The inaugural race was held in 1911 and won by Ray Harroun. The event was put on hiatus twice: from 1917 to 1918 due to World War I and from 1942 to 1945 due to World War II. Between 1925 and 1928 the race was part of the World Manufacturers' Championship, and between 1950 and 1960 it was part of the World Drivers' Championship. Álex Palou won the 2025 running. The most successful drivers all-time are A. J. Foyt, Al Unser, Rick Mears, and Hélio Castroneves, each with four victories. Rick Mears holds the record for most career pole positions with six, and Scott Dixon holds the record for most career laps led. The most successful car owner is Roger Penske, whose Team Penske has 20 total wins.
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway complex was built in 1909 as a gravel-and-tar track. The first long-distance event — the 100-lap Prest-O-Lite Trophy in 1909 — was won by Bob Burman in a Buick. The breakup of the track surface led to fatal accidents, persuading principal owner Carl G. Fisher to spend $155,000 repaving the track with 3.2 million bricks and adding a 33-inch concrete wall around the circumference. Ray Harroun won the 200-mile Wheeler-Schebler Trophy on the newly paved circuit in 1910.
The track owners subsequently settled on 500 miles as the race distance — the estimated distance a race car could run before dark — and offered a purse of $25,000. The first "500" was held on Decoration Day, 30 May 1911, run to a 600-cubic-inch maximum engine size formula with a field of 40 starters. Ray Harroun, piloting a Marmon Model 32-based Wasp racer outfitted with his invention the rear-view mirror, was declared the winner. Eighty thousand spectators attended. In 1912, the purse was raised to $50,000 and the field was limited to 33 starters, the number that remains to this day.
Engine size limits shrank progressively through the 1920s: 183 cu in (1920–1922), 122 cu in (1923–1925), and 91 cu in (1926–1929). Gaston Chevrolet won the 1920 race in a Frontenac powered by the first eight-cylinder engine to win the 500. In 1925, Pete DePaolo became the first winner at an average speed over 100 mph, recording 101.13 mph.
Engineer Harry Miller became the dominant builder of the post-World War I era, creating his own cars powered by supercharged 2.0- and 1.5-liter engines. After Miller, his former employees Fred Offenhauser and Leo Goossen achieved their first win with the four-cylinder Offenhauser engine in 1935. The Offenhauser, or "Offy," recorded a total of 27 wins — a record — and won 18 consecutive years between 1947 and 1964.
After purchasing the Speedway in 1927, Eddie Rickenbacker prohibited supercharging and raised the displacement limit to 366 cu in while also reintroducing the riding mechanic.
European manufacturers made a brief return before World War II with the Maserati 8CTF, allowing Wilbur Shaw to become the first driver to win consecutively at Indianapolis, in 1939 and 1940 — the only Indy 500 victories by fully Italian cars as of 2025. During the World Drivers' Championship years (1950–1960), Alberto Ascari appeared in 1952 in a Ferrari — the only time a Ferrari has ever entered the race. Juan Manuel Fangio practiced at the track in 1958 but declined to race. One-time world champion Giuseppe Farina failed to qualify for both the 1956 and 1957 races. Five-time world champion Fangio also failed to qualify in 1958.
Technical innovator Colin Chapman brought Team Lotus to Indianapolis in 1963, attracted by prize money far larger than European events. Racing a mid-engined car, Scotsman Jim Clark finished second in 1963, was dominant until suspension failure on lap 47 in 1964, and completely dominated the 1965 race — giving the 4.2-liter Ford V8 its first Indy victory and interrupting the Offy's run of success. In 1966, Graham Hill won in a Lola-Ford.
The Offenhauser was also paired with McLaren chassis, yielding three wins: 1972 with Mark Donohue for the Penske team, then 1974 and 1976 with Johnny Rutherford for the McLaren works team — the last Offy victories before its competitive decline.
As of 2025, the most recent active Formula One driver to have entered the 500 is Fernando Alonso, who drove in the 2017 race — the first Formula One driver to enter while competing in F1 since Teo Fabi in 1984.
Brazilian Emerson Fittipaldi, Italian Teo Fabi, Colombian Roberto Guerrero, and Dutchman Arie Luyendyk achieved good outings in the 1980s. In 1993, reigning Formula One World Champion Nigel Mansell left F1 for CART, finishing third at Indianapolis while winning the 1993 CART championship.
In 2000, Juan Pablo Montoya dominated the race for Target Chip Ganassi Racing, leading 167 of 200 laps. Hélio Castroneves won for Penske Racing in 2001 and repeated in 2002.
