Top 10 Indy 500s ranked: Andretti, Foyt and more

The famous event was first run in 1911, so picking out the weightier editions was a tough task.

Among those to miss out are Takuma Sato\'s storming momentum to victory in 2017 - a year when Honda engines had a considerable engine wholesomeness over Chevrolet - Jacques Villeneuve profiting from Scott Goodyear passing the pace car at the final restart to win in 1995, and the 1989 race that ended with penultimate lap contact between leaders Emerson Fittipaldi and Al Unser Jr, putting the latter into the wall.

And omitting the events that finished under caution, we narrowed lanugo a list of races that had tense finishes and drama aplenty to come up with our top 10 Indy 500s.

10. Sullivan spins and wins, 1985

Mario Andretti led the majority of the first half of the race for Newman/Haas Lola, but Danny Sullivan had learned well from Penske team-mate Rick Mears - still recovering from his previous year\'s shunt at Sanair - well-nigh constantly fine-tuning his car for the final shootout in 500-mile races.

Sullivan\'s March 85C got stronger throughout the event, and he found it relatively easy to haul up onto Andretti\'s tail at the start of lap 120. Moving out to make the pass on the inside of Turn 1, Sullivan found himself having to use the track and the apron, and the transition wobbled his car into a spin.

Remarkably he completed 360 degrees without striking the wall. Equally remarkably, 1969 500 winner Andretti avoided him through the smokescreen. Less than 20 laps later, a fired up Sullivan moved into the lead which he\'d never lose, worldly-wise to pull yonder from Andretti without all subsequent restarts, with Roberto Gurrero completing the top three in a Team Cotter March-Cosworth.

9. Hildebrand\'s souvenir to Wheldon, 2011

The latter laps of the Centenary event were epic as a variety of strategy gambles failed to mesh with yellow-flag periods, leaving some unconfined driver/team combinations, such as Chip Ganassi Racing\'s Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon, trying to coax their cars home on fumes.

After Danica Patrick was forced to requite up the lead with 12 laps to go, Bertrand Baguette took over at the front until lap 197, when his Conquest Racing Dallara was forced into taking on a late splash-and-dash.

That left rookie JR Hildebrand in the lead for Panther Racing, a team that had finished second for the previous three 500s with 2005 winner Dan Wheldon.

Wheldon, by now a part-time suburbanite racing for Bryan Herta Autosport in his first race of the year and only the squad\'s second overly IndyCar event, was second and latter - but nowhere near fast unbearable to reservation the 2009 Indy Lights champion.

Then suddenly Hildebrand went to lap Charlie Kimball through the short chute between Turns 3 and 4 on the final lap, got into the grey, and with 199 laps worth of detritus now stuck to his tyres, drifted up into the wall out of the final corner.

His momentum was such that he would still tricycle wideness the line in second, but by then Wheldon, who had run in the top six all day, was past and into the lead, having led just one quarter of a lap - but the most important quarter of all!

8. Exhibit car wins as Andretti\'s expletive strikes again, 1987

Perhaps this race shouldn\'t be in here considering Andretti, driving a Newman/Haas Racing Lola-Chevrolet that had been engineered by Adrian Newey, spanked the opposition for most of the day, leading 170 of the first 177 laps. But no one could quite believe the latter 25 laps.

With a lap on second-placed Guerrero in the Vince Granatelli Racing March-Cosworth, suddenly Andretti\'s Chevy tapped a valve spring. That handed the lead to Guerrero, but the Colombian had older hit an untethered wheel from Gary Bettenhausen\'s car, sending it up into a grandstand where it had struck and killed a spectator.

The subsequent forfeiture to the nose of the Granatelli car had moreover damaged the clutch slave cylinder, making it difficult for Guerrero to move from a standstill. Twice he stalled trying to leave his pitbox without his final stop, and he emerged second.

The new leader was veteran Al Unser, who had started the month without a ride, only stepping into a third Penske entry when Danny Ongais suffered an injurious crash in practice. Unser\'s car, a March-Cosworth 86C, had been pulled into service from a exhibit in a hotel lobby and only qualified on the second qualifying weekend.

But Unser\'s steady climb from 20th - just well-nigh dodging a wildly spinning Josele Garza on the opening lap - paid off handsomely, and the near-48-year-old veteran scored his fourth and final Indy win, 18 years without his first in 1970.

