Indy 500: The last time the polesitter didn’t lead a single lap

By Asher Fair | Aug 24, 2020

Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing, and Marco Andretti, Andretti Herta Autosport, IndyCar, Indy 500 (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /

Marco Andretti’s pole position for the 104th running of the Indy 500 lasted all of a few seconds and could not net him any laps led.

Andretti Herta Autosport’s Marco Andretti entered the 104th running of the Indy 500 having not led any laps at Indianapolis Motor Speedway since he finished in third place back in 2014 after leading 20 laps of the 200-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) Brickyard oval in Speedway, Indiana.

This came after he had led laps in seven of his first nine Indy 500 starts, including three in a row leading into 2015.

His pole position for Sunday’s race, his first in 15 starts and the first for the Andretti family since Marco was a newborn and grandfather Mario sat on the pole back in 1987 for the 71st running of the race, put him in an optimal position to end that drought.

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Unfortunately, that P1 standing lasted for all of a few feet, as Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon wheeled his #9 Honda past the #98 Honda of Andretti on the outside of the front straightaway just after the green flag flew.

Andretti did not lead the race again en route to a disappointing 13th place finish, tying his second worst result at the track in the 12 races that have not resulted in him being involved in a wreck. He still hasn’t led a lap at the track since 2014.

Meanwhile, fellow front row starters Dixon and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Takuma Sato finished in the top two, with Sato winning the race for the second time.

The last time a polesitter did not lead a single lap of the Indy 500 was in 2001, when Scott Sharp crashed on the opening lap in turn one. Since then, the lowest laps led total for a polesitter was three, a mark held by Helio Castroneves from back in 2010.

On a number of occasions since then, the polesitter did not lead the opening lap. In fact, it happened five times from 2010 to 2019, most recently in 2016 when third place starter Ryan Hunter-Reay passed polesitter James Hinchcliffe on the inside going into turn three.

But it had been 19 years since the Indy 500 polesitter was not credited with a single lap led.

Here’s a video of Sharp’s accident. The green flag flies at 43:23.

What is conceivably worse for Andretti, however, is the fact that an Indy 500 polesitter who did not crash on the opening lap, even if he had crashed later in the race, hadn’t not led at least one lap of the race since 1995 when Scott Brayton started from the pole position and was passed by Scott Goodyear from third place on the outside going into turn one during the opening lap, much like Andretti was on Sunday.

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If everything goes as planned, which certainly cannot be guaranteed after this year, the 105th running of the Indy 500 is set to be broadcast live on NBC beginning at 11:00 a.m. ET on Sunday, May 30, 2021. This would mark the shortest span between two Indy 500s in race history (280 days – 40 weeks).