The 102nd Indianapolis 500 is 74 days
away! This is the 29th day of the 102 Stats in 102 Days Until the 102nd Indy
500.
Each day from now until the Saturday
before the Indianapolis 500, we’ll post a list of stats related to the race.
Some are well-known statistics, while others are a little more in-depth.
Today’s list looks at the drivers who led
the most laps in a single race without winning. Included are the drivers that
led at least half the race. Many of the drivers on this list did win the race,
just not in the particular year they led the most laps. Overall, a driver has
led more than half of a race 18 times, but failed to take home the win.
- Ralph DePalma: 196 (1912)
- Parnelli Jones: 171 (1967)
- Mario Andretti: 170 (1987)
- Michael Andretti: 160 (1992)
- Billy Arnold: 155 (1931)
- Bill Vukovich: 150 (1952)
- Dan Wheldon: 148 (2006)
- Emerson Fittipaldi: 145 (1994)
- Bill Holland: 143 (1947)
- Gary Bettenhausen: 138 (1972)
- Gordon Johncock: 129 (1977)
- Emerson Fittipaldi: 128 (1990)
- Parnelli Jones: 120 (1962)
- Earl Cooper: 119 (1924)
- Ralph DePalma: 108 (1921)
- Wilbur Shaw: 107 (1941)
- Mario Andretti: 107 (1985)
- Wally Dallenbach: 96 (1975)
Notes of Interest
- Ralph DePalma led all but four laps in
the 1912 race. He took command from Teddy Tetzlaff on Lap 3 and dominated like
nearly no other Indianapolis 500 driver has, leading by five-and-a-half laps at
one point. But with two laps remaining (actually, a lap and a quarter), a
failed piston ended his day. He and his riding mechanic pushed the car in an
effort to finish the race, but came up short. He finished 11th, while Joe
Dawson inherited the lead on Lap 199 to score victory by leading only two laps.
- Additionally, DePalma led 108 laps in
the 1921 race, all but two of the first 110 laps, and dropped out of the race –
from the lead – with a failed rod.
- Parnelli Jones is on the list twice. Jones
dominated the 1967 race in a Turbine-powered car owned by Andy Granatelli. He
led the first 51 laps and gave up the point only during pit stops, lapping his
fellow competitors continuously. After leading 170 laps, on Lap 197, a bearing
broke, along with Jones’s heart, and a chance at winning the race twice. He
finished sixth, while A.J. Foyt led the final four laps. Foyt led Al Unser by
two laps at the checkered flag.
- In 1962, Jones led 120 laps. He had
earlier in the month broke the 150 mph barrier in qualifying and was attempting
to become the first driver in six years to win the race from the pole. He led
all but the first 125 laps, but a worn brake line forced him to pit, and he
continued the rest of the race, essentially with no brakes. He faded to seventh
at the checkered flag, but got his revenge the following year, leading 167 laps
en route to the win.
- The Andretti curse can be found on this
list three times. In 1987, Mario Andretti led the third most laps of a race
without taking the checkered flag first, 170 laps, relinquishing the lead with
on Lap 178 with ignition problems. He returned to the track, but dropped out
soon after.
- Mario also led 107 laps in the 1985
race in a great duel with eventual winner Danny Sullivan, whom Andretti
narrowly missed in the race dubbed “The Spin and Win.”
- Michael Andretti dominated the cold, incident-filled
and ultimately closest finish ever race of 1992, leading 160 laps in a race
interrupted by frequently but multi-car accidents. Due to the number of
cautions, Andretti was never able to establish a gap of a lap over the field,
but he was never really challenged, either, only dropping out of the lead
during pit stops. Fuel pressure in the car, powered by a Ford Cosworth in Ford’s
first race at Indy since the 1970s, cost Andretti while he was leading on lap
190, and he dropped to 13th at the checkered flag in a race another
second-generation driver, Al Unser Jr., won.
- A year after the most dominating
victory in Indianapolis 500 history – at least in terms of laps led – Billy Arnold
returned to the Speedway in 1931 looking to become the first driver to win the
race back-to-back, and the second driver to win the race twice. He nearly did
it. Arnold led all but the first two laps of the 1930 race, and in 1931 picked
up the lead on lap seven and led the next 155 laps, through Lap 161. But he on
Lap 162, he spun – the result of a broken axle – and was hit by another car. He
suffered broken pelvis – his riding mechanic a broken shoulder – as his car was
launched over the Turn 4 wall. He had a five-lap advantage at the time.
- Bill Vukovich could have been the first
driver to win the race three times in succession, if not for a failed steering
mechanism in the 1952 race. Vukovich led 150 laps, and as late as nine laps
remaining. He dropped to 17th at the checkered flag (at the time the race
policy was to continue racing until you completed the 200 laps, so several
drivers he had lapped passed him at the end), while 22-year-old Troy Ruttman
became the youngest winner in the race’s history. Vukovich came back in 1953
and 1954, leading 195 laps and 90 laps respectively in becoming the fourth
driver to earn back-to-back Indianapolis 500 wins. Tragically, after leading 50
of the first 56 laps in the 1955 race, he was killed in an accident while
leading.
- Emerson Fittipaldi is the only driver
other than Parnelli Jones and Mario Andretti to make the list twice. In the
1994 race, he led 145 laps, but crashed while behind his teammate – then second-place
runner Al Unser Jr. – who was nearly a full lap behind. Fittipaldi and Unser
otherwise dominated the day in the Mercedes-powered cars for Team Penske, as
Unser went on to win his second Indianapolis 500. Fittipaldi also set a
blistering pace in the 1990 race, which for more than 20 years held the title
of fastest in 500 history. But an unscheduled pit stop for blistered tires
forced him from the lead on Lap 136, and he never caught the leaders again,
settling for third at the finish.
- Also notable was Dan Wheldon’s 2006
race, which he led 148 laps before finishing fourth. The year before, Wheldon
led only 30 laps to score his maiden 500 victory, while Sam Hornish Jr. led the
most laps before he crashed. In 2006, Hornish led only 19 laps, while Wheldon
faded to fourth after he was passed by Tony Kanaan on Lap 183. It marked the
most recent race in which a driver led more than 100 laps but did not win.
- Bill Holland led 143 laps in the 1947
race, as late as Lap 192. Slowing down at the request of his car owner, Lou
Moore, Holland lets teammate Mauri Rose past on Lap 193, thinking Rose is
unlapping himself. However, the pass is actually for the led, and Holland, a
rookie, finishes about 32 seconds behind Rose, who picks up his second
Indianapolis 500 victory.
- Gary Bettenhausen led 138 laps in the
1972 race, in an attempt to give Roger Penske his first Indianapolis 500 win.
Penske would ultimately win the race, though not with Bettenhausen, who
experiences ignition problems late and gives the race led up to Jerry Grant on
Lap 176. Bettenhausen’s teammate, Mark Donohue, passed Grant on Lap 188 and
cruised to the victory, while Bettenhausen was left to finish 14th in his best
chance to score a 500 win.
- Wally Dallenbach didn’t lead 100 laps
in the 1975 race, but that race didn’t go the full distance, either. Rain
forced the race to be shortened by 26 laps, with Bobby Unser winning his second
race after 174 laps. However, Dallenbach was clearly the class of the field. He
led four times for 96 laps – more than half of the final distance – but a burnt
piston put him out on Lap 162 while leading by 20 seconds, and he finished
ninth. He later confided he had throttled back, but it didn’t matter; it’s just
too bad the race hadn’t come earlier.
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