The 78th Indianapolis 500 was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Sunday, May 29, 1994. The race was sanctioned by United States Auto Club (USAC), and was included as race number 4 of 16 of the 1994 PPG IndyCar World Series. For the second year in a row, weather was not a factor during the month. Only one practice day was lost to rain, and pole day was only partially halted due to scattered showers. Warm, sunny skies greeted race day. Al Unser Jr. won the race from the pole position, his second of two Indy 500 victories (1992, 1994).
Much to the surprise of competitors, media, and fans, Marlboro Team Penske arrived at the Speedway with a brand new, secretly-built displacement Ilmor Mercedes-Benz pushrod engine, which was capable of nearly . Despite reliability issues with the engine and handling difficulties with the chassis, the three-car Penske team (Al Unser Jr., Emerson Fittipaldi and Paul Tracy) dominated most of the month, and practically the entire race. It marked the second of two Indy 500 victories (as of 2024) by a car powered by a Mercedes-Benz engine.
Though Al Unser Jr. won the pole position, two-time former winner (1989, 1993) Emerson Fittipaldi dominated most of the race. Fittipaldi led 145 laps (of 200), and at one point, had lapped the entire field. Fittipaldi was seeking his third Indy win and was also attempting to become the first back-to-back winner at Indy since Al Unser Sr. in 1970–1971. On lap 185, Fittipaldi was leading the race, and was jockeying with teammate Al Unser Jr. (who was running second). Fittipaldi was trying to put Unser a lap down before he headed to the pits for a last-minute splash of fuel. Fittipaldi tagged the wall in turn 4, which handed the lead to Unser with 15 laps to go. Unser was able to stretch his fuel and cruise to victory over rookie Jacques Villeneuve. Al Unser Jr. joined his father Al Sr. and uncle Bobby as winners of multiple 500s at Indianapolis.
The race marked the final Indy 500 for both Fittipaldi and Mario Andretti (who retired at the end of the 1994 season). Fittipaldi would fail to qualify for the 1995 race, then was part of CART's boycott of the 1996 race. Two months later, he suffered career-ending injuries in a crash at Michigan, and subsequently retired. In addition, Indy veterans Al Unser Sr. and Johnny Rutherford both announced their retirements in the days leading up to the race. John Andretti, who had left CART and moved to the NASCAR Winston Cup Series, became the first driver to race in both the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the same day, an effort that has become known as "Double Duty". This was also the second and final Indy 500 for Nigel Mansell, who was knocked out of the race in a bizarre crash with Dennis Vitolo.
Background Nigel Mansell went on to win the 1993 CART championship, with 1993 Indy 500 winner Emerson Fittipaldi finishing second in points. Mansell returned to team up again with Mario Andretti at Newman Haas. Andretti embarked on a yearlong Arrivederci Mario tour, announcing he would retire at the conclusion of the 1994 CART season. The 1994 race would be his 29th and final start at Indy. Fittipaldi remained at Penske Racing, which expanded to a three-car effort for 1994, including Al Unser Jr. and Paul Tracy. Unser parted ways with Galles after a six-year stint, and was replaced there with rookie Adrián Fernández.
After a dismal season in Formula One, Michael Andretti returned to Indy car racing for 1994, signing with Ganassi. Andretti won the season opening Australian Grand Prix at Surfers Paradise. It was the first Indy car win for Ganassi, as well as the first win for the Reynard chassis (in its Indy car debut). Rahal-Hogan Racing, with drivers Bobby Rahal and Mike Groff, debuted the first Honda Indy car engine, the iron block Honda HRX Indy V-8.
Chevrolet dropped its support of the Ilmor engine program at Indy after 1993. For 1994, the 265C, the 265 C+, and 265D V-8 powerplants were badged the "Ilmor Indy V8".
After Michael Andretti won the season opener, Marlboro Team Penske won the next two races before Indy. Emerson Fittipaldi and Al Unser Jr. finished 1–2 at Phoenix, then Al Unser Jr. won at Long Beach.
Jim Nabors returned to sing the traditional "Back Home Again in Indiana" just months after receiving a liver transplant. Nabors had suffered a near-fatal case of Hepatitis B, which caused liver failure. Initially it was not expected that he would be able to attend the race in person.
Six days before opening day, the worldwide motorsports community was shaken by the death of Ayrton Senna at San Marino. Indy drivers Emerson Fittipaldi, Raul Boesel, and Maurício Gugelmin, were among those in attendance at the funeral, all three serving as pall-bearers.
Mercedes-Benz 500I
The most notable off-season activity involved Penske Racing and Ilmor. In the summer and fall of 1993, Penske and Ilmor engaged in a new engine project. Under complete secrecy, a purpose-built, V-8 pushrod engine was developed. Mercedes eventually came on board with the project and badged the engine the Mercedes-Benz 500I. The engine was designed to exploit a perceived loophole that had existed in USAC's rulebook since 1991. While CART sanctioned the rest of the IndyCar season, the Indianapolis 500 alone was conducted by USAC under slightly different technical regulations.
In an effort to appeal to mainstream car companies and smaller independent engine builders (both primarily based in the U.S.), USAC permitted traditional, "stock block" pushrod engines (generally defined as production-based, non-overhead cam units fitted with two valves per cylinder actuated by pushrod and rocker arm). Stock blocks saw some limited use at Indy in the early 1980s but by 1985 had become mainstream with the Turbo Buick V-6. Attempting to create an equivalency formula with the more conventional, 32-valve, dual overhead cam V-8 engines (commonly referred to as the "quadcams"), USAC allowed the stock blocks increased displacement, as well as increased turbocharger boost of 55 inHG instead of 45 (1860 hPa instead of 1520). This rule made the Buick V-6 (and its successor the Menard V-6) attractive to the smaller, "Indy-only" teams, that could not acquire or afford the DOHC V-8 powerplants such as the Chevy-Ilmor or the Ford-Cosworth XB. CART also allowed the "stock block" engines. However, they did not permit them to use the increased turbo boost, rendering them uncompetitive. Thus the Buick V-6 was rarely used in CART races, although a detuned version was used in Indy Lights for several years.
