Indianapolis 500 - Race results

Dan Wheldon was never far from the front of the field during the three hours of the 2011 Indy 500, but he never looked like winning and never led a lap. Except the last one.

Andrew Lewin_1

29 May 2011

Britain's Dan Wheldon pulled off a shock last-second victory for Bryan Herta Autosport, to claim his second Indy 500 title.

Wheldon was always well-placed during the race, but after strong early challenges from Sam Schmidt Motorsports' Alex Tagliani and Newman/Haas' Oriol Servia faded away it seemed that the race was falling into the hands of the perpetually threatening Ganassi duo of Scott Dixon and Dario franchitti.

But a pit stop gamble for Franchitti back-fired for the team, with the 2010 Indy 500 winner running dry before the end; Scott Dixon also faded toward the end, leaving the lead in the hands of Panther Racing's 23-year-old rookie JR Hildebrand from California.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway crowd was on its feet at his bit of history about to be made - not to mention an All-American winner at last - but then the unthinkable happened when Hildebrand got up the race track far and slid on the marbles into a heavy impact with the wall out of turn 4 on the last lap. The wrecked car continued to slide and crossed the finish line, but in the meantime Dan Wheldon had materialised at speed to take the chequered flag, leading for the first and only time in the entire race.

A potential challenge to the race result from Panther (on the grounds that the race order should have been frozen when Hildebrand hit the wall, giving Panther the win) did not materialise.

Race results

1. #98 Dan Wheldon William Rast - Curb/Big Machine 2:56:11.7267s (200 laps)
2. #4 JR Hildebrand (R) National Guard Panther Racing + 2.1086s
3. #38 Graham Rahal Service Central + 5.5949s
4. #82 Tony Kanaan GEICO - KV Racing Technology - Lotus + 7.4870s
5. #9 Scott Dixon Target Chip Ganassi Racing + 9.5434s
6. #2 Oriol Servia CDW/Telemundo + 8.8757s *
7. #30 Bertrand Baguette The RACB/Aspria RLL Special + 23.9631s
8. #07 Tomas Scheckter Team REDLINE Xtreme - Circle K + 24.3299s
9. #26 Marco Andretti Team Venom + 25.4711s
10. #7 Danica Patrick Team GoDaddy + 26.4483s
11. #67 Ed Carpenter Dollar General/Sarah Fisher Racing + 27.0375s
12. #10 Dario Franchitti Target Chip Ganassi Racing + 56.4167s
13. #83 Charlie Kimball (R) Levemir and Novolog FlexPen + 1 lap
14. #12 Will Power Verizon Team Penske + 1 lap
15. #14 Vitor Meira ABC Supply Co./A.J. Foyt Racing + 1 lap
16. #22 Justin Wilson Z-Line Designs/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing + 1 lap
17. #3 Helio Castroneves Shell V-Power/Pennzoil Ultra Team Penske + 1 lap
18. #44 Buddy Rice Fuzzy's Vodka/Panther Racing + 2 laps
19. #19 Alex Lloyd Boy Scouts of America + 2 laps
20. #36 Pippa Mann (R) Conquest Racing + 2 laps
21. #24 Ana Beatriz Team Ipiranga/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing + 3 laps
22. #43 John Andretti Team Window World + 3 laps
23. #41 Ryan Hunter-Reay ABC Supply/DHL/Sun Drop + 3 laps
24. #11 Davey Hamilton HP/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing + 7 laps
25. #23 Paul Tracy WIX Filters/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing + 25 laps
26. #99 Townsend Bell Herbalife Schmidt Pelfrey Racing Lap 157 Contact
27. #6 Ryan Briscoe IZOD Team Penske Lap 157 Contact
28. #77 Alex Tagliani Bowers & Wilkins/Sam Schmidt Lap 147 Contact
29. #06 James Hinchcliffe (R) Sprott Newman Haas Racing Lap 99 Contact
30. #88 Jay Howard (R) Service Central Schmidt RLL Racing Lap 60 Contact
31. #78 Simona de Silvestro Nuclear Clean Air Energy Lap 44 Handling
32. #59 EJ Viso PDVSA - KV Racing Technology - Lotus Lap 27 Contact
33. #5 Takuma Sato Monavie-KV Racing Technology - Lotus Lap 20 Contact