Guerrero was second - matching his result on debut in 1984 - and the only other car on the lead lap, with future Formula 1 tail-ender Fabrizio Barbazza (Arciero Racing March-Cosworth) two laps lanugo in third.

7. Hornish pips younger Andretti on the line, 2006

For most of the day, this looked like stuff Wheldon\'s second straight Indy triumph, and his first for Chip Ganassi Racing. He dominated the first 140 laps, chased by team-mate Dixon, and Penske polesitter Sam Hornish Jr.

Both these pursuers would earn drivethrough penalties (Dixon for blocking, Hornish for leaving the pits with refuelling equipment still attached), but an inopportune circumspection period shuffled Wheldon when in the pack.

For rookie Marco Andretti, who had been running second but ducked into the pits just in time, the yellows were a blessing. At the restart he made short work of passing his father Michael\'s sister car to grab the lead, but a resurgent Hornish was on the prowl and he too had no problem passing the older Andretti.

On the penultimate lap he tried to pass Mario\'s grandson heading into Turn 3 but was so firmly rebuffed he lost considerable momentum. However, Hornish then recovered and kept gaining on his prey over the remaining five turns.

Exiting the final corner on the last lap, the 2001 and \'02 IRL champion was firmly in Marco\'s slipstream. Timing his pass to perfection, Hornish slipstreamed the rookie to requirement victory by 0.0635 seconds, the third-closest in event history.

6. Foyt and Sachs top stellar cast, 1961

After the events of the previous year (see entry number two), it was no surprise that Indy 500 sophomore Jim Hurtubise was a gravity to be reckoned with then as he splash from third on the grid and led the first 35 laps surpassing his engine let go.

Nor that defending winner Jim Rathmann, withal with 1959 winner (and 1960 runner-up) Rodger Ward would moreover lead laps. With hindsight, it\'s moreover whimsically a shock that, plane as a rookie, Parnelli Jones was brilliant, lining up fifth on the grid and leading 27 laps.

But it was AJ Foyt (Bowes Seal Fast Trevis-Offy) and polesitter Eddie Sachs (Dean Van Lines Ewing-Offy) who dominated proceedings and duelled into the latter stages.

Having been pretty much plane on pace for most of the race, Foyt was surprised when he unprotected and passed Sachs with relative impunity on lap 170. Then he saw the pitboard hung out for him - \'Fuel Low\' - and realised the hairdo had suffered a malfunction in what should have been his final stop, having simply not gotten unbearable fuel in. He was so fast considering he was running light.

The furious Texan barrelled into the pits on lap 185 to receive the necessary splash, and was on his way then without just eight seconds but now with all hope of victory lost.

Except Sachs, with four laps to go, saw the white string showing on his crossply tyres, having perhaps been a tad too vigorous through the turns on his full fuel load. He felt compelled to pit a lap later and so Foyt headed on to his first of four Indy triumphs, with Sachs finishing eight seconds in arrears, as Ward was scrutinizingly a minute overdue in third.

The next time Foyt won, 1964, it would be the final triumph for a roadster and a dreadful day for Indy pursuit the death of two drivers, one of whom was Sachs.

5. Castroneves\' nearest near-miss, 2014

Helio Castroneves, who this year - qualifying permitting - will make his 20th Indy 500 start, is seeking to join Foyt, Unser and Mears in the four-time winners\' club. But it\'s easy to forget how tropical the Brazilian has been to nailing that fourth triumph.

In 2003, he came up 0.2290s short to team-mate Gil de Ferran and in 2017 he was 0.2011s overdue Andretti Autosport\'s Sato, despite suffering forfeiture to his rear wing in the trail of trash that resulted from Dixon\'s enormous accident. But should he finish second again, it will surely not be closer than in 2014.

On that occasion, Andretti\'s Ryan Hunter-Reay edged the Penske suburbanite by just 0.06s. In other words, Castroneves\' combined losses when finishing runner-up still haven\'t reached half a second!

The duel between RHR and Castroneves truly began on lap 183 but was interrupted by a red flag when Townsend Bell shunted on lap 193, and IndyCar was keen to see a race to the twin checkers without the 2012 and 2013 events (won by Franchitti and Tony Kanaan respectively) had both finished under caution.

There were six laps to go at the restart and, as was typical in the Dallara DW12 era, the cars\' tow meant regular changes of lead lanugo the front stretch, where the leader would hug the pitwall to gravity his or her pursuer to go the long way virtually at Turn 1.

