Year-By-Year Indy 500 Race Recaps: 2010s
June 19, 2020 | By Donald Davidson, Indianapolis Motor Speedway
2010
While Helio Castroneves, on the pole for a fourth time, was the clear pre-race favorite and widely expected to become a four-time winner, it was 2007 winner Dario Franchitti who triumphed by pulling somewhat of an upset.
Starting from the outside of the front row, the Scotsman grabbed the lead at the start and paced the first 30 laps. The anticipated challenge by Castroneves never did materialize and he led only three laps during the day, while Franchitti's total of 155 translated into one of the most convincing wins ever.
Dan Wheldon, the 2005 winner, was runner-up for the second straight year and Marco Andretti made the top three for a third time in only five starts.
2011
It was very likely the most unbelievable finish of any Indianapolis 500 ever. A variety of different fuel strategies were at work during the last 35 laps as teams hoped for a caution which would allow their car to reach the finish without having to make another stop.
Unheralded Belgian driver Bertrand Baguette passed Danica Patrick for the lead at 189 laps, but the caution Baguette hoped for never materialized. He pitted at lap 198 and into the lead went J. R. Hildebrand. Attempting to become the first “rookie” to win since Helio Castroneves in 2001 and the first American since Sam Hornish, Jr., in 2006, Hildebrand took the white flag 3.8 seconds ahead of 2008 winner Scott Dixon.
But just a few seconds later the crowd was gasping in total disbelief as Hildebrand slid wide while negotiating the very last turn and contacted the outer wall. Refusing to give up, he brushed the wall several more times on his way to the checkered, but by the time he got there, 2005 winner Dan Wheldon---trailing in fifth with two laps to go---had already arrived, leading only the final few hundred yards.
2012
The lead changed hands a record 34 times, nine of them taking place during the last 29 laps alone as Chip Ganassi teammates and former winners Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti battled with their friend Tony Kanaan.
The lead group was taking the white flag with one lap to go when Franchitti edged past Dixon yet again, but this time with ex-Formula One driver Takuma Sato coming through as well.
Determined to become the first Japanese driver ever to win the “500,” Sato attempted a daring inside pass of Franchitti as the pair negotiated Turn One, but then he promptly lost adhesion, just missing Franchitti but spinning into the outer retaining barrier.
The yellow flag and the checker flew simultaneously as Franchitti cruised home ahead of Dixon and Kannan to become a three-time winner of the “500.”
2013
Scoring one of the most popular victories ever, both in the eyes of the legion of fans as well as fellow drivers who had come close to winning themselves, veteran Tony Kanaan finally triumphed in this, his 12th try.
Arie Luyendyk’s 1990 record for the 500-mile distance of 185.981 mph was finally broken as Kanaan managed to average 187.433 mph. Remarkably enough, the race went absolutely caution-free for 133 laps consecutive laps at one point, raising the average speed by lap 194 to an astonishing 192.812 mph.
Not only was the all-time record for lead changes broken, it was even doubled from 34 to 68. No less than 14 different drivers led at some point or another with 14 laps being the longest consecutive stretch led by anybody, while pole-sitter Ed Carpenter’s race total of 37 laps led was the most by any of the 14 leaders.
2014
Ryan Hunter-Reay became the first American winner since Sam Hornish, Jr. in 2006, his average speed for the distance of 186.563 mph just failing to beat the 187.433 mph posted by Tony Kanaan the year before.
Hunter-Reay grabbed the lead for the final time in a daring inside pass of Helio Castroneves at the end of the backstretch on Lap 199, and he was barely able to hold off a “slingshot” challenge at the checkered flag as Castroneves tried desperately but unsuccessfully to join A. J. Foyt, Al Unser and Rick Mears as a four-time winner of the “500.”
There were 34 changes of lead between nine drivers in an event which remained “green” from the very start until 150 of the 200 laps before the first caution period, by which time current leader Marco Andretti was averaging an amazing 212.45 mph.
