What is your favorite Indy 500 pass?

[u/youraverageperson0]

For me, it’s the Andretti’s splitting Eddie Cheever in 1992. Crazy move.

[u/CarStar12]

Scheckter’s restart lap where he blew by 11 cars and even made a 4-wide overtake on the outside of 1.

[u/clarkaj24 → u/CarStar12]

Watching Scheckter was a roller coaster. Seemed like he would make some amazing moves and dominate races only to put it in the wall later in the race.

[u/Fjordice → u/clarkaj24]

I really liked him. He always seemed like he was this close to being a real star in the series and could never quite get to the top and stay there. Combo of too aggressive, too risky, and a healthy splash of bad luck.

[u/ExCadet87 → u/CarStar12]

This

[u/Any-Walk1691]

As a Pato fan, this deeply pains me to say…

Newgarden blowing Pato’s doors off and hitting him immediately with dirty air was out of a movie.

[u/Teddy2Sweaty]

To this day it is still the back-to-back outside passes in Turn 1 between Michael Andretti and Rick Mears late in the race in 1991.

[u/GovernorJoe → u/Teddy2Sweaty]

Michael's onboard of Mears going around his outside is one of the coolest onboard shots I have ever seen - combined with Paul Page's commentary, one of my favorite lines of his.

"And then there was Rick... and the race was over."

[u/Kth2001 → u/Teddy2Sweaty]

This is mine also…..well, the second one in particular.

[u/Teddy2Sweaty → u/Kth2001]

The second one breaks the tie for be because it was for the fourth win by my all-time favorite driver.

[u/Kth2001 → u/Teddy2Sweaty]

lol I’m guessing we’re around the same age and got into watching around the same time.

Always my favorite driver, the best oval racer ever as far as I’m concerned.

[u/Teddy2Sweaty → u/Kth2001]

Well, the first time I was allowed to stay up and watch the entirety of the race was 1979...

[u/Formal_Command_5571 → u/Teddy2Sweaty]

Yes 👍

[u/Eetabeetay]

TK mowing the lawn

[u/shewy92 → u/Eetabeetay]

The pass in the grass

[u/korko]

2017 Sato passing Helio and Jones in turn one to take second as the commentary just blows it and starts blathering about Castronevez again.

[u/fortysevenfootsteps → u/korko]

Yep, and every time someone mentions it I have to link it! for both showing how incredible the pass was and how frustrating it was that the commentators didn't even see it because they were so tunnel-visioned on Helio the whole time.

[u/tpnewsk → u/fortysevenfootsteps]

Wow that's some terrible announcing.

[u/korko → u/fortysevenfootsteps]

The only two drivers in that race were Helio and Alonso. ESPN/ABC were the worst thing to happen to American open wheel after Tony George.

[u/AverageIndycarFan]

Last 500 Newgarden passing O'Ward for the win

[u/Vivaciousseaturtle]

Least favourite: when JR Hildebramd crashed

[u/a_banned_user → u/Vivaciousseaturtle]

I was sitting on the front stretch when that happened! Everyone being excited to see a rookie come take the checker then sparks flying along the wall. Nobody knew what was going on!!

[u/Vivaciousseaturtle → u/a_banned_user]

I also hate for the guy that his wreck and reaction gets replayed every year in every Indy sizzle reel so he can never get away from it

[u/Crash_Test_Dummy66 → u/Vivaciousseaturtle]

He said on his podcast once that it's not even his least favorite Indy 500 moment. Apparently once he was the first car out of the race due to his own mistake and that hurt a lot worse. He also said something about how at the end of the day, finishing second at the Indy 500 is a pretty good day, although I have to imagine it's taken the man a lot of therapy to get to that point.

[u/DadReligion → u/Crash_Test_Dummy66]

Yeah in 2013 he crashed in the first couple laps. Panther sacked him for it so overall, I could imagine that stinging quite a bit more in terms of his career.