On lap 197, with Castroneves leading, Hunter-Reay came off Turn 2 with largest momentum, and while Castroneves felt like he\'d gone far unbearable to the inside to gravity the American to try the long way round into Turn 3 Hunter-Reay reckoned the gap between the Penske and the grass was unbearable to squeeze himself through. And it was... just.

Two laps later, Castroneves was when in front and this time as he headed lanugo the when straight and spied Hunter-Reay was tropical and gaining again, he eliminated any thoughts the Andretti suburbanite might have of making an inside manoeuvre then by edging plane closer to the grass.

It did the trick, but it was just unbearable to compromise Castroneves\' own line into Turn 3 and therefore his speed through the short chute. Hitting the pit straight for the penultimate time, Hunter-Reay was past him and into the lead plane surpassing they reached the yard of bricks. He then held on throughout that final lap to score a sunny triumph.

4. Unser Jr beats charging Goodyear, 1992

This event had it all, plane surpassing the race. There was a tear-jerking moment as promising Philippines native Jovy Marcelo was killed in a practice crash, and a nausea-inducing moment as three-time F1 champion but Indy 500 rookie Nelson Piquet\'s Team Menard Lola had a head-on shunt with the wall. The mangling of his legs was inevitable once you saw the images, but his helmet\'s impact with the touchable could have made it so much worse.

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And then the mannerly and talented Guerrero earned pole but, as he led the field to the untried on the parade lap, lost tenancy while trying to warm his tyres in shockingly unprepossessed race day temperatures and struck a windbreak that put his King Motorsports Lola/Buick out surpassing the race had plane begun.

It was a portent of what was to come, as veterans and rookies unwrinkled got involved in accidents. Still, finally it looked like the since-1969 expletive of the Andretti family at IMS was finally going to be wrenched as Michael led for 160 laps, scrutinizingly as dominant as his father had been five years earlier. But like his father five years earlier, mechanical failure - in this case, a wrenched fuel pump with just 10 laps to go - ended his hopes in unforgiving fashion.

That left a duel between Al Unser Jr in Galles Racing\'s unique Galmer chassis and Scott Goodyear in the Walker Racing Lola, the latter without a remarkable momentum up from 33rd on the grid (Goodyear had failed to qualify but had taken over the car of team-mate Mike Groff).

Before and without the final pitstops, the Canadian was heading Little Al, but tripped up on traffic with 15 laps to go, which unliable the 1990 series champion to pass him. It looked an plane increasingly crucial error once Andretti was out and this became a wrestle for the lead.

Following the inevitable caution, there was a seven-lap shootout - Unser with the greater experience, Goodyear with the largest car but theoretically uncertain how weightier to use it versus a highly defensive but wipe opponent. He never figured it out and, despite pulling out of the slipstream at the right moment on the run to the polychrome flag, Goodyear fell 0.043s short in the closest-ever Indy 500 finish.

3. Mears takes his weightier victory, 1991

Mears went through it all in the days leading up to what would be his penultimate visitation in the race.

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He suffered his first overly crash at the Speedway during practice, when the right rear wheel of his Penske PC20 broke, and the ensuing wrecking put him on his throne and hurt his foot.

But come qualifying, Mears bounced when astoundingly to score his sixth pole position (still the record for Indy poles) and headed up one of the greatest front rows in Indy history, with Foyt (making his 34th start) second, and Mario Andretti (making his 26th start) third.

On race day, it was the Newman/Haas Racing Lola of Michael Andretti that appeared to be dominant, only ceding the lead on pitstops. But the Penskes of Fittipaldi and Mears remained a lurking threat, both constantly acclimating their cars to the evolving track.

Fittipaldi, 1989 winner (and to be 1993 winner), retired on lap 171 with gearbox failure. Mears pitted straight without and rejoined 10s overdue Michael Andretti. While he got his tyres up to temperature, that deficit extended to 13s. Andretti still needed to stop but he was worldly-wise to do so under caution, when Sullivan\'s engine let go, and Andretti was worldly-wise to rejoin directly overdue Mears.

On the restart, John Andretti and Unser Jr, who had been heading the pack but were well-nigh to be lapped, kept well out of the way of the leaders. Mears got the initiative, but Andretti had greater momentum and, despite unprepossessed and worn tyres, went virtually the outside of the Penske at Turn 1 to grab the lead.

