Indy 500 could see winner trend not pulled off since 1932

Nine different drivers have won an Indy 500 in the last nine years. Will 2020 make it 10 different winners in the last 10 years for the first time since 1932?

The 104th running of the Indianapolis 500 is scheduled to take place this afternoon at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Andretti Herta Autosport’s Marco Andretti took the pole position for this IndyCar race by posting the fastest four-lap average speed pf 231.068 miles per hour around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) superspeedway oval in Speedway, Indiana behind the wheel of his #98 Honda during the Fast Nine Shootout last Sunday, August 16.

Nine different drivers have won the last nine Indy 500 races going back to 2011, a trend that hasn’t happened since between 1993 and 2001 when Emerson Fittipaldi, Al Unser Jr., Jacques Villeneuve, Buddy Lazier, Arie Luyendyk, Eddie Cheever, Kenny Brack, Juan Pablo Montoya and Helio Castroneves were the nine respective winners.

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Dan Wheldon won the race for the second time in shocking fashion in 2011, leading only one lap when rookie race leader and presumed winner J.R. Hildebrand hit the wall in the final turn on the final lap to fall to second place.

Dario Franchitti won it the following year for the third time in the last six years before Tony Kanaan won it for the first time in 2013 and Ryan Hunter-Reay won it for the first time in 2014. Juan Pablo Montoya set the record for most years between two Indy 500 wins (15) by winning the race in come-from-behind fashion in 2015, and Alexander Rossi became the first rookie to win it since Helio Castroneves won it in 2001 when he coasted across the finish line after stretching his final fuel load almost beyond the realm of possibility in 2016.

The first-time winner trend reached four in a row and six in the last seven years last year, as Takuma Sato won it in 2017, Will Power won it in 2018 and Simon Pagenaud won it in 2019.

As a result, this year’s running of the 200-lap race could produce a 10th different winner in the last 10 years. This hasn’t happened since between 1923 and 1932 (technically 11 in a row from 1922 to 1932).

After Jimmy Murphy won the race in 1922, Tommy Milton won it in 1923 before Lora L. Corum and Joe Boyer were declared co-winners in 1924. Corum started the race and was relieved by Boyer, who started the race driving a separate entry.

Peter DePaolo, Frank Lockhart, George Souders, Louis Meyer, Ray Keech, Billy Arnold, Louis Schneider and Fred Frame won the race from 1925 to 1932, respectively.

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Will the Indy 500 see a 10th different winner in the last 10 years? Tune in to NBC at 1:00 p.m. ET this afternoon for the live broadcast of the 104th running of the race from Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

There are eight former winners in the 33-car field, of whom six have won during this nine-year streak. The other two are three-time winner Castroneves and 2008 winner Scott Dixon.