Indianapolis 500 Indianapolis 500 Keith Urban to Headline Firestone Legends Day Concert on May 27 Read More INDYCAR Unveils Initial Concept Art for 2018 Car Read More Rossi Receives 'Baby Borg' Trophy following Historic Indy 500 Victory Read More Keith Urban to Headline Firestone Legends Day Concert on May 27 Read More INDYCAR Unveils Initial Concept Art for 2018 Car Read More The Greatest Spectacle in Racing turns 100: The 2016 Indy 500 | Ars Technica The Greatest Spectacle in Racing turns 100: The 2016 Indy 500 Record crowds were on hand to witness one of the fastest races in the world. May 30, 2016 11:30 am UTC Aurich Lawson reader comments Share this story INDIANAPOLIS—When it comes to American sporting traditions, there are few events as storied as the Indianapolis 500. It's a 500-mile test of speed, endurance, and bravery that takes place at the end of May.

It takes place at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a 2.5-mile (4km) race track that's not only the oldest of its kind but also the largest sporting venue anywhere on Earth. And this year's Indy 500 is a special one—it's the race's 100th running. With speeds well in excess of 200mph (321km/h), it's the fastest race on the motorsports calendar, and this year Ars was in attendance along with more than 350,000 other race fans to take in what's often called the greatest spectacle in racing. The Track As we'll see, the cars have changed a lot over the course of those hundred runnings. And the race has gone through good times—with crowds topping 400,000—and bad. There's been innovation and more than its fair share of tragedy. But throughout it all the track has remained a constant. Well, almost. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway was built in 1909 by Carl Fisher, who wanted to create a venue for the nascent American auto industry to test its new-fangled creations.

Initially, all 2.5 miles of the track's surface were made of crushed stone, something that proved conducive to a series of fatal accidents that started with the inaugural car race held on August 19 of that year. As the death toll mounted over the next few days, Fisher and his partners made the wise decision to pave it. They opted for bricks—more than 3.2 million of them—leading locals to dub the speedway "the Brickyard." Eventually, this surface also proved too dangerous for racing, and the track was progressively repaved with asphalt, a process that happened in stages in the late 1930s and then completely in 1961. Today, just a single yard (0.9m for those of you that speak metric) remains at the start-finish line. It's a simple-enough looking circuit: two long straights, two short straights, and four left-hand, banked turns. But racing on it is anything but simple, particularly at more than 200mph for hours at a time. It's also enormous. It's hard to appreciate the scale of the place unless you've been there.

Crowds of 150,000 make it look empty, and it dwarfs every other permanent sporting arena you can think of. The first Indy 500 was held in 1911 over the last weekend in May, a couple of years after the paving was complete. 40 cars were entered, and the technical regulations merely specified that one's engine couldn't be bigger than 600 cubic inches (9.8 liters), and the car had to be capable of at least 75mph (120km/h). That race was won by Ray Harroun's Marmon Wasp, although not without controversy (Ralph Mulford claimed a scoring error meant his car had traveled more distance by the time Harroun crossed the finish line). A tradition was born that day, and ever since—barring interruptions from World Wars—this temple of speed has held its highest and holiest celebration over the weekend that precedes what we now call Memorial Day.

There's room on the grid for just 33 cars, and while it's true that in some years the race has struggled to attract that many (particularly after the disastrous "split" that occurred in 1996 when a breakaway series was formed), in other years the entry list has been massively oversubscribed. In 1984, for example, 117 cars fought it out in the early weeks of May to qualify for those coveted 33 spots. The Technology The starting line-up at the first ever Indianapolis 500 motor race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana, 1911. Front row, left to right: Johnny Aitken (1885 - 1918) in a National car, number 4, Harry Endicott (1883 - 1913) in an Inter-State, car number 3, Ralph DePalma (1882 - 1956) in a Simplex, car number 2 and Lewis Strang (1887 - 1911) in a J.I. Case, car number 1.

Getty Images | Archive Photos Ray Harroun's Marmon Wasp now resides in the track's museum. Jonathan Gitlin The 1931 Cummins Diesel wasn't fast, but it did complete the whole 500 miles without needing to stop to refuel. Jonathan Gitlin 1941's winner is notable for having not one but two drivers. Floyd Davis started the race but the car's owner replaced him on lap 72 with Mauri Rose. Jonathan Gitlin Jim Clark changed Indy for ever in 1965 when he won in the Lotus 38. Front engines were out and never won again. This bright red wedge is the Lotus turbine car. Jonathan Gitlin You don't get paint schemes like this in racing any more. Al Unser first raced this Lola T150 at Indy in 1968, when it had all-wheel drive. That was banned the following year and the car competed again, this time just powering the rear wheels. Neither of those two races were successful for Unser, but he and the car returned in 1970 and this time won it. Jonathan Gitlin Smokey Yunick's pod car.

I think the kids' expressions say it all. Jonathan Gitlin By the early 1970s, the tires were slick and the bodies covered in wings. Jonathan Gitlin Aerodynamics continued to be refined in the 1980s, as speeds rose higher and higher. No team owner has been as successful as "The Captain," Roger Penske. These are some of his winning cars, starting with Mark Donohue's Offy-engined McLaren. Yet more of the Captain's victory machines. The one in the middle is the infamous Penske PC-23, powered by that pushrod Mercedes 500I. Jonathan Gitlin Today's turbocharged, bewinged, mid-engined carbon-fiber creations would be unrecognizable to the contestants from the early days. This is unsurprising, given how much the automobile has evolved in 105 years. The early years featured all manner of machines, some crewed by a driver and mechanic, although Harroun's Marmon Wasp was notable for being a single-seater even back then. But we can define several eras of the race by the cars themselves.

