, 1971, 1978, 1987)
• Rick Mears — 4 wins (1979, 1984, 1988, 1991)
• Hélio Castroneves — 4 wins (2001, 2002, 2009, 2021)

Most Pole Positions

• Rick Mears — 6 poles (a record that has stood since 1991)
• A.J. Foyt — 4 poles
• Mario Andretti — 4 poles

Most Successful Teams

• Team Penske — 20 wins, more than any other team in history
• Chip Ganassi Racing — 5 wins in the modern era
• Andretti Autosport — 5 wins (including as Andretti Green Racing)

Unforgettable Moments

• 1911: Ray Harroun wins the first Indy 500 — and the rearview mirror enters history.
• 1936: Louis Meyer drinks buttermilk in Victory Lane. The milk tradition is born.
• 1961: Jack Brabham's rear-engine Cooper starts the revolution that ends the roadster era.
• 1966: Graham Hill wins Indy 500, already holding Le Mans (1972 was later) and Monaco wins — completing the Triple Crown.
• 1967: The STP Turbine Car leads with three laps to go before a $6 bearing destroys a dream.
• 1987: A 47-year-old Al Unser Sr. wins with a borrowed car. His fourth Indy 500 victory.
• 2005: Dan Wheldon wins for Andretti Green Racing in a race that sees fan favorite Danica Patrick lead laps in only her fifth Indy 500 start.
• 2011: Dan Wheldon dies in a multi-car crash at Las Vegas Motor Speedway — a tragedy that reshapes IndyCar safety forever.
• 2021: Hélio Castroneves, aged 46, wins for the fourth time — twelve years after his third victory.
• 2023–2024: Josef Newgarden wins back-to-back, becoming the first to do it since Al Unser Sr. in 1970–1971.