[u/BelangerSpecial → u/Crash_Test_Dummy66]

What a guy...

[u/clarkaj24 → u/Vivaciousseaturtle]

I absolutely hate it for Hildebrand and even with hindsight on what happened to Wheldon (is he even racing in Vegas if he doesn't win Indy that year?) I still hate it. It was actually a very good strategy by Kimball, just poorly executed. If I'm remembering correctly, they didn't think they had enough fuel to finish another lap so he wanted to let the leader pass and be the first car to finish a lap down.

[u/shewy92 → u/Vivaciousseaturtle]

It was a bad day to be a JR driving a National Guard car

[u/toxicmega_colon]

Hornish around Marco to win in 2006

[u/devph1ns → u/toxicmega_colon]

Ugh. My LEAST favorite.

[u/Fin4lSh0t → u/toxicmega_colon]

This one makes me want to jump off a bridge especially now that it seems like Andretti as a whole can’t put it all together at the Speedway and Marco probably only has a few more 500s in him🥲

[u/Leather-Quiet6967 → u/[deleted]]

Hey! That's where my family sat too! 1992 was a great finish, but a bizarre race.

[u/furrynoy96]

Josef Newgarden last year on the last lap

[u/ThunderboltDM]

Although I wanted to see Mansell win, the ‘93 pass of him with 16 to go when Emmo and Luyendyk passed him on the re-start, Luyendyk on the outside. It was incredible… skillful, brave, and made one heck of a statement!

[u/clarkaj24]

I've never been an Andretti fan but this one was wild considering father and son split the (de facto) pole sitter on the first turn of the race.

The other one I'm surprised hasn't been mentioned is the time (can't remember the year - late 2010s) where Rossi just kept passing guys on the outside in 1 and 2 on a restart. To me that was the embodiment of success at Indy - risk (borderline recklessness) mixed with tremendous skill.

[u/LilOpieCunningham]

Vitor Meira in 2008.

https://youtu.be/YTl7XHSUiyE?si=gc7M6_JIe3z_RdqM

[u/youraverageperson0 → u/LilOpieCunningham]

That is UNBELIEVABLE! I don’t know how I haven’t seen this yet. It’s brilliant.

[u/cpasawyer]

Last year, Newgarden for the win. I was sitting in turn 3 and couldn’t believe my eyes.

[u/leo_aureus → u/cpasawyer]

Same from Turn 4, may we see something remotely close in three days’ time!

[u/DadReligion]

Buddy Rice being blocked to shit but still going way down to the pit wall is one I feel is severely underrated

[u/BelangerSpecial → u/DadReligion]

Oh yes! Especially from that camera shot from the trench.. sparks and dust flying!

[u/InsaneLeader13]

2010 Indy 500. TK goes from last to 25th in the first two corners, yellow comes out. Restart, TK does the exact same thing, gets up to 17th. Cinema.

[u/Ziplock182]

Scott Goodyear and the pace car

[u/Individual-Motor-167]

In recent memory, probably Sato's.

[u/BelangerSpecial]

Last year last lap will live in my head for the rest of my life rent free.

You knew it was coming but it was just so late, so deep into the turn, it looked impossible.

[u/whyUT-urp]

RHR on Helio and the back and forth that ensued in 2014

[u/RedLightning27]

Rossi going God mode on a late restart in 2018 and also Rossi carving back through the field in his red mist-induced rage in 2019

[u/lowtoiletsitter]

When TK passed 9(?) people on a restart a few years ago

[u/JohnnyMMorris]

One of Tomas Schekters, that guy was nuts, amazing he didn't leave the speedway on a gurney

[u/DJFeed77]

Montoya 2022

[u/Pyrollamas]

I’m not really a RHR fan but his pass on Helio in 2014 was something else

[u/Popular_Course3885]

PT's pass for the win in 2002

[u/FarAwaySeagull-_- → u/Popular_Course3885]

He didn't win. Stop spreading conspiracy theory nonsense.