1995 Indianapolis 500 it allowed him to complete the full 500 miles, becoming the second and final driver to complete 500 miles in a Buick/Menard powered car. Luyendyk's 7th-place finish was the second-highest for the Buick/Menard V6, surpassed only by the third-place finish of Al Unser, Sr. in 1992. Jacques Villeneuve went on to win the 1995 CART championship, and subsequently signed with Williams in the offseason. With a growing cloud of controversy and uncertainty over a potential and looming open wheel "split," the 1995 Indianapolis 500 marked a turning point in the sport. Within months, and by the 1996 race, the landscape
2009 Indianapolis 500 2009 Indianapolis 500 The 93rd Indianapolis 500 was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Sunday May 24, 2009. It was the 14th Indy 500 sanctioned by the Indy Racing League, and the premier event of the 2009 IndyCar Series season. Hélio Castroneves, a native of Brazil, won the race from the pole position, his third Indy 500 victory. He became the first foreign-born three-time winner of the race, and tied a record by winning the race three times in the same decade (2001, 2002, 2009). The win was car owner Roger Penske's 15th Indy 500 triumph,