Engine size was the limiting factor at first, being progressively reduced over the first few years as internal combustion technology was refined and speed built up. With 100 races on the books, discussing all the technical innovations over the years would fill a book, but here are some notable standouts. Audi made a lot of waves in 2006 when it won Le Mans with its diesel-powered R10, but diesel engines showed up 75 years earlier, to compete in the 1931 Indy 500. The car was another Duesenberg, this time with a 5.8L Cummins diesel engine up front. This was a reaction to new rules for the race—known as the "junkyard formula"—that encouraged more home-grown mechanics and engineers to enter the race. It wasn't spectacularly fast, but it was frugal; Dale Evans and his riding mechanic Thane Hauser were able to do all 200 laps on a single tank of fuel. The most dominant engine in Indy's history is the four-cylinder Offenhauser.

Designed by Fred Offenhauser and Harry Miller, the engine first showed up at the Brickyard in 1933 but had its roots in a pre-WWI Peugeot engine. Miller had built successful inline eight-cylinder engines for Indy racers in the 1920s, winning for the first time (in a Duesenberg) in 1922. After Miller went broke following the crash of 1929, Offenhauser took over development of his engines, eventually creating the double-overhead cam "Offy." Kelly Petillo first took an Offy to victory lane in 1935. Over the years, cars powered with versions of this engine won a total of 27 times—including every year between 1948 and 1964—with its last win coming in 1976. Those Offy-powered cars that ruled Indy until the 1960s were commonly known as roadsters, and like Harroun's Marmon Wasp, the engine was up front ahead of the driver. But over in Europe there was a revolution going on.

In Formula 1, John Cooper decided to move the engine behind the driver, and the advantages it brought were undeniable; before too long, every F1 car was mid-engined. Cooper brought a car to Indianapolis (which between 1950 and 1960 was actually part of the F1 world championship), and thus the seeds were sown on this side of the Atlantic. Cooper's cars never won the 500, but Colin Chapman's Lotus team—lured by the large winners purse—changed the race forever. Jim Clark drove a mid-engined Lotus to second place in 1963. He probably would have won in 1964 had the car not broken. But he drank the winner's milk the following year, powered to victory by a 4.2L Ford V8. The days of front-engined cars winning the Indy 500 were over. For a brief moment, it looked like the internal combustion engine might go the same way. In 1967, Parnelli Jones blew the opposition away in the STP-Paxton Turbocar—or at least he did until four laps from the end, when a transmission bearing let go.

Designed by Andy Granatelli, the car featured all-wheel drive and a Pratt & Whitney gas turbine engine. The following year, Chapman took up Granatelli's mantle with his Lotus 56 . This also had all-wheel drive and a Pratt & Whitney turbine, wrapped in a wedge-shaped body. Although the Lotus 56 didn't win, it resulted in turbine cars being banned from the race. Few race car builders have pushed the envelope as much as "Smokey" Yunick. In 1959, he took an Offy engine and turned it around, figuring that reversing the torque direction (from counter-clockwise to clockwise, when viewed from the front) would benefit handling on the oval. But his 1964 entrant was far stranger. Known as the capsule car or pod racer, the driver sat in a pod mounted to the left of the chassis. Sadly, the car hit the wall during qualifying and we never got to find out if the idea had legs. By the early 1970s, Indycars—like their F1 cousins—were cornering faster and faster thanks to slick tires and aerodynamic downforce.

Roger Penske's eponymous team was the first to stamp its authority on the slicks-and-wings era starting with Mark Donohue's win in 1972, but it's a much more recent Penske car that really stands out for us. After a careful study of the rules, Penske realized that although everyone was using overhead-cam engines, the traditional American pushrod V8 was still technically eligible. What's more, pushrod V8s were allowed to be bigger (3.4L vs. 2.65L for DOHC V8s) and could also run more boost pressure from their turbochargers. Penske contracted with Mercedes to build just such an engine (the Mercedes 500I) which conservatively made at least 200hp more than the 800hp units built by Ford, Buick, and others. Needless to say, Penske driver Al Unser, Jr won that year's race, the 10th Indy 500 win for the team (which has since gone on to take 1st place another six times).

Today, all 33 cars—and there are just 33—use identical chassis, built by Dallara. Chevrolet and Honda provide the engines and "aero kits"—wings and body panels that visually differentiate the two makes somewhat. The engines are 2.2L turbocharged V6s running on E85 gasoline, good for 550hp (410kW) as a base, although the boost can be increased to 575hp (429kW) up to 10 times during the race via a button on the steering wheel (what we call "push to pass"). They weigh just 1.545lbs (701kg), making them lighter than a current Formula 1, which has more power but also has to carry around a heavy hybrid system. All 33 cars use the same Firestone racing tires. Firestone (now owned by Bridgestone) is something of an Indy tradition itself, having been involved with the race all the way back to 1911. They're made in Akron, Ohio, and the teams will go through 5,000 tires over the month of May.

