Move Back
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The bricks have been paved over, the garages rebuilt and the pagoda replaced, but when 33 drivers take the green flag at the 2011 Indianapolis 500-Mile Race they will be facing the same 4 corners and the same 4 straights that brave men and women have been trying to conquer for the past 100 years.![2indy]()
Ray Harroun took the checkered flag at the first 500 in 1911, but little-known relief driver Cyrus Patschke deserves some of the credit, filling in behind the wheel for 80 miles of the race.![3indy]()
Champion in 1921 and 1923, Tommy Milton was the first driver to win two Indy 500s. Sixteen more would go on to repeat the feat.![4indy]()
Drivers, owners and mechanics pose in front of the pagoda before the start of the 1935 race, won by Kelly Petillo in a Wetteroth Offenhauser.![5indy]()
Wilbur Shaw won back to back 500s in 1939 and 1940 behind the wheel of a Maserati, along with the 1937 crown.![6indy]()
One of the best drivers to ever take on the Brickyard, Bill Vukovich died in 1955 trying to become the first to win three 500s in a row.![7indy]()
First to break 150 mph at the speedway in 1962, Parnelli Jones would taste milk in victory lane the following year.![3_1977AJFoytpullinginVC]()
In 1977 A.J. Foyt became the first driver to win 4 times at Indy. Rick Mears (1984) and Al Unser (1987) are the only others to do the same.![9indy]()
A winner in 1968, 1975 and 1981, Bobby Unser was the first driver to win at Indy in three different decades.![10indy]()
Three of the all-time greats, Rick Mears, A.J. Foyt and Mario Andretti qualified on the front row for the 75th anniversary running of the 500.![11indy]()
Helio "Spiderman" Castroneves has owned Indy in the 21st Century, winning in 2001, 2002 and 2009. He is the only foreign-born driver with three wins, but with a growing international contingent of competitors in IndyCar, he won't likely be the last. Click here for an interview with Helio Castroneves
Move Forward
- 100 Years of the Indy 500