Initially, stock blocks at Indy were required to have some factory production-based parts. For instance, the aforementioned Buick was based on the Buick V-6 passenger car engine. However, in 1991 USAC quietly lifted this requirement allowing purpose-built pushrod engines to be designed for racing from the ground up. USAC allowed these pushrod engines an increased displacement of instead of , and the same increased turbocharger boost of 55 inHG allowed by the V-6 stock blocks. Privateer Greenfield Racing built one of the first pushrod engines to these new specifications. However, that engine never got up to speed during practice, and never made a qualifying attempt.
Team Penske and Ilmor tested and further developed their pushrod engine in complete secrecy during the fall of 1993 and into the spring of 1994. The team went so far as plowing several feet of snow off of Nazareth Speedway (a track which was owned by Roger Penske at the time) for a private test. The team was in such desperate need of on-track reliability testing, they conducted the session despite frigid temperatures, tall snow banks on the sides of the track, and the engine sounds in the earshot of rival Mario and Michael Andretti's homes.
Before Mercedes-Benz joined the effort, the engine was initially called the "Ilmor 265-E" which followed Ilmor's standard naming convention for their previous DOHC racing engines. This was ostensibly to maintain in-house secrecy of the pushrod project from those working within Penske and at Ilmor who were not apprised or involved. Some plans and specification sheets send to parts manufacturers were even labeled "Pontiac" - an attempt to divert suspicion by third-party parts manufacturers by attributing and implying the orders were for Penske South Racing, their NASCAR unit. During testing, driver Emerson Fittipaldi, so impressed by its raw power, nicknamed the engine the "Beast", a moniker which became synonymous with the engine. The 500I was mated with the race-winning Penske chassis, the PC-23. It was introduced to the public in April, just days before opening day at Indy. Rumors quickly began to circulate that the engine, more refined than the Buick V-6 and having two more cylinders, was capable of over , which was a 150-200 hp advantage over its competition.
Track improvements During the off-season, the pit area was repaved. The individual pit boxes were changed to concrete, while the entrance and exit lanes were widened and repaved in asphalt.
A new scoring pylon was erected on the main stretch, replacing the landmark originally built in 1959.
Race schedule Race schedule – April/May 1994SunMonTueWedThuFriSat24 25 26 27 28 29ROP30ROP 1ROP 2 3 4 5 6Mini-Marathon 7Practice 8Practice 9Practice10Practice11Practice12Practice13Practice14Time Trials15Time Trials16Practice17Practice18Practice19Practice20Practice21Time Trials22Bump Day23 24 25 26Carb Day27 28Parade29Indy 50030Memorial Day31 Color Notes Green Practice Dark Blue Time trials Silver Race day Red Rained out* Blank No track activity * Includes days where trackactivity was significantlylimited due to rain
ROP — denotes RookieOrientation Program
Practice – Week 1
Saturday May 7 – Opening Day Rain washed out opening day, the first time since 1975.
Sunday May 8 Dick Simon Racing cars of Lyn St. James, Raul Boesel, Hiro Matsushita, Dennis Vitolo, Hideshi Matsuda and Tero Palmroth were the first cars out on the track, creating a "Flying V" formation.
Paul Tracy took the first laps in the Penske PC-23/Mercedes 500I at 12:34 p.m. Al Unser Jr., however, was testing at Michigan International Speedway, reportedly "working on reliability." Tracy's fastest lap was 220.103 mph.
Bobby Rahal took the first laps at Indy in the Honda, with a fast lap of 219.791 mph. Scott Brayton, in the Menard Buick posted the fastest lap of the day at 227.658 mph.
Monday May 9 At 4:45 p.m., Mike Groff's Honda engine failed, which caused the car to spin and crash into the wall in the southchute. He was not seriously injured.
Defending Indy Lights champion Bryan Herta, who had started the month with Tasman Motorsports, was withdrawn from that entry, and signed with Foyt.
Emerson Fittipaldi (after 'shake down' laps on Sunday) turned in his first fast laps driving the Penske PC-23/Mercedes Benz 500I, completed a lap of 226.512 mph. Al Unser Jr. took to the track for the first time in the Mercedes as well. Michael Andretti led the speed chart in the new Reynard, at 227.038 mph.
Tuesday May 10 Raul Boesel broke the 230 mph barrier at 5:55 p.m., the first driver to do so since 1992. His lap of 230.403 was the fastest thus far for the month. The Penske-Mercedes was close behind, turning in their best laps of the month. Paul Tracy was second-fastest for the day at 229.961 mph, and Fittipaldi was third at 229.264 mph.
During the afternoon practice, an annular eclipse crossed over the state of Indiana, including the Speedway. Track temperatures cooled, and generally faster laps were observed during the phenomenon.
Wednesday May 11 A windy day kept speed down. Al Unser Jr. in a Penske PC-23/Mercedes Benz 500I, led the chart at 226.478 mph.
Thursday May 12 Emerson Fittipaldi drove his Penske PC-23/Mercedes Benz 500I to a lap of 230.438 mph, with a trap speed of 244 mph down the backstretch. Paul Tracy was second-quick at 228.444 mph (244 mph trap speed).