Each of the four tires on the car is subtly different to one another—the demands made of the front right being different to the front left and so on, and although Firestone's Dale Harrigle wouldn't discuss the specifics of how they compound or construct those tires with Ars, he told us that the lessons it learns on the track do trickle down into the rubber that we use on the street. Speeds are a little slower than the all-time peak, but not by that much. This year, James Hinchcliffe secured pole position in qualifying (when the cars run with as little downforce—and therefore drag—as possible) for Sam Schmidt 's team with a four-lap average of 230.760mph (371.372km/h). It's not bad for a driver who very nearly died in the run up to 2015's race when a part failed, causing the suspension component to pierce the safety cell and impale him.

One Hundred Years of the Indy 500 | History | Smithsonian One Hundred Years of the Indy 500 A century ago, the first Indianapolis 500 race started in high excitement and ended in a muddle The winner of the 1911 Indianapolis 500 averaged about 75 mph, less than half the winning speed in today's race. (William Manning / Corbis) By Charles Leerhsen Smithsonian Magazine | Subscribe June 2011 The men of the early 20th-century motor press sometimes referred to the 13th circuit of an automobile racecourse as “the hoodoo lap,” not because more bad stuff happened then, but because they fervently wished it would. Coming at that point, a wreck would play nicely into the tabloid trope that superstitions are not to be flouted, and it would give a long car race some much-needed narrative cord. And so it was on May 30, 1911, as several dozen reporters leaned forward anxiously to watch the 40-car field for the first-ever Indianapolis 500-mile race power past the starting line for the 12th time and roar yet again into turn one.

From This Story This Is Not Your Father's Automobile They weren’t a bad lot, the newspapermen who had come to the two-year-old Indianapolis Motor Speedway to cover the event, but they required—and by some standards of judgment deserved—all the help they could get. Many by then had been in Indianapolis for a month or more, pumping up the importance of the Speedway and the coming sweepstakes—the longest race ever contested on the track—via the dispatches they filed for their far-flung dailies. They had recorded the arrival of virtually every “sweepstakes pilot” in the race, especially Ray Harroun, driver of the No. 32 Marmon “Wasp,” an Indianapolis-built car and the only single-seater in the race.

(All the other drivers traveled with “riding mechanics,” who manually pumped oil and swiveled their heads constantly to check for oncoming traffic.) They interviewed drop-by celebrities like Detroit Tigers outfielder Ty Cobb and “noted songstress” Alice Lynn, investigated the burgeoning supply of counterfeit $1 general admission tickets, and scrambled for stories about the Indianapolis house cat that “deliberately committed suicide” by jumping from a sixth-story window, the downstate chicken with 14 toes on its left foot and the rumored sightings of a PG-rated pervert known as Jack the Hugger. For men accustomed to doing little more on a workday than walking the length of a boxing ring to ask one toothless man his opinion of another, this was arduous labor. But the 500-mile sweepstakes, when it finally transpired on that surprisingly cool Tuesday morning, wasn’t paying the pressmen back in kind. The race had gotten off to a thrillingly raucous start replete with aerial bombs and a grandstand packed with an estimated 90,000 enthusiasts.

People were excited by the amount of money at stake (the winner’s share would be $10,000, an impressive sum in an era when Cobb, baseball’s highest-paid player, made $10,000 a season) and the danger. (In the downtown saloons you could bet on how many drivers, who wore cloth or leather helmets and had no seat belts or roll bars, might be killed.) But with every mile the story line had become more and more scrambled and the spectators more and more subdued. Those charged with describing the “excitement” to an eager audience of millions were feeling the first damp signs of panic. Like every other lengthy automobile contest these experts on baseball and boxing had ever witnessed, this one was damnably confusing. The auto racing tracks of the day simply did not have the technology to keep track of split times and running order once cars began passing one another and going into and out of the pits. On certain early developments almost everyone could agree. “Happy” Johnny Aitken, in the dark-blue No.

4 National car, had grabbed the early lead, only to be passed, after about seven miles, by Spencer Wishart, a mining magnate’s son driving a squat, gray customized Mercedes said to have cost his daddy $62,000. Eight laps later Wishart (who wore a custom-made shirt and silk tie beneath his overalls) suddenly pitted with a bad tire, leaving the lead to a big brown Knox driven by an unheralded public-school kid from Springfield, Massachusetts, named Fred Belcher. Soon Wishart stormed back onto the course, but into what lap exactly no one, including the judges, could say for certain. The leaders, as mile 30 approached, were starting to lap the stragglers, so the field was a snake eating its own tail. Belcher now found himself running second to a ball of smoke concealing, it was generally believed, the dark red Fiat of 23-year-old David Bruce-Brown, a square-jawed, fair-haired New Yorker from a wealthy merchant family. A class-war theme might be emerging—trust-fund kids versus their working-class counterparts—but then again, perhaps not.

The crowd regained its focus and oohed each time a scoreboard worker indicated a change in running order by manually removing and rehanging the car numbers on their pegs. Still, the denizens of the infield press box—more skeptical than the average fan, and with a better perch—couldn’t help noticing that the Speedway’s four scoreboards were usually not in agreement, and that a crew from the timing department was frantically trying to repair a tripwire that had been snapped by who knows which automobile a lap or two back. (The crew succeeded, but the wire was immediately rebroken.) The Warner Horograph, as the Speedway’s timing system was known, was a ridiculously Rube Goldbergesque device involving miles of wire as well as rolls of paper, typewriter ribbon, springs, hammers, telephones, Dictaphones, marbles and hundreds of human beings. Its sheer complexity was impressive, but the Horograph was utterly useless when it came to recording time and keeping track of races. Given such chaos, was it really so wrong to wish for a spectacular accident that would wipe away the early muddle and allow the beleaguered scribes a second chance at getting a grip on the action?

