Talk:List of Indianapolis 500 winners/Archive 1

Untitled

 * The list of winner really should be converted into table form. Much like List of Indianapolis 500 pace cars 64.32.241.35 18:14, 8 March 2006 (UTC)


 * I'm working on a new chart/table for the list of winners, looks a lot like the chart for the List of Daytona 500 winners. Should be done real soon. Doctorindy 12:33, 7 July 2006 (UTC)


 * I fixed the link for Lora L. Corum, which is good because that is his true name, not "L.L." as it is so often written. I have all of the pre-WWII races completed in the table format, and the rest I should be completing as soon as possible. Doctorindy 19:18, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Most Victorious Drivers
For this section, it seems to me that drivers with only one win should not be included. It does not quite seem to make sense to list them, especially since the number of drivers with 2, 3, and 4 is relatively small. Doctorindy 19:23, 7 July 2006 (UTC)
 * I concur. Have you thought about removing "Winners of the Indianapolis 500 not born in the United States (alphabetical)"?  With all the flags you put in the table, it seems unnecceasry to have its own section.  I'm also not sure that I see the value in "Years with new winners".  It could probably be noted somehow in the table by using a format or a footnote. --Brian G 20:19, 7 July 2006 (UTC)
 * On first impression, I thought this page was pretty cluttered with some "odd" lists, but after I finish the rest of the table, we can re-organize a bit. 172.130.157.166 01:43, 8 July 2006 (UTC)
 * The statistics on the winners of the 500 shows that almost 75% of all winners, at least at this point, have won the race only once; puts into stark relief how difficult it is to win twice, let alone three or four times. Winners by Nationality should be a section, instead of "not born in United States," for those seeking to know who has won from a given country (especially Brazil, of late).  The list of years with new winners shows just how rare such a thing was in the late '70s and early '80s, which can delineate different eras in the history of the race. Also, I'm changing "first-time winner" back to "new winner" because it's rare that anyone actually calls them a "first-time winner," isn't it? --Chr.K. 02:51, 14 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Fair enough, it just seemed like an odd stat because of it's such low number. If the idea is to show how hard it is to win the race, it would make more sense to calculate the percentage of winners as a factor of how many drivers total have participated in the race...(700+ as of 2006). It could be placed right underneath the list, for instance. Also...the "Nationalities" makes sense...the "Not born..." was already there, I didn't put it there, I just cleaned up the list itself. Using "New Winners" is ok too. My main objective was to clean these IMS pages up a bit, because when I came to look at them, they were messy and cluttered, and occasionally inaccurate. I don't want to take anything away from anyone else, I just want it to be clean and neat. Doctorindy 13:00, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

New Table
I completed the new table, I think that cleans things up a lot. In addition, I fixed a few small things. From 1978-1987, the Cosworth listed as race winning engine is better referred to simply as "Cosworth," not as "Ford Cosworth." The "Ford Cosworth" (as it was listed before) denotes a completely different engine that was introduced in 1992. From '78-'87, and beyond, that engine that they used had little, if any technical support from Ford, and was completely a Cosworth project. I'm not even totally sure they was a tie to Ford yet at all at that time. Doctorindy 02:44, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

MERGE TWO LISTS

 * I propose that this page List of Indianapolis 500 winning team owners be merged with the regular list List of Indianapolis 500 winners by means of creating another column in the table. For now, the list here can be added below the table until someone has the time to adjust the table with the new column. This page seems out there, and doesn't allow for people to find the info very easy. It's MUCH more likely that people will look at the main list rather than this one. Doctorindy 13:02, 20 October 2006 (UTC)
 * EDIT--Done. Doctorindy 21:57, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

What about >500 mile races?
I know at least one racer, Jacques Villeneuve, actually completed 505 miles, having taken a two lap penalty. Is this the longest Indy 500 ever, and/or have other drivers completed a distance longer than 500 miles? --Golbez 04:18, 19 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Two of his laps were considered removed from his total, and the statistics for them effectively blanked (though I'm sure they exist somewhere in the records of the IMS itself). Officially, he is credited with going 500 miles, the scheduled distance. No Indianapolis "Memorial Day classic" has ever been scheduled, to date, for more than 500. --Chr.K. 10:51, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Thanks. :) It would still be an interesting piece of trivia, who drove the longest distance in the Indy 500, but you're right, if it's not in any official stats it would be difficult to calculate. (After all, technically, the ones at the back of the grid drive a longer distance than the ones in the front! And while this matters at Le Mans, it doesn't matter in Indy. :)) --Golbez 11:17, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Actually, they don't. If they've been lapped (& most back markers are), they run a shorter distance, since the checkers drop when the leader has made 500. Trekphiler (talk) 00:52, 13 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Agreed. No driver who finished the Indianapolis 500 drove more than 500 miles.  Villeneuve was given a two lap penalty, and he served it by physically surrendering those two laps.  He wasn't just changed from having completed, say, 50 laps down to 48 laps.  Therefore, when he made up his penalty, he was back on pace with the field and completed the maximum of 200 laps (500 miles).  Since there is no Green White Checkered procedure in IndyCar racing (at any point in the series' history), it is not possible for a winner to complete more than 500 miles.Kp.murphy (talk) 16:25, 24 May 2010 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure I understand this. He physically drove 505 miles, didn't he? It's just that, officially, 5 miles of that did not count because they were taken as part of two penalty laps? --Golbez (talk) 16:41, 18 June 2011 (UTC)
 * No, he didn't magically have 2 completed laps erased. He pulled in and out of the pits and got 2 laps behind and then had to catch up 2 laps to win. Statalyzer (talk) 16:17, 16 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Actually...YES...he had two laps "magically erased" by the officials (for the lack of a better term). He unknowingly and unintentionally passed the pace car two times early in the race while it was trying to pick up the leader (which was him...he didn't know it). USAC responded by assessing him a two-lap penalty for passing the pace car. The way they did that was in the computer....they manually subtracted two laps from his scoring, and in an instant, he was officially two laps down and it dropped him from 3rd to 27th just like that. I have the original scoring sheets and scoring data, and I've talked with members of the USAC Timing & Scoring crew that worked the race that day. The fact is absolutely true...Villeneuve physically completed 202 laps, but two of them were deleted from his timing and scoring report. There was confusion on how the penalty was assesed (some of the other teams thought he was reinstated), but through strategy and luck, he made up two laps, and was back in the lead pack by the last quarter of the race. It also didn't help that USAC was not easy to work with and was not exactly the most 'proactive' and 'on the ball' sanctioning body by that point in time. They had a way of being unnecessarily secretive and not exactly explaining all their penalties. Doctorindy (talk) 14:27, 11 June 2012 (UTC)

