This article discusses the year-by-year history of the Indianapolis 500 race.
Years
1909–1910 The first motorcycle and automobile races and demonstration runs are held the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in August 1909. After a series of accidents, the original surface of crushed stone and tar is deemed unsuitable for racing. In the fall of 1909, the entire track is paved in brick, immediately giving the track the nickname "The Brickyard." An exhibition meet is held in December 1909, and racing meets are held throughout the summer of 1910.
See Indianapolis Motor Speedway race results
1911–1919 1911: A historic event in the history of American automobile racing. After two years hosting multiple race meets, the Speedway management decided from 1911 onward to conduct one major racing event per year. With the then-fantastic marathon distance of 500 miles, and a substantial purse, 40 cars qualify. Ray Harroun, an engineer for the Marmon Co. receives the checkered flag at an average speed of just over 74 mph. The inaugural "International 500-Mile Sweepstakes" is a rousing success, and becomes an annual Memorial Day tradition, and eventually grows to become one of the most important automobile races in the world.
1912: Ralph DePalma's Mercedes breaks its connecting rod after leading 196 laps. Joe Dawson, in a National, wins after leading the only 2 laps of his Indy career. No driver has ever matched DePalma's 196 fruitless laps in the lead, (only not being in the lead for the first two and the last two laps) and only Billy Arnold's 198 lap domination of the 1930 race tops DePalma's time at the front; Dawson's 2 laps led by a winner would be the fewest recorded by a winner until 2011.
1913: A five-story, wooden pagoda-style timing and scoring tower on the inside of the main straightaway gives the Speedway an enduring landmark; the style reflects Speedway President Carl Fisher's apparent interest in Oriental architecture. French born Jules Goux drinks six bottles of champagne on his way to a record 13-minute, 8-second victory over second place Spencer Wishart. He averages approximately 10 miles per gallon of fuel – and an unknown quantity of champagne per stop. Goux's victory is the first race, excluding the first, won by a rookie driver.
1914: France takes its second consecutive 500 victory, this time with René Thomas, the first occasion for consecutive rookie winners. Also, in a technological breakthrough, inaugural race winner Ray Harroun, in charge of the United States Motor Company team, develops a fuel-sipping carburetor that runs on kerosene. Driver Willie Carlson's Maxwell chassis proceeds to run the race to an eventual ninth-place finish on a mere 30 gallons; with the price at $0.06 a gallon, Carlson's total $1.80 fuel bill stands as the most economical performance in motor racing history.
1915: Ralph DePalma's Mercedes again begins to slow with connecting rod problems late in the race. This time though he makes it to the finish to win.
1916: Dario Resta wins the race, which was shortened to 300 miles (500 km) due to the ongoing war in Europe. The field of 21 cars is the smallest ever. Later in the year, the Harvest Auto Racing Classic is also held.
1917–1918: Race is not held on account of World War I. Other tracks continue to host smaller events, but Indianapolis voluntarily suspends the race. Though closed to racing, the Speedway is used as an airstrip, serving as a fuel stop between Air Force bases in Dayton, Ohio and Rantoul, Illinois.
1919: With the track reopened after the war, local Indiana-born driver Howdy Wilcox wins the race. There are 19 rookies who start this year's race, the most newcomers in one Indy 500 field (if one discounts the "all-rookie" field of 1911).
1920–1929 1920: Ralph DePalma suffers another heartbreaking mishap when his magneto fails with 14 laps to go while leading. Gaston Chevrolet takes over the lead and goes on to win. Six months later, Chevrolet is fatally injured in a race at Beverly Hills. He becomes the first '500' winner to die.
1921: Tommy Milton, Gaston Chevrolet's replacement on the Frontenac team, drives through the field from 20th starting position to win his first '500'. Ralph DePalma again dominates the first half of the race, only to suffer mechanical failure. DePalma's career record total of 612 laps led will stand for the next 66 years.
1922: Jimmy Murphy is the first driver to win the race from the pole position.
1923: Despite suffering loss of circulation and blistering in his hands due to shrinkage of his tight-fitting, 'White Kid' gloves, Tommy Milton becomes the first driver to win the race twice (Milton was relieved by Howdy Wilcox for laps 103–151).
1924: Lora L. Corum's car is taken over by Joe Boyer, who goes on to win. Corum wins without leading a single lap in his racing career at Indianapolis, the first driver to do so.
1925: The race is won by Ralph DePalma's nephew, and former riding mechanic, Peter DePaolo. Depaolo was the first to average over on his way to victory. The race was part of the 1925 World Manufacturers' Championship.
1926: Twenty-three-year-old racing sensation Frank Lockhart wins the race as a rookie. He is the first winner born in the 20th century. Rain hampered the race, and it was called at the 400-mile mark. The race was part of the 1926 World Manufacturers' Championship.
1927: Rookie George Souders wins by eight laps, the largest margin since 1913; consecutive rookie winners occurs for the second time. Many racing pundits view Souders' race as the most surprising, 'longest-shot' 500-Mile Race win in history until 1987. Souders becomes the first driver to win the full-500-mile race solo, with neither any relief help, nor a riding mechanic. The race was part of the 1927 World Manufacturers' Championship.
1928: Jimmy Gleason has a good lead when he stops for water for the radiator on lap 195. A crew member misses the radiator and douses the car's magneto. Gleason is out and Louis Meyer wins. The race was part of the 1928 World Manufacturers' Championship.