Of course it was wrong, but moral questions wither in the face of a hoodoo, even one conjured by a coven of pasty-faced, ink-stained hacks. Right on cue, the No. 44 Amplex, a bright red car driven by Arthur Greiner and traveling in mid-pack, lost a tire, though accounts vary as to which. The bare wooden wheel hit the bricks hard, causing Greiner’s auto to swerve crazily and veer into the infield, where it plowed through tall meadow grass and began a somersault, only to stop in mid-maneuver, so that it stood straight up, balancing on its steaming grill. The 27-year-old Greiner was flipped from the cockpit like a shucked oyster, with the steering wheel somehow still in his mitts. Riding mechanic Sam Dickson, meanwhile, remained more or less in his bucket seat, one hand planted on the dashboard, the other clutching a leather side-handle, his only restraining device. This was the sort of heart-stopping moment that only auto racing could provide. If the car fell backward, returning to its three remaining tires, he might get nothing worse than a jolt.

But if it fell forward, it would drive Dickson’s head into the ground like a tent spike. The crowd fell silent. Dickson tensed. The Amplex rocked on its radiator. Sensing disaster, scores of spectators began surging over the fence that separated the track apron from the homestretch. This was a common occurrence in the wake of a potentially fatal accident. So eager were some men, women and children to get a closer look that they would risk their own lives by running across a track teeming with racing machines. In real time, the upended Amplex couldn’t have taken more than a few seconds to fall. And when it did, it fell forward, killing Dickson. As Robert Louis Stevenson once wrote: “There is indeed one element in human destiny that not blindness itself can controvert: whatever else we are intended to do, we are not intended to succeed; failure is the fate allotted.” Dickson’s body was taken with dispatch to the Speedway hospital tent and the race continued without interruption, with the drivers swerving around spectators unable to control their morbid curiosity. Twenty-five minutes later, the invading spectators had been dispersed by Speedway security guards, and the grandstand resumed its distracted rumble.

Standing alone over the wreck of Dickson and Greiner’s race car was a 14- year-old Hoosier named Waldo Wadsworth Gower, who had sneaked into the Speedway the day before and spent the night in the pits. In a letter he wrote in 1959, Gower recalled the piercing sadness brought on by the sight of the mangled auto, reminding him of a similar Amplex he had seen being polished to a high gleam two months before at the American Simplex factory in Mishawaka, Indiana. With “a nice shiny coal oil lantern hung on the radiator cap” and the light “of a bright moon,” he wrote, it had found its way to the city of big dreams. This is all very touching, I thought, while reading the letter, which had been passed along to me by Sam Dickson’s nephew Scott—but I also couldn’t help wonder why this kid was standing in the middle of the infield getting all Proustian instead of watching the race. Gradually, though, as my research deepened, I came to realize that except in moments of crisis very few spectators were following the action.

Newspapers and auto-industry magazines noted that for most of the day many seats in the grandstand, though paid for, went unoccupied, and lines at lavatories and concession stands remained serpentine. Single Page Previous Page 1 of 4 Next 1 2 3 4 Like this article? Indy 500 | Autoweek Indy 500 Juan Pablo Montoya returning to Team Penske for Indy 500 by Autoweek Staff - Juan Pablo Montoya, who drove the past three seasons with Team Penske, will return to Team Penske for the 2017 Indianapolis 500. It is currently the only Verizon IndyCar Series race that the two-time ... Benchmarks: Lotus Evora 400 meets Lotus 38 at Indy Motor Speedway by Ben Barry - Despite years of negligible U.S. sales, the Lotus name still resonates with car fans. Trace the residual fondness back, and one seminal moment jumps out: Scotsman Jim Clark winning the ... Watch vicious crash that sent Bryan Clauson to the hospital by YOUTUBE - Bryan Clauson was involved in a nasty wreck Saturday night in Kansas. He was airlifted to the hospital.

Danica Patrick is rocking it in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, but who's got next? by Matt Weaver - Danica Patrick blasted through a glass ceiling for women in racing in 2012 when she jumped head first into the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.So when will we see other talented female drivers ... David Letterman’s retirement leaves late-night Indy 500 void | USA TODAY Sports send email IndyCar Series owner David Letterman signs an autograph before the 2015 Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. (Andrew Weber, USA TODAY Sports) INDIANAPOLIS — Now that he’s retired, David Letterman isn’t sure how — or if — the Indianapolis 500 winner will be recognized on late-night television. Juan Pablo Montoya won his second Indy 500 on Sunday. The co-owner of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing spoke shortly before his team’s drivers, Graham Rahal and Oriol Servia, took the green flag in the 99th Indy 500. With his retirement from The Late Show with David Letterman on CBS, the race lost a critical stage; Letterman routinely invited the race winner to be a guest on the show.

