5 of the most dominating Indianapolis 500 performances
As we count down to Sunday's 100th running of the Indianapolis 500, we're taking a look back at some of the biggest memories from the historic race.
We continue our series by looking at drivers who dominated the Indianapolis 500 and won. It's a happy change from our five disappointments on Wednesday.
• Billy Arnold, 1930: Arnold's record still stands to this day.
He won the 1930 Indianapolis 500 by leading 198 of the race's 200 laps, the most anyone has ever won in a win at Indianapolis. And he didn't lap the field either. 10 cars finished on the same lap that Arnold did.
The only other driver to lead laps was Louis Meyer, who started on the pole. Meyer led the first two laps and when Arnold passed him from the fourth starting position, it was game over.
Arnold led the most laps in the 1931 Indianapolis 500 (155 laps) as well, but didn't win the race. He finished 19th after crashing out from the lead on lap 162.
• Bill Vukovich, 1953: Vukovich led the most laps in the 1952 Indy 500 and ended up finishing 17th in the race thanks to a steering wheel issue. He closed the deal the next year.
Vukovich led 195 laps, beating Art Cross to the finish line by 210.87 seconds. The only time he conceded the lead was from lap 49-53, when Fred Agabashian, Jim Rathmann and Sam Hanks took turns leading. Vukovich got the lead on lap 147 and wasn't passed again.
Vukovich repeated in 1954 when he led 90 of the race's laps for his second win.
• Al Unser, 1970: Unser's first of four Indianapolis 500 wins came in extraordinary fashion.
Unser, driving the No. 2 Johnny Lightning 500 Ford, led 190 laps to beat Team Penske's Mark Donohue by 32 seconds.
Just five cars finished on the lead lap and Unser, who started on the pole, led the first 48 laps. He led again from laps 54-100 and took over the lead from Donohue on lap 106 and set sail as the race had just one caution flag over the final 100 laps.
Unser was one of the most dominating drivers at Indianapolis. He's won four Indy 500s and has led 11 different races. Only A.J. Foyt (13) has led more races and only Foyt and Rick Mears are the other drivers with four wins. If Helio Castroneves wins on Sunday, he'll be the fourth with four wins.
• Juan Pablo Montoya, 2000: The 2015 Indianapolis 500 winner did alright in his first start at Indianapolis.
Driving for Chip Ganassi, Montoya started second and took the lead from polesitter Greg Ray on lap 27. After the lead cycled to teammate Jimmy Vasser and Robby McGehee, Montoya led the next 143 laps.
Vasser led again for four as pit stops cycled through and Montoya took over on lap 180 and led the final 21 laps to lead 167 of the race's 200 laps.
Montoya beat 1996 Indy 500 winner Buddy Lazier to the line by over 7 seconds and didn't participate in the Indy 500 again until 2014, when he finished fifth.
• Dario Franchitti, 2010: Franchitti got his second of three Indianapolis 500 wins by leading at both the beginning and the end.
After starting third, Franchitti led the first 30 laps. He took over the lead again for a lap on lap 36 and then led 70-straight laps from lap 39-108 and ultimately led a total of 155 laps.
Franchitti pitted during a caution for a crash on lap 161 while other drivers stayed out. However, the four drivers that stayed out didn't have enough fuel to make it to the end without a rash of yellow flags. There wasn't another caution until the penultimate lap.
Castroneves, who had taken over the lead, was forced to pit with nine laps to go and Franchitti took over the lead again.
The caution on lap 199 was for a vicious crash involving Mike Conway, who suffered a broken leg when his car flew into the catchfence.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
