Dan Wheldon - 2005 Indy 500 Winner!
Andretti Green Racing

Indy 500 Entry List | Starting Grid | Indy 500 Finish |

Some Celebrities at the track were the Teutles from American Chopper, Cheech Marin, Deborah Norville, Patrick Dempsey, rock band Fuel, Richard Karn, Montel Williams, Kate Linder, Wynonna Judd, Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Brandon Stokely and actor Russell Crowe. Indiana Pacer Reggie Miller threw the green flag. He has played for only one pro team his entire 18-year NBA career and just retired this month.

Lap by Lap...

• Kanaan, Franchitti and Hornish led most of the race.
  
• Larry Foyt spun and hit turn one on lap 18 after a pit stop.
  
• Jimmy Kite pitted on lap 47 with car problems - he can't get it fixed.
  
• Roth was running too slow and black flagged on lap 51.
  
• Bruno Junqueira made contact with A.J. Foyt IV in turn two and hit the wall hard, resulting in injuries.
  
• Brack's car breaks down on lap 82.
  
• Darren Manning had problems with the suspension and gave up on lap 87.
  
• Jeff Ward is out by lap 102 with steering problems caused by some car hitting him.
  
• Sam Hornish crashed in turn one on lap 147 ending his day.
  
• On the restart on lap 155, Danica Patrick did a half spin in turn four which resulted in crashes for Carpentier, Bucknum, Scheckter, Jaques Lazier, and Enge. Patrick got a new nosecone and kept going. Scheckters day is done as he hit the turn four wall. Enge, whose car made contact with Patricks, is out of the race too. Carpentier had debris ruin his car. Richie Hearn and Scott Dixon got into it too and were knocked out of the race.
  
• Meira and Wheldon were now leading.
  
• Yasukara had to drop out with a bad clutch on lap 171.
  
• The leaders pitted, but Danican Patrick stayed out and assumed the lead.
  
• This is the first Indy 500 where a female has led the race.
  
• On lap 186 Matsuura hits wall in north short chute.
  
• Wheldon began trying to get by Danica and stays in front of her after lap 194.
  
• Cart Champ Sebastien Bourdais crashed on lap 198.
  
• The 500 finishes under caution with Dan Wheldon the winner. A native of Emberton, England, he is the 3rd British driver to win the Indianapolis 500. The last was Graham Hill in 1966.

Tony Kanaan has led at least one lap in each of his first four Indianapolis 500 starts (2002-05). He joins Parnelli Jones (1961-64) and Jim Clark (1963-66) as the only drivers to lead a lap in each of their first four Indy starts.

Danica Patrick’s fourth-place finish is the best ever by a woman in the Indianapolis 500. The previous-best finish by a woman was ninth by Janet Guthrie in 1978. She is also the first to ever finish the race on the lead lap.

Sam Hornish Jr. led 77 laps, more than any other driver in the race, but only finished in 26th place.

Bruno Junqueira suffered a concussion and fractures of the T-12 and L-1 vertebras. He was operated on Monday. Larry Foyt suffered a chip fracture of the lower spine.

There were 27 lead changes among seven drivers, tying for the most with 1960 and 1923 which also had 27.

Arie Luyendyk Jr. could not pass his Rookie Orientation due to mechanical problems. He will be given another chance tomorrow morning.

Jimmy Kite is trying to fill in for Paul Dana. Kite is racing the Nascar Truck series and is flying back and forth for that.

1999 Indy 500 champion Kenny Brack is back! He's going to fill in for Buddy Rice who was injured last week. Buddy Rice's will have to wait until next year to run the Indianapolis 500. Doctors have identified a problem with a spinal ligament that was torn during his hard crash in practice. Rice will need three weeks of rest.

Also, Arie Luyendyk Jr. was named as the driver of the CURB/Agajanian/Beck Motorsports ride. Now he needs to pass his rookie orientation.

Ryan Briscoe spun and hit the wall backwards and almost flipped over. Apparently he is ok.

NASCAR's Casey Mears showed up after racing at Richmond last night.

While Danika Patrick had the fastest laps today (over 229 mph), Tony Kanaan captured the pole position (and a $100,000) with a average 4-lap speed of 227.566 mph. The Brazilian drivers for Andretti-Green Racing. This is Kanaan's 6th Indy 500. Helio Castroneves had been qualified on the front row, but went back out in the last 10 minutes of the session in an attempt to capture pole. He ended up going slower and got slotted back to the 2nd row, moving Scott Sharp up to the first row and Danika to the inside of row 2. Sam Hornish, Jr. is also on the front row. 22 drivers were allowed to qualify today and Jaques Lazier, Patrick Carpentier were bumped off. They will try to qualify next weekend with others who did not make attempts today, including both A.J. Foyt cars and 2004 Indy 500 winner Buddy Rice.

Paul Dana again spun in turn two and hit the wall. Dana was awake and alert when he was transported to Methodist Hospital where he was listed in good condition after sustaining a spinal fracture and concussion.

Sam Hornish, Jr. hit Dana's debris launching him up into the air where he did a end over end flip! Luckily Sam is ok, but he has a sore knee.

Tomas Schecker posted the fastest speed today at 227.804 mph.

Scott Sharp drew to go first in qualifying tomorrow. Sam Hornish, Jr will be second.

Buddy Rice is the first person to wreck at the Speedway during 500 practice. He was the first last year too, and then went on to win the race! He spun and hit the turn 2 wall backwards very hard today. He got up and walked away. He complained of back and neck pain and went to the hospital. He has no broken bones, but he does have a concussion. His team-owner, Bobby Rahal, said that the safer barrier that IMS employs definately helped spare Rice further injury. He will miss the first weekend of qualifying, but hopefully be back the following week.

Sebastien Bourdais with Newman Haas completed his rookie test. Scott Mayer with Foyt passed 3 of 4 phases and can finish tomorrow.

Jeff Ward with Vision completed his refresher.

Neither Larry Foyt nor Jeff Bucknum made it off pit road. Bucknum's dad won the 1970 Michigan Champ Car race.

I asked Arie Luyendyk if he would race in the 500 this year and he said no.

34 drivers have submitted to physicals and passed them in order to be able to begin practicing tomorrow afternoon.

DRIVERS WHO PASSED ROOKIE TEST: Paul Dana with Hemelgarn, Tomas Enge with Panther, Ryan Briscoe with Ganassi, Patrick Carpentier with Cheever, Danica Patrick with Rahal.