Letterman, an Indianapolis native whose early career included a stint as a weatherman at local TV station WTHR, says he doesn’t know if the tradition of the Indy 500 winner being acknowledged on late-night TV will continue. “I don’t know,” Letterman said Sunday in the RLL garages. “I came by it naturally, being born here. That’s a good question. I don’t know. I always felt like it was important — forget the fact that I was connected with this team — but I felt it was important. This transcends sport. It’s American culture.” Verizon IndyCar Series spokesman Mike Kitchel said the series has reached out to Letterman’s former competitors, including The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on NBC and Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC, about getting the Indy 500 winner on the shows. Kitchel is awaiting a final answer, but he said the decision depends largely on who wins. MORE: Wheldon’s son growing up in go-karts Both are showing reruns this week, so any appearance won’t happen until at least June 1.

Letterman, who grew up in the Broad Ripple area of Indianapolis’ north side, said the Memorial Day weekends of his youth were filled with flowers and racing. “My father was in the flower business, so on Memorial Day we spent a lot of our time putting together arrangements that would go on graves of the men and women who had lost their lives because they had chosen to defend this country,” Letterman said. “That was the first lesson we learned about Memorial Day. The second lesson was you tuned on the radio and listened to Sid Collins and the Indianapolis 500.” The RLL crew surprised Letterman earlier this week by putting a caricature of his face and the Late Show logo on the sidepods of Servia’s No. 32 Honda. “Of everything that’s happened, that’s the highlight of my career,” Letterman said. “It’s like Andrew Luck wearing ‘Letterman’ across his jersey. It’s crazy. It’s the Indianapolis 500. Regrettably my face — but also my name — will be on that car. It’s just delightful.” Shortly after his final show, items from the Late Show set were thrown into dumpsters outside the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York.

MORE: Indy 500 live blog “Not only did they take the set and tear it up, they took all of the seats out of the theater,” Letterman said. “Two days later. What that does is remind you that it’s show business. It’s just show business. Thirty-three years. What do I care? Let them take the seats out. Let them do anything they want.” Rahal finished fifth. Before the race, Letterman said winning the race would be “both delightful and silly at the same time.” 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500 Indianapolis Motor Speedway - Indianapolis, IN 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500 29May Race Complete About the track With four corners banked at 9 degrees, 12 minutes, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway drives more like a road course than an oval. But each of the corners is different, with weather influencing the car's characteristics. The straightaways are 5/8ths of a mile long -- time to catch your breath and dive into the next corner.

Race Review INDIANAPOLIS (Sunday, May 29, 2016) - On the biggest motorsports stage imaginable, Alexander Rossi picked the perfect day to make unimaginable history before a sellout crowd at Indianapolis Motor Speedway as a worldwide television audience tuned in. The 24-year-old Californian and Verizon IndyCar Series rookie literally coasted across the finish line to win the epic 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil in most memorable fashion. Driving the No. 98 NAPA Auto Parts/Curb Honda, Rossi stretched his last tank of fuel over the final 36 laps around the hallowed 2.5-mile oval, running dry of Sunoco E85R as he entered Turn 4 on the final lap. The car's momentum was enough to carry Rossi across the finish line 4.4975 seconds ahead of teammate Carlos Munoz. In the process, Rossi became the 10th rookie in Indianapolis 500 history to win the race and the first since Helio Castroneves in 2001.

He became a Verizon IndyCar Series winner in just his sixth race and the first to win a race in his debut season since Carlos Huertas in 2014. "I have no idea how we pulled that off," a stunned Rossi admitted in Victory Circle after drinking and then pouring the celebratory bottle of milk over his head. "We struggled a little bit in the pit stops but Bryan (Herta) came up with an unbelievable strategy. I can't believe we've done this!" In yet another thrilling Indianapolis 500 that saw 13 drivers swap the lead 54 times - the second most changes in Indy 500 history (68 in 2013) and seventh most for any Indy car race - Rossi led just 14 laps. The majority of the field, including Rossi, stopped for fuel and tires on Lap 164 during the caution period caused when Takuma Sato's No. 14 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Honda made light contact with the Turn 4 wall. Rossi sat seventh on the Lap 167 restart and bided his time as those ahead of him began to peel off for a splash of fuel in the final 10 laps.

When race leader Munoz had to stop four laps from the completion of the 200-lap event, Rossi inherited the lead and nursed his car home with help of a tow from another Andretti teammate, Ryan Hunter-Reay. Rossi's final lap averaged 179.784 mph, nearly 40 mph slower than the charging Munoz, but he had cushion enough to coast across the famous yard of bricks by the largest margin of victory since the 1996 race. "This is unbelievable," said Herta, whose team merged with Andretti's this year to form Andretti Herta Autosport with Curb-Agajanian and field Rossi, who left the American open-wheel junior ranks for Europe and made five Formula One starts in 2015 before returning to race on home soil. "Man, it was so close at the end," added Herta, Rossi's race strategist.

"For a rookie to drive with the poise he did in such a tough situation - I was telling him, 'Don't let anybody pass you but save fuel' - and he did it." Rossi's deal with Andretti Herta wasn't formalized until a few weeks before the 2016 season opener. His best finish before today was 10th at the Angie's List Grand Prix of Indianapolis on May 14. Now Rossi is an Indianapolis 500 champion and he continues a trend of rookies winning landmark Indy 500s started by Ray Harroun at the first race in 1911 and Graham Hill at the 50th in 1966. "I don't even know where to begin," Rossi said. "In February I wasn't even thinking about Indy car, and now we've just won the Indy 500.

