It goes without saying that it's hard to win an IndyCar race.
The level of talent in the field, from top to bottom, is unmatched, and the fact that the field is so tight means that you need literally everything to go right to be able to emerge on top at the end of a race weekend.
Yet several extremely talented drivers who easily could have multiple wins to their name were never even able to win once.
Who are some of the best?
For the purposes of this article, we are only going to include modern era drivers, and our ratings are based on nothing more than IndyCar performance.
In other words, we aren't including Fernando Alonso simply because he is a two-time Formula 1 world champion who made two Indy 500 starts, including in 2017 when he nearly won. We also aren't going to include any active full-time drivers, many of whom could scratch their name off the winless list any given weekend.
Here are the best five, in no particular order.
J.R. Hildebrand
It still hurts to watch, though the fact that it was Dan Wheldon who won makes it a bit more manageable. But there is no way to talk about top drivers without an IndyCar win without mentioning J.R. Hildebrand's 2011 Indy 500 heartbreak.
When Hildebrand found himself at the front of the field toward the middle of that race, a lot of fans assumed it was an off-strategy gamble that had very little chance of paying off. Then with only a handful of laps left, he passed Dario Franchitti for second place, the leader came into the pits, and Franchitti needed to do the same.
Hildebrand had the race won before crashing in turn four of the final lap, and he was still able to limp home in second place.
It's not just the Indy 500 for Hildebrand, either. He had a number of other close calls. He was absolutely dominating the race at Auto Club Speedway in 2012 early on, and after a third place finish at Phoenix Raceway in 2017, everybody had Iowa Speedway circled as a possible location for his first win. He was unfortunately unable to hold off Helio Castroneves after a late pit stop and had to settle for second in what was easily his best ever all-around performance.