2018 Indy 500 countdown: 1 year ago – 2017 Indianapolis 500

With just one day to go until the 2018 Indianapolis 500, let’s take a look back at the 2017 Indy 500, which took place one year ago.

Coming into the 101st running of the Indianapolis 500 in 2017, no driver had started in the top 10 and won the race since Dan Wheldon did so in the 95th running of the event back in 2011 after he started in sixth place and led only one lap, the final lap.

Takuma Sato, who had never finished an Indy 500 in higher than 13th place in seven previous attempts and who had not won an IndyCar race since the 2013 season, changed that by winning the race after starting in fourth. He held off three-time Indy 500 champion Helio Castroneves by 0.2011 seconds.

Here is a video of that exciting finish.

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Sato led just 17 of the race’s 200 laps around the four-turn, 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval in Speedway, Indiana. A total of 14 drivers combined to lead the other 183 laps, setting a new Indy 500 lap leader record with 15 drivers leading at least one lap of the race.

Those other 14 drivers included Max Chilton, who led a field-high 50 laps, as well as Helio Castroneves, Tony Kanaan, Juan Pablo Montoya, Alexander Rossi, Ed Carpenter, Graham Rahal, J.R. Hildebrand, James Davison, Will Power, Fernando Alonso, Charlie Kimball, Ryan Hunter-Reay, and race polesitter Scott Dixon, who was involved in a horrific crash with Jay Howard about one-quarter of the way through the race.

Here is a video of that awful crash, after which both drivers walked away.

The race featured 35 lead changes, a lead change total that ranks fourth on the all-time Indy 500 lead changes list, among these record 15 drivers. The race also featured a total of 10 caution flag periods for 50 laps.

Of the 33 drivers who started the race, only 19 managed to finish it. Of the 19 drivers who managed to finish it, 16 finished it on the lead lap.

Helio Castroneves advanced a field-high 17 positions throughout the race. He started toward the middle of the pack on the inside of the seventh of 11 rows on the starting grid in 19th place, and he managed to finish in second despite the fact that he was slightly involved in the wreck shown in the video above. In fact, his car got airborne as it was going underneath Scott Dixon’s car during that terrifying wreck.

Here is the full broadcast of the 2017 Indianapolis 500.

Next: Top 10 IndyCar drivers of all-time

The 2018 Indianapolis 500 is set to be broadcast live from Indianapolis Motor Speedway on ABC tomorrow starting at 11:00 am ET. Who do you believe will come out on top? How many lead changes will there be and among how many drivers? How many caution flags will there be? Which driver will advance the most positions throughout the race? Be sure that you tune in to the live broadcast of the race to find out.