Thanks to an amazing group of people who gave me an opportunity to come here this year." The Indy 500 win was the fourth for Andretti Autosport (Dan Wheldon, 2005; Dario Franchitti, 2007; Hunter-Reay, 2014) and the second for Herta (Wheldon, 2011). "After that last pit stop, I knew that Alex was going to try it," co-owner Michael Andretti said. "We knew then, all right, if he's going to try it, we're going to try different strategies. It really worked out. We had two cars that had a shot at winning with two different strategies. "To be a part of history, to win the 100th running, to win it with a 1-2 finish is incredible. I'm a bit speechless." For Munoz, it marked his second runner-up Indy 500 finish in four tries. The Colombian placed second to Tony Kanaan in 2013 to earn rookie of the year honors.

"I was really disappointed when it comes to fuel (strategy) and you lose the race because of that," the 24-year-old said. "I was really disappointed to get second. Half a lap short, that's what it took." Josef Newgarden finished third in the No. 21 Preferred Freezer Chevrolet for Ed Carpenter Racing. "Today's gut-wrenching just because I think I had a winning car," Newgarden said. "And when you know you have a winning car and you know you can win the thing and you go for it and it doesn't happen because of a strategy call, it's kind of tough." Kanaan was fourth in the No. 10 NTT Data Chevrolet for Chip Ganassi Racing, leading 19 laps. It was the 12th Indy 500 that Kanaan has led, second only to A.J. Foyt's 13. Charlie Kimball, also driving for Ganassi, finished fifth in the No. 42 Tresiba Chevrolet. Defending Indy 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya finished 33rd after crashing his No.

2 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet into the Turn 2 SAFER Barrier on his own on Lap 64. Montoya became just the third reigning winner to finish last at Indy, joining Jimmy Bryan in 1959 and Johnny Rutherford in 1977. "I started making up some ground again and the car was actually pretty good," said Montoya, who started 17th. "I went into (Turn) 2 with a big push and, when I got on the gas, it just came around. It's just disappointing. Our Verizon Chevy was really good. Just a tough day." Hunter-Reay led a race-high 52 laps but had his bid for victory stifled following an incident on pit lane. Teammate Townsend Bell ran into Helio Castroneves on pit road and Bell's car caromed into that of Hunter-Reay, who finished 24th. Championship leader Simon Pagenaud finished 19th to end a three-race win streak. The Team Penske driver saw his points lead trimmed to 57 over Scott Dixon, who finished eighth.

With double points awarded for the race in addition to qualifying points, Pagenaud has 292 to Dixon's 235 after six of 16 races. Castroneves failed for the seventh time to become a four-time Indy 500 winner, finishing 11th and retaining third place in the standings with 224 points. Newgarden vaulted from eighth to fourth in the championship with 211 points. Top Three Positions History of the Indianapolis 500 FacebookEmail Twitter Google+ LinkedIn Pinterest History of the Indianapolis 500 Coined "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing," the Indianapolis 500 has been held annually every year since 1911 except for 1917-18 (World War I) and 1942-45 (World War II). Post to Facebook History of the Indianapolis 500 Coined "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing," the Indianapolis 500 has been held annually every year since 1911 except for 1917-18 (World War I) and 1942-45 (World War II).

Check out this story on USATODAY.com: CancelSend A link has been sent to your friend's email address. Posted! A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. 1 To find out more about Facebook commenting please read the Conversation Guidelines and FAQs History of the Indianapolis 500 None Coined "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing," the Indianapolis 500 has been held annually every year since 1911 except for 1917-18 (World War I) and 1942-45 (World War II). Brian Spurlock, USA TODAY Sports None Thirty-three cars driven to victory in the Indianapolis 500 form the staring grid on the main straight during a photo shoot for the 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Oct. 12, 2010. The front row, from right to left, included the 1911 Marmon "Wasp, driven by Ray Harroun, the 2010 car driven by Dario Franchitti, and the 1961 roadster driven by A.J. Foyt for his first of four Indianapolis 500 wins.

Michael Conroy, AP None Drivers speed into the first turn on the Brickyard during the first Indianapolis 500 on May 30, 1911. The drivers, from left, are Will Jones (9) driving a Case; Joe Jagersberger (8) in a Case; and Louis Disbrow (5) in a Pope-Hartford. AP None Ray Harroun won the first Indianapolis 500 in 1911 driving a Marmon Wasp. Harroun finished with an average speed of 74.602 miles per hour. The Indianapolis Star A view of the famous pagoda at Indianapolis Motor Speedway from the 1913 Indianapolis 500. Indianapolis Motor Speedway None With a crippled engine, Ralph DePalma crosses the finish line to win the 1915 Indy 500 as the checkered flag waves. Another engine failure had stopped him near the end of the 1912 race when DePalma led by at least 10 miles. AP None Tommy Milton pilots over the finish line in his H.C.S.

Special in 1923 to win his second Indy 500 with an average speed of 90.950 miles per hour. Milton also won the 1921 race. AP None Louis Meyer, shown in his Tydol car in 1933, was the first three-time winner of the Indianapolis 500. Meyer won in 1928, '33 and '36. AP None Kelly Petillo, shown with mechanic Jimmie Dunham, won the 1935 race driving a Gilmore Speedway Special. Indianapolis Motor Speedway None Three-time winner Wilbur Shaw poses before the 1936 race. Shaw, who designed his own car, a streamlined comet, won his first Indy 500 in 1937 and won back-to-back races in 1939-40. AP None The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Pagoda, shown here during the 1929 race, had already been expanded and upgraded since its debut 20 years ago.