1929: Louis Meyer stalls on his final pitstop, handing the race to Ray Keech, who is killed in a racing crash just two weeks after the '500'.
1930–1939 1930: Billy Arnold takes the lead on lap three and is never challenged again. Arnold's 198 laps led in a race has never been bettered.
1931: 1930 winner Billy Arnold is 5 laps ahead on lap 162 when his rear axle breaks and Arnold crashes. His wheel flies over a fence and hits and kills 12-year-old Wilbur C. Brink, who is sitting in his garden on Georgetown Road. Arnold and his mechanic are injured. Louis Schneider leads the remaining laps.
1932: Fred Frame wins the race from 27th starting position, and is the eighth different leader of the race, a record at the time.
1933: The largest field to date with 42 starters. Louis Meyer wins after one of the most violent races ever, with five drivers or mechanics killed and several others seriously injured. The standard Victory Banquet after the race is not held, and the predominance of safety as chief concern for race organizers begins 'in force'. Prior to the 1933 race, Howdy Wilcox II (no relation to the 1919 winner) was disqualified when officials found out that he was a diabetic.
1934: Bill Cummings wins by 27 seconds from Mauri Rose, the closest ever finish at the time.
1935: The newly introduced yellow 'caution' light, requiring drivers to slow and hold position, makes its first appearance in race, to eventual race winner Kelly Petillo's advantage as many of the late laps are disrupted by rain, neutralising Petillo's race long battle with Rex Mays and Wilbur Shaw.
1936: Louis Meyer becomes the first driver to win a third time, drink milk (in actuality buttermilk) in Victory Lane, receive the Borg-Warner Trophy, and also receive the pace car as one of his prizes.
1937: Wilbur Shaw leads most of the way but must slow late on to conserve engine oil. Ralph Hepburn catches Shaw in turn 4 on the final lap, but Shaw steps on the gas and pulls away to win by 2.16 seconds – the closest finish at that time.
1938: Floyd Roberts, driving the ill-fated Burd Piston Ring Special, dominates to win by three laps.
1939: Defending winner Floyd Roberts, driving the same car he drove into victory circle in 1938, dies in a crash coming off the second turn onto the backstretch on lap 107. Wilbur Shaw wins his second 500, driving a Maserati. Interesting fact: The Maserati used by Wilbur Shaw was also used by Bill Vukovich to accomplish his rookie test at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. George Bailey became the first driver to compete with a rear-engined car in the Indianapolis 500 when he contested the 1939 race in a Gulf-Miller.George Bailey, indymotorspeedway.com Retrieved May 26, 2016
1940–1949 1940: Wilbur Shaw becomes the second three-time winner and the first to win two in a row in the same Maserati he drove to victory the previous year. The last quarter of the distance is run under the caution flag due to rain.
1941: A fire on race morning destroys part of the garage area and one of the qualified cars. The start is delayed by one hour because of the fire. Wilbur Shaw dominates again, but on lap 152, a wheel collapses, sending Shaw's car into the first turn wall. The wheel is believed to have been one Shaw identified before the race as faulty, and had marked it as not to be used. Water from the hoses battling the garage fire apparently washed off the markings and the wheel was put on during the last pit stop. Mauri Rose, whose pole-winning Maserati dropped out early, took over teammate Floyd Davis's car on lap 72 and drove up through the pack to win. This was the second and last time to date that there were co-winners.
1942–1945: The Speedway is shut down for the duration of World War II—almost. Sometime in late autumn of 1944, Wilbur Shaw participates in a special tire test for Firestone at the track. He is dismayed by the condition of the facility, and, after talking to track owner Eddie Rickenbacker, sets out single-handedly to find a buyer to rejuvenate the speedway. On November 14, 1945, Tony Hulman purchases the track and begins a six-month crash renovation program to revive the 500-mile race in 1946.
1946: The first post-war '500' is a box-office smash, with massive traffic jams of spectators still entering the gates long after the race starts. Most of the race cars show the effects of sitting unused for almost five years, and mechanical attrition is extremely heavy. George Robson, driving a nine-year-old Thorne Engineering Special Sparks, survives the attrition to win by 44 seconds over rookie Jimmy Jackson.
1947: Mauri Rose and rookie teammate Bill Holland dominate the race in their twin Blue Crown Spark Plug Specials. Holland, who is well ahead in the late stages, obeys a pit signal to slow down and preserve the car for the finish. Rose gets the same signal, but continues to charge ahead and overtakes Holland with seven laps to go. Rose goes on to win, to the dismay of Holland, who thought he had been a lap ahead. A pre-race dispute between track management and a drivers association results in only 30 cars lining up on race day, instead of the usual 33.
1948: Rose and Holland repeat their one-two performance of the previous year, this time without the controversy. Ted Horn finishes fourth in Wilbur Shaw's old Maserati, completing a run of nine consecutive races in which he is fourth or better, although he never wins.
1949: After pole-sitter Duke Nalon crashes out spectacularly in the Novi, the race settles down to a repeat of 1947, only this time Bill Holland won't be caught napping. Mauri Rose tries to catch him anyway, but a broken magneto strap takes him out of second place with eight laps remaining. Holland cruises home the winner. It's the last victory for a front-wheel drive car at Indianapolis.
1950–1959