(Be sure to check below to see the rest of the month's moments! Keep this page bookmarked as we'll update our top 10 list as the final days leading up to the 100th Anniversary of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing wind down!)
#2: One of my favorite Indy 500's to date was the 2006 race. With four laps to go, the race goes back to green with Michael Andretti (on old tires) in the lead, his 19-year-old son Marco (on fresh tires and fuel) in second, and (after a desperate pass as the green flag waves) Sam Hornish, Jr. in third. With three to go, Marco shows dad how it's done as he passes Michael on the outside going into turn one! Marco begins to pull away, and Michael now is put into a "blocking" role for his son. Hornish quickly pulls around Michael and closes the gap on Marco. With two to go, Hornish gets a huge tow on the back stretch and looks to the inside of Marco, who slams the door shut! Hornish has to get off of the throttle and loses all momentum. The race appears to be over, no way can Hornish make up the ground lost in just one lap. The announcers agree and already are congratulating young Marco. However, as the two racers go through turns 3 and 4 (right in front of our seats! LOVE IT!) Hornish is right on Marco's rear wing. He uses the draft and slingshots around him as the cars go down the frontstretch! From our seats we can see Hornish dive to the inside to make the pass, can see them cross the finish line, but can't tell who crossed first! It doesn't matter, we're screaming and cheering all the way! About five seconds later, Hornish's picture appears on the jumbotrons. He successfully made the pass (the first time in history that a driver made a pass on the final lap to win the race!) and got to drink the milk after winning the second closest race in Indy 500 history!
This video is very close to where our seats are, so you can see how it looked from my vantage point.
#3: Michael Andretti leads 160 laps in the 1992 race, but with 12 laps to go and leading by nearly 30 seconds, his fuel pump fails and his car coasts to a stop on the short chute between turns 3 and 4. Going green with seven laps left, the rest of the race would feature an unbelievable battle between Al Unser, Jr. and Scott Goodyear for the lead. Goodyear trailed by less than a second for pretty much the entire seven laps, battling nose-to-tail all around the 2.5 mile oval. On the final lap, Goodyear pulls to the inside out of the final turn. Unser held him off, though, by 0.043 seconds, the closest finish in the history of the Indianapolis 500. (I read actually that the gap was even less than this, as Goodyear's tracker was further back in the car than it should have been, and the gap was closer to 0.02 seconds!)
#4: After 113 laps, rain brings out the rain flag with Andretti-Green drivers Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti, and Danica Patrick running 1-2-3, and the fourth teammate Dario Franchitti back in 14th. But the rain would stop and track dry, so the race is not declared over yet. As soon as the race resumes (after three hours of delay), teams report more weather approaching the speedway. On lap 151 under caution and with skies quickly darkening, many leaders come into the pits. However, Franchitti stays out. The drivers know that rain is coming, which will end the race for good, so the rest of the race would feature some of the most daring moves seen at Indianapolis as drivers want every position they can get before the race ends. Cautions on lap 156 and 163 chews up lots of the possible race time, however, including a nasty crash that sends Andretti flipping across the backstretch. Before the track could be cleared after Andretti's accident, the skies open. Franchitti slowly makes his way around the speedway through the terrential downpour to take the checkered flag, his wife Ashley Judd dancing in the rain in celebration of her husband's first Indy 500 victory!
#5: Quite possibly the greatest story of success, pressure, failure, drama, excitement, and history happened to one driver in the 2005 Indianapolis 500: rookie Danica Patrick. All in all, this was one of the greatest days for the Greatest Spectacle in Racing and open-wheel racing as a whole!
Success: On lap 56, Danica Patrick becomes the first woman to ever lead a lap at the Brickyard.
Pressure: During the next caution, Danica stalls in the pits. It appears at this point the rookie pressure has gotten to the rookie. She has plenty of time with her fast car to make it back to the front.
Failure: The field is about to go back to green on lap 155 when a car checks up in front of Danica, who goes high on the track to avoid contact. She spins, causing a chain reaction that collects four or five other racers as well. She appears to be done for the day. Somehow, though, she ends up facing the warmup lane and drives to the pits. The only damage to her car is a broken front wing, which her team changes while keeping her on the lead lap.