The Indianapolis Star None After earning his first Indy 500 win in 1941, Mauri Rose won the 1947 race in this Blue Crown Spark Plug Special with an average speed of 116.338 miles per hour. Rose followed his 1947 victory with another win in 1948. AP None A view of the straightaway near the first turn from the stands during the 1946 Indianapolis 500. The Indianapolis Star None Italy's Luigi Chinetti enters the track from the pits for a test run in his Don Lee Alfa-Romeo on May 16, 1948. Gene Herrick, AP None Tragedy struck two-time winner Bill Vukovich, who burned to death in a five car pile-up in the 1955 race. Vukovich, shown here with an unidentified man, was aiming for this third consecutive win after driving to victory in 1953-54. AP None Rodger Ward, holding the family dog, gets a kiss from his wife in victory lane after winning the 1959 race.

Ward, who set a new Indy 500 record with an average speed of 135.857 in his Leader Card 500 Roadster, also holds a bottle of milk, a tradition for Indy winners since 1933. AP None Jack McGrath, driving a Hinkle Special, leads a pack of 33 competitors to the first curve during the 1952 race. AP None Pat Flaherty waves from the winner's circle after winning the 1956 race. Flaherty won while wearing a lucky shamrock decal on his helmet. AP None A.J. Foyt smiles in the garage area after winning his first Indy 500 in 1961. Foyt was the first four-time winner of the race, driving to victory in 1961, '64, '67 and '77. AP None Smoke boils up from burning cars after a fatal pileup at the north end of the main stretch during the 1964 race. On Lap 1, Dave MacDonald skidded into the northwest inside retaining wall and Eddie Sachs crashed into him as both cars exploded.

Sachs was killed on the track and MacDonald later died as well. The race was stopped for 1 hour and 42 minutes as other drivers were injured and burned. The Indianapolis Star None Defending champion Parnelli Jones dives sideways out of his flaming car when it caught fire in the pits, eliminating him from the 1964 race. Jones, who won in 1963, was hospitalized with burns but was not seriously hurt. AP None Crowds stand near the exit to "Gasoline Alley," the garage area at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, to view activities as cars are readied for the 1962 race. AP None Scotland's Jackie Stewart (43) passes his countryman Jimmy Clark (19) and temporarily takes the lead during the 1966 race. However, with only eight laps to go, Stewart dropped out of the race with car trouble. AP None Bobby Unser celebrates after winning the 1968 Indianapolis 500. Unser won the Indy 500 in three different decades, also scoring wins in 1975, and '81. Bobby was the first of three Unsers to win at the Brickyard.

AP None Mario Andretti (1) leads the field at the start of the 1967 race. Andretti would go on to win the Indy 500 in 1969 and was the patriarch of the Andretti IndyCar dynasty with sons Michael and Jeff, nephew John and grandson Marco. AP None Al Unser , younger brother of Bobby, salutes the crowd as he takes the checkered flag in his Johnny Lightning Special to win the 1971. Unser would join Foyt as a four-time winner, with victories in 1970, '71, '78 and '87. AP None Johnny Rutherford waves from his Mc Laren-Offy-T after winning the 1974 race, his first of three victories at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Rutherford also won in 1976 and '80. AP None Janet Guthrie, the first woman to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 in 1977, poses with a toy race car at a news conference in New York City in 1978.

Marty Lederhandler, AP None Gordon Johncock, who won the Indy 500 in 1973 and 1982, prepares to take Janet Guthrie's Wildcat racer for a test drive in 1978. AP None Indy 500 champs (from left) A.J. Foyt, Rick Mears, Danny Sullivan and Al Unser joke with the crowd as they stand along the pit wall at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1988. AP None Rick Mears holds up two fingers to signal his second Indy 500 victory after the 1984 race. Mears won the race four times in total: 1979, '84, '88 and '91. Charlie Bennett, AP None Tom Sneva hits the wall on turn 1 after his right front tire blew out during practice for the 1980 Indy 500. Sneva went on to win the Indianapolis 500 in 1983. Don Larson, AP None Danny Ongais hits the wall in turn 3 on the 64th lap of the 1981 Indianapolis 500.

Ongais was hospitalized with multiple fractures. AP None The race car of three-time Indy 500 champion Johnny Rutherford disintegrates as it flies along the wall on turn 3 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1990. Rutherford suffered a concussion in the incident. Steve Weaver, AP None Emerson Fittipaldi's crew members jump from the pit wall after Fittipaldi drove to victory in the 1993 Indianapolis 500. The former Formula One champion won his first Indy 500 in 1989. Tom Strickland, AP None Al Unser Jr., right, celebrates with car owner Roger Penske after winning the 1994 race. Two years earlier, Unser Jr. became the third member of the Unser family to capture an Indy 500 title. Al Behrman, AP None Arie Luyendyk leads Robbie Buhl and the rest of the field into turn 1 on his way to his second Indy 500 victory in 1997. Luyendyk won his first Indy 500 race in 1990.