Cluttered and Messy
I don't know who thought it was a good idea to split this table up by decades. It looks rediculous, and is completely unnecessary. Other similar lists aren't broken up like that. It's not "too long" to maintain. I'll wait for a 'second' before I do any changes though.

Generally too, the whole look of this page has become overly cluttered. It needs some, not "clean up," but formatting.


 * ALSO.....the wins by starting position (grid style) is somewhat wrong. They did not start lining up in the "rows of three" like they do now until 1921. For a while, they had a 5-wide start, and for a time, the pace car lined up in the "pole" spot (so effectively one fewer car was on the front row). So illustrating it in "Rows of 3" format is deceiving. Doctorindy (talk) 15:38, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

Years with new winning drivers
What does this even mean? I can't make heads or tales of this list. Kenhullett (talk) 01:05, 19 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Years in which the winner was a first-time Indy 500 winner. -Drdisque (talk) 03:23, 19 April 2008 (UTC)
 * So in 1979 there were 5 first time winners? Kenhullett (talk) 03:36, 19 April 2008 (UTC)
 * No, it means that Rick Mears was the first new winner in 5 years. Read the column header. -Drdisque (talk) 03:59, 19 April 2008 (UTC)
 * I did, and it didn't make any sense. And if I can't figure it out, then people who know little about racing have no chance.Kenhullett (talk) 04:10, 19 April 2008 (UTC)
 * It also seems like a fairly meaningless list, since every winner was a first time winner at one point. Kenhullett (talk) 04:13, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

Who are you?
This page says the '57 chassis was a Salih; the '57 page says Epperly. Which is it? (And I'll bet there are a lot more conflicts like this one...) Trekphiler (talk) 00:52, 13 June 2008 (UTC)
 * My data says Salih. -Drdisque (talk) 04:17, 13 June 2008 (UTC)

Tyre?
This is a race held in the United States of America, and thus should use the American spelling, should it not? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Statalyzer (talk • contribs) 16:11, 16 May 2012 (UTC)

VANDALISM
THE ARTICLE IS VANDALIZED.

PLEASE, CAN SOMEONE REPLACE THE WORD 'PENIS' WITH THE PROPER NAMES THAT SOMEONE CHANGED ?

THANK YOU.

20:11, 5 June 2012 (UTC)

1996-1997 Races
The 1996 and 1997 races were run under the Indy Racing League/IndyCar banner, but they were sanctioned by USAC. USAC's final IndyCar race was the debacle in Texas where Billy Boat was declared the winner, but Arie Luyendyk had somehow not been credited with two laps. They went back and fixed the results and Luyendyk got the win.

Anyway, the first IndyCar sanctioned Indy 500 was not until 1998.

Scotland
Also, Dario Franchitti and Jimmy Clark both identified more as Scottish than British. I know there is a Scottish flag icon, and I know that the Scotland is a part of UK, but I thought I'd bring it up. Cheers.
 * Yet their passports listed their nationalities as British and they both officially competed for the UK. There is only one British national governing body for motor racing and they logically only issue British racing licences.Tvx1 22:25, 28 May 2017 (UTC)

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Nationalities of non-American winners
I was going ahead to give this a complete makeover because basically this doesn't list what it says it lists - but I thought I should gauge opinions. These are birth countries of winners born outside the USA not what the list is supposed to be. Anyone object to changing it to reflect what the list should be? Topcardi (talk) 22:01, 26 May 2019 (UTC)


 * Why is DePalma, who was born in Italy but moved to the U.S. at one year old, listed as Italian, but Resta, who was born in Italy but moved to England at age two listed as British? I assume drivers didn't actually represent a specific country back then.  Citi Cat  ♫ 02:37, 13 April 2022 (UTC)


 * In the case of DePalma his article mentions he didn't get his US citizenship until after his win at Indy Topcardi (talk) 17:57, 13 April 2022 (UTC)