Mears, however, stayed in Andretti\'s wheeltracks and, when the Newman/Haas suburbanite dived for the Turn 1 spouse next time by, the Penske pilot kept his foot in it, the right rear visibly laying lanugo rubber.

This time it was Mears who used the outside line to requirement the lead. Despite Mario Andretti chugging to a halt at pit entry causing a final yellow, son Michael had nothing left for Mears, who went on to score his record-matching fourth Indy 500 win.

2. The greatest duel, 1960

In qualifying the talk had been all well-nigh Sachs taking a new four-lap qualifying record of 146.592mph on Pole Day. Yet eight days later, on the fourth and final day of qualifying, phenomenal rookie Hurtubise slid his Christensen-Offy virtually the Brickyard with a new technique and at an uncanny stereotype of 149.056mph. Of course, it was the wrong day to do that and he wound up 23rd on the grid; he would climb to fifth on race day but was halted by his engine throwing a rod.

So instead the race became one of the greatest duels of all time, a rematch of the 1959 race, when Ward had tamed Rathmann. This time it was anyone\'s guess as to who would win but it was sure to be one of these two - no one else led without lap 95, the pair having outpaced early leaders such as Sachs, 1952 winner Troy Ruttman and Johnny Thomson.

Ward had overcome a stall in the pits at his first stop, which had left him stationary for over a minute in an era when stops typically lasted barely increasingly than 20s. It took him scrutinizingly an hour to get up to the lead once more, but the fact that he could do so suggested his Leader Card entry unmistakably had the pace.

But he just could not shake Rathmann\'s similar Watson-Offy run by Ken Paul. Over the second half of the race, they swapped the lead a remarkable 14 times.

Ward was trying to nurse his tyres but, when Rathmann received word via pitboard that Thomson had got a second wind and was transmissible the pair of them, both were obliged to run a hotter pace - and to the detriment of their rubber.

Ward, leading with four laps to go, suddenly spied white string showing through his right-front Firestone. Rather than risk a blowout, and disinclined to sacrifice a big payday by pitting, he finally backed off, permitting Rathmann a well-spoken run to victory, having finished runner-up on three previous occasions.

1. New star versus wily veteran, 1982

Most people remember the 66th running of the Indianapolis 500 for one of three reasons - Gordon Smiley\'s fatal shunt in qualifying, the startline shunt that wiped out the two biggest names in US racing, and the fact that 1973 Indy winner Gordon Johncock edged Mears in an incredibly tropical finish for his second \'500 victory.

The Penske PC10s of Mears and Kevin Cogan lined up 1-2 on the grid, but the race had barely started when Cogan lost tenancy and impaled the March of third front-row starter Foyt surpassing stuff placid by the fast-starting Pat Patrick-run Wildcat of Mario Andretti. Both legends were furious, but at least Foyt was worldly-wise to restart albeit in a now ill-handling car; Andretti, like Cogan, was eliminated on the spot.

At the restart, Foyt surged into the lead and remained in contention for the first third of the race, but would later slow with transmission problems, resulting in iconic images of Foyt setting to work on his car in the pits with a hammer.

On track, the race distilled to a straight wrestle between Mears - once an Indy winner in 1979 and two-time champion - and the tenacious, unflinching and fast veteran Johncock in the second Patrick Wildcat.

With 40 laps to go, there was a restart in which Mears retained his lead only until the when straight, when Johncock moved superiority and the pair unfurled in tandem. Mears was worldly-wise to run anywhere in the turns as he probed Johncock\'s defences, but the 1976 USAC National champion\'s superior top-end speed unliable him to legitimately cut lanugo from the outside to the spouse and take the perfect racing line, wearing off Mears and torturous his downforce. It was a quite sunny duel.

A late-race fuel stop was required for both, with Mears first in on lap 183. But not only did he tag his left-front wing on the tail of a backmarker, he was moreover given increasingly than a splash, which would hurt his dash. Without Johncock stopped three laps later, he was increasingly than 11s to the good.

Mears gave full vent to his Penske\'s potential and slashed the deficit. Coming off Turn 4 to start the last lap, Mears was so much faster it looked like a transpiration of lead was inevitable. But, as per pre-pitstop, he drew slantingly and stalled there, and with no option but to when off as Johncock came lanugo to take his normal line for Turn 1.

Mears gathered it up, moved up onto Johncock\'s tail as they entered Turn 4 for the final time, but crossed the yard of bricks 0.16s short. It would remain the closest finish in Indy history for 10 years.