Tom Strattman, AP None Canada's Jacques Villeneuve raises his fist while holding the winner's bottle of milk in victory lane after winning the 1995 Indianapolis 500. Al Behrman, AP None Tony Stewart leads the field during the restart of the 1997 Indy 500. The race was resumed on lap 16 after two days of rain allowed only 15 laps to be completed on Memorial Day. Arie Luyendyk is running second. Tom Strattman, AP None Eddie Cheever crosses the finish line to win the 82nd running of the Indianapolis 500 in 1998. Chuck Robinson, AP None Lyn St. James jokes with fans after practicing for the 1996 Indianapolis 500. In 1992, St. James became the first woman to win the Indy 500 Rookie of the Year award. Tom Strattman, AP None Stan Fox, his legs exposed, sits in his airborne car after the front end was torn off while slamming into the first turn wall on the opening lap of the 1995 Indianapolis 500.

Fox's legs were uninjured, but he was hospitalized with serious head injuries. Martin Seppala, AP None Juan Pablo Montoya, of Colombia, hoists a bottle of milk in victory lane while standing in front of the Borg-Warner Trophy as crew members help celebrate his win in the 2000 Indy 500. Al Behrman, AP None Helio Castroneves climbs the front stretch of fence with his teammates after winning the 2009 Indianapolis 500. Castroneves, a three-time winner, also won back-to-back races in 2001-02. Robert Laberge, Getty Images None Actress Ashley Judd congratulates her husband Dario Franchitti after he won the 2007 Indy 500. Franchitti won the race again in 2010 and 2012. Tom Russo, AP An aerial view of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Handout None Danica Patrick talks with her father, T.J. Patrick, after she finished third in the 2009 Indianapolis 500.

In 2005, Patrick became the first woman to lead a lap during the Indy 500. Tom Strickland, AP None Mike Conway's car goes airborne and crashes into a wall between the third and fourth turn in the last lap of the 2010 Indianapolis 500. The English driver sustained leg, ankle, foot and back injuries. Kerry Keating, The Indianapolis Star None The gold centennial brick stands on the row of bricks at the start-finish line as Scott Dixon passes by on pit lane during practice for the 2011 race. Dixon won the Indy 500 in 2008. Greg Griffo, The Indianapolis Star None Dan Wheldon dumps the traditional bottle of milk over his head after winning his second Indianapolis 500 in 2011. Wheldon, who won his first Indy 500 in 2005, died after a crash in the 2011 IndyCar season finale in Las Vegas. Darron Cummings, AP None The U.S. Postal Service honored the Indianapolis 500 with this stamp, a design which is included in the 2011 U.S.

postage stamps collection. US Postal Service handout via AP None Takuma Sato, right, spins in Turn 1 of the final lap while Dario Franchitti safely drives by en route to winning the 2012 Indy 500. Bill Friel, AP None Dario Franchitti, center, celebrates with wife Ashley Judd and his crew after winning his third Indy 500 on May 27, 2012. Darron Cummings, AP None The Borg-Warner Trophy, on display at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 19, 2012, is given to the winner of the Indianapolis 500. Michael Hickey, USA TODAY Sports None After 12 starts and three top-3 finishes, Tony Kanaan finally won the Indianapolis 500 in 2013. Brian Spurlock, USA TODAY Sports None A day after his 2014 win, Ryan Hunter-Reay poses for photos as his son Ryden waves a flag. Brian Spurlock, USA TODAY Sports Like this topic?

You may also like these photo galleries: Replay First Indianapolis 500 held - May 30, 1911 - HISTORY.com First Indianapolis 500 held Publisher A+E Networks On this day in 1911, Ray Harroun drives his single-seater Marmon Wasp to victory in the inaugural Indianapolis 500, now one of the world’s most famous motor racing competitions. The Indiana automobile dealer Carl Fisher first proposed building a private auto testing facility in 1906, in order to address car manufacturers’ inability to test potential top speeds of new cars due to the poorly developed state of the public roadways. The result was the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, built on 328 acres of farmland five miles northwest of downtown Indianapolis. The idea was that occasional races at the track would pit cars from different manufacturers against each other in order to showcase their full power and entice spectators to check out the new models themselves. In 1911, Fisher and his partners decided to focus on one long race per year, as opposed to numerous shorter events, in order to attract more publicity. The purse for the grueling 500-mile race would be the richest in racing.

On May 30, 1911, 40 cars lined up at the starting line for the first Indy 500. A multi-car accident occurred 13 laps into the race, and the ensuing chaos temporarily disrupted scoring, throwing the finish into dispute when the eventual runner-up, Ralph Mulford, argued that he was the rightful winner. It was Ray Harroun, however, who took home the $14,250 purse, clocking an average speed of 74.59 mph and a total time of 6 hours and 42 minutes. The Wasp was the first car with a rear-view mirror, which Harroun had installed in order to compensate for not having a mechanic in the seat next to him to warn of other cars passing. Impressive as it was, Harroun’s 1911 speed would have finished him 10th in the 1922 Indy 500. Barely a decade later, nearly all the cars that started in the race were smaller, lighter, more efficient and far more expensive than consumer cars.

Their aerodynamic bodies featured narrow grills and teardrop-shaped tails; knock-off wire wheels made for quick, efficient tire changes; and the new straight-sided tires lasted much longer than their early pneumatic counterparts. The best cars were equipped with four-wheel hydraulic brakes and inline 3.0-liter V-8 engines made of aluminum. By the mid-1920s, the Indy 500 had become what it is today–a high-paying event for the world’s most expensive cars. Related Videos

Question: What are raced in the Indianapolis 500?
Answer: Cars