Drama: She pitted again on lap 159 to fill up on fuel and attempt to make the finish without any more stops. All of the leaders need to pit once more, which they do on lap 170 under caution. Danica stays out and takes the lead. From this point onward, the 300,000 in attendance would be on their feet. She would lead until lap 186 when Dan Wheldon passed her exactly when a caution came out. Lady Luck appears to NOT be on her side...
Excitement: On the restart, Danica uses the draft and gets around Wheldon before even crossing the start/finish line! Never in my years of attending the 500 have I seen a moment where every individual in attendance is cheering on the same racer.
History: Wheldon passes Danica three laps later, and she then attempts to save fuel and so is passed by her teammate Vitor Meira and Bryan Herta. But her 4th place finish is the highest for a woman in the history of the Indianapolis 500. Wheldon's victory is sometimes overlooked by Danica's performance, as Wheldon poked fun at it by wearing a t-shirt stating "Actually won the Indy 500." More importantly, her success and the fans' love for her brings IndyCar back into the limelight and has led to the ratings of the series going through the roof!
#6: The 1989 Indianapolis 500 featured a two-man battle for the last ten laps. Al Unser, Jr. took the lead over Emerson Fittipaldi with five laps to go, but Emo stayed close. On lap 199, Little Al ran in to traffic coming out of turn 2, giving Fittipaldi the chance he needed. They went 3 wide on the backstretch, and the leaders went side-by-side entering turn 3. As Little Al would say, "two guys went into turn 3 and only one was gonna come out." Fittipaldi's car slid up just enough for the two cars to make contact, which sent Little Al hard into the wall. Emo stayed on course, and he took the checkered flag the next time by under caution. Unser, Jr. climbed out of the car unharmed, and as Fittipaldi came around turn 3 again to take the checkered flag, Little Al pulled a classy move representative of the Brickyard. With everybody (including Al himself) expecting him to throw something at Emo's car or at the very least give Emo an inappropriate gesture, Little Al clapped his hands and gave a two thumbs up to his fellow racer who gave him "the best slide job anybody ever gave me."
#7: Team Penske returns to the Brickyard for the first time since the CART split, and they dominate like the old days. Fighting through two rain delays, Helio Castroneves wins his first Indianapolis 500 (the second straight victory by a rookie) and teammate Gil de Ferran finishes 2nd for Roger Penske's first 1-2 finish ever at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. "Spiderman" Castroneves would celebrate in fashion by climbing the fence at the start finish line!
#8: CART teams return to the Brickyard for the 2000 Indy 500 as Target Chip Ganassi Racing brings Jimmy Vasser and Juan Montoya to the race. Montoya dominates the race, starting in 2nd, leading 167 of 200 laps and winning the 84th running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. Pole sitter Greg Ray finishes last astonishingly, and sets a precedent as Scott Sharp would accomplish the same "first to worst" feat the following year.
#9: One of the worst crashes in Indy 500 history came in 1995 as Stan Fox collected Eddie Cheever in the first corner on lap 1. The accident tore the front off of Fox's car and leaving his legs exposed at over 200 mph. The broadcast team actually told the camera men to keep their cameras off of Fox's car, because "he's probably dead." He survived the crash, but his racing days are over. Jacques Villenueve during the race, unaware that he was in fact the leader, passed the pace car under yellow. He was therefore penalized two laps. Amazingly, he would make his way up through the field and win in what his team would later call "the only winner of the Indianapolis 505!"
#10: The famous "Spin and Win" in 1985 is one of the great stories of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway that everybody remembers. On lap 120, while battling for the lead against Mario Andretti, Danny Sullivan makes a move to the inside in turn one. Coming out of the turn, the car wiggles, and Sullivan spins a full 360 degrees. Dissolved in a cloud of smoke, the wall is likely the future for both him and Andretti. However, Andretti avoids the spinning Sullivan, and Sullivan rights himself facing turn 2 and is able to continue the race! And oh did he ever, as he would come back from that spin and win the Greatest Spectacle in Racing!
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