In 1994, Speedway owner Tony George announced plans for a new Indy Racing League with the Indy 500 as its centrepiece. For 1996, 25 of the 33 starting positions were reserved for top IRL points earners, effectively excluding most CART regulars. CART boycotted and staged a competing event — the U.S. 500 at Michigan — on the same day. Veteran Buddy Lazier won a crash-filled 1996 Indy 500. For 1997, IRL rules mandated equipment incompatible with CART machinery; no CART teams entered for the next three years. By 2003, Ganassi, Penske and Andretti Green had permanently defected to the IRL, and CART went bankrupt. The two series were unified in early 2008 into the IndyCar Series, ending a 12-year split.
In 2009, the Speedway began a three-year "Centennial Era" celebrating the 100th anniversary of the track opening and the 100th running of the race. In 2016, the race celebrated its 100th running with approximately 350,000 in attendance. That same year PennGrade became the first presenting sponsor, ending a near-century tradition of no naming rights. The 100th running was also the first sellout since 1950, permitting the Indianapolis affiliate WRTV to broadcast the race live for the first time since that year.
The Indianapolis 500 is held on a 2.5-mile oval circuit — a rounded rectangle with four identical turns connected by two long straightaways and two short chutes. Traditionally 33 starters line up in eleven rows of three. Drivers race 200 laps counter-clockwise for 500 miles. The race is never held in wet conditions due to aquaplaning safety concerns; officials may declare a race official if more than 101 laps have been completed. The circuit has no lighting, making daylight a limiting factor in lengthy delays.
As of 2020, all entrants use 2.2-liter V6 twin-turbocharged engines producing 550–750 horsepower. Chevrolet and Honda are the current engine manufacturers; Dallara is the sole chassis supplier; Firestone — present since the first 500 — is the exclusive tyre provider.
The permanent seating capacity is roughly 235,000, with infield patrons raising typical race-day attendance to between 350,000 and 400,000. Roughly 12,500 personnel are mobilised during race weekend. The total purse exceeded $13 million in 2011, with over $2.5 million awarded to the winner.
The current four-lap qualifying format was first introduced in 1920 and has been used every year since 1939. Qualifying is spread across two days: on Saturday all entrants are guaranteed at least one attempt and the fastest twelve advance to a shootout; on Sunday drivers from positions 31–33 re-qualify and the top six from Saturday's shootout compete for the Firestone Fast Six, with the fastest driver winning pole position.
The Purdue All-American Marching Band has been the host band since 1919. In 1946, operatic tenor James Melton started the tradition of singing "Back Home Again in Indiana" with the Purdue Band before the race, a request made on the spur of the moment by Speedway president Tony Hulman. Actor and singer Jim Nabors performed the song from 1972 until 2014. Jim Cornelison has performed it since 2017.
The milk tradition dates to 1933, when Louis Meyer requested buttermilk after his second win. After his third win in 1936 he was photographed drinking from a bottle, and a dairy company executive offered milk to future winners. Milk has been presented every year since, apart from 1947 to 1955; modern drivers choose among whole, 2%, and skim. At the 1993 race, winner Emerson Fittipaldi notoriously drank orange juice instead of milk during the televised winner's interview, leading to sustained booing at subsequent events.
The Borg-Warner Trophy, introduced in 1936, is awarded to the race winner.
Since 1993, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte has been scheduled on the same evening as the Indy 500. John Andretti, Tony Stewart, and Robby Gordon have attempted the feat. In 2001, Tony Stewart became the first and, to date, only driver to complete the full 1,100 miles of both races on the same day. Kyle Larson attempted the double in 2024 and 2025; in both years he was unable to complete it.
A. J. Foyt and Mario Andretti are the only drivers to have won both the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500. Foyt additionally won the 24 Hours of Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans — the latter in 1967, approximately one month after winning his third Indy 500. In 2010, Chip Ganassi became the first car owner to win the Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500 in the same year, with Jamie McMurray winning at Daytona and Dario Franchitti winning at Indianapolis.
Female reporters were not permitted in the pit area until 1971. Nine women have qualified for the race, starting with Janet Guthrie in 1977. Sarah Fisher has competed nine times, the most of any woman. Danica Patrick holds the best finish for a woman (third) and is the only woman to have led laps during the race. Katherine Legge is the most recent woman to compete (2024) and holds the fastest one-lap (231.627 mph) and four-lap (231.070 mph) qualification speeds for a woman in race history.
Radio coverage dates back to 1922; live radio broadcast by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network has continued since 1953. The Hulmans did not allow live television coverage until 1986. From 1986 through 2018, ABC televised the race live in its entirety. In 2019, coverage moved to NBC as part of a three-year contract unifying IndyCar television rights, ending ABC's 54-year tenure. Fox Sports took over rights beginning in 2025.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
Gallery · 4 related images