2015
Fifteen years after his initial triumph, but in only his third “500” start, Colombian driver Juan Pablo Montoya came back to win for a second time, edging teammate Will Power by one tenth of a second and raising the total number of victories by car entrant Roger Penske to an incredible 16.
Once again it was a back-and-forth affair, the lead changing hands 37 times between 10 drivers.
Winner Montoya led on four separate occasions for a total of only nine laps while the dominant Scott Dixon led for 84 laps but ended up a close fourth behind Montoya, pole-winner Power and third-placed Charlie Kimball. This was the third occasion on which Team Penske had scored a one-two finish.
2016
In one of the most incredible finishes ever, American “rookie” Alexander Rossi was able to pull off a daring, heart-stopping fuel strategy and nurse his car home---at a considerably reduced pace---to win the historic 100th running of the Indianapolis 500. No sooner had he taken the checkered flag in front of a massive sold-out crowd than he ran completely out of fuel, and he had to be towed to Victory Circle.
Rossi led only 14 laps during the contest, but included among them were the crucial final four. In fact, he had remained in the hunt throughout the day, and on lap 106, he recorded the fastest lap of the entire race---225.288 mph.
Rossi drove a Honda-powered Dallara for a partnership involving Michael Andretti, Bryan Herta, Mike Curb and members of the Agajanian family, while the full-car sponsorship from NAPA Auto Parts came together so late, practice for the “500” had already begun by the time the deal was finalized.
It was a truly “back and forth” contest with no less than 54 changes of lead between 13 drivers, Ryan Hunter-Reay, the 2014 “500” winner, leading the most with 52. It was necessary to display the yellow flag six times for 46 laps, which held Rossi’s winning average speed down to 166.634 mph. The winning team’s share of the total purse of $13,273,253 was $2,548,743. Colombian driver Carlos Munoz finished as runner-up for the second time in only four starts.
2017
History was made when Andretti Autosport driver Takuma Sato became the first driver from Japan to win the "500."
This was the first time in his eight starts that he cracked the first 10, Sato being the driver who had crashed on the very last lap of the 2012 race while spiritedly trying to wrest the lead from victory-bound Dario Franchitti. Just behind Sato at the checker in this one was Helio Castroneves, who was thwarted by mere inches in his valiant attempt at becoming a four-time winner.
There were 35 changes of lead between a record 15 drivers, one of whom was two-time Formula One World Champion Fernando Alonso who was still fighting for the lead when mechanical trouble sidelined him 21 laps from the finish.
2018
After coming so close to winning the 2015 "500," the normally very laid back Australian Will Power was positively euphoric as he yelled and screamed in the Victory enclosure at the conclusion of this one.
For team principal Roger Penske, it marked "500" victory number 17. Finishing in second, after having started on the pole for the third time in six years was Butler University grad Ed Carpenter, who for several years had lived in a house barely half a mile from the Yard of Bricks.
Power and Carpenter led well over half of the race between them, Carpenter for 65 laps and Power for 59.
The total purse for Power, who started third, was $2,525,454. Former winners Scott Dixon, Alexander Rossi and Ryan Hunter-Reay came home third, fourth and fifth.
2019
For only the second time in nearly 100 years---and for just the fifth time ever---the "500" was won by a driver born in France, this time the victor being Simon Pagenaud.
It was a dream two-week period during May for Pagenaud, considering that on consecutive weekends, he won the Indy GP on the road course; the pole for the "500," and then the race itself. Pagenaud's victory was yet another for Team Penske, being the third in just the last five runnings and extending Penske's overall "500" win record to a mind-boggling 18.
Perhaps surprisingly, it had been 10 years since the last time the "500" had been won from the pole, nobody having achieved it since Helio Castroneves in 2009.
Of the 10 different drivers who led, Pagenaud easily topped the list with 116 laps, none of the other nine leading any more than 22. Former winners Alexander Rossi and Takuma Sato finished second and third, Rossi now having finished no lower than seventh in any of his four starts.