2004 Indianapolis 500

The 2004 Indianapolis 500 was held at Indianapolis on Sunday, May 30, 2004. It was cancelled early due to severe thunderstorms and a tornado in the area.

Recap

The combination of impending rain and pitstops threatened to turn the result into a lottery, with the winner being the driver that hadn’t been forced to pit for fuel. First to go is Bruno Junqueira, who originally gained the lead earlier by not pitting in hopes that rain would come before his fuel ran out. Junqueira pitted on lap 151, handing the race back to the day’s pacesetting trio of Buddy Rice, Tony Kanaan and Dan Wheldon. Kanaan and Wheldon, respectively, came in soon afterwards. Rice, who had steadily become the dominant car past lap 145, came in next and gave up the lead on lap 167 to Bryan Herta, who stopped in turn on lap 169. Adrian Fernandez made it to lap 172, but the rain still hadn't arrived. After several anxious laps, Fernandez pitted and put Rice back into the lead ahead of second place Kanaan and third place Wheldon, which remained the running order. A severe thunderstorm finally fell to bring a halt to proceedings at lap 180, 450 miles. With the victory, Rice became the first American winner since Eddie Cheever in 1998. It was also the first rain-shortened 500 since 1976. As the victory celebration occurred indoors, a tornado rating F3 on the Fujita Scale missed the Speedway and its quarter-million spectators by only six miles as it raked across the South Central portion of Indianapolis. The tornado caused widespread damage.

Results

Finish	Start	No	Name	Qual	Rank	C	E	Laps	Led	Status	Entrant
1	1	15	Buddy Rice	222.024	1	P	H	180	91	Running	Rahal Letterman Racing
2	5	11	Tony Kanaan	221.200	5	D	H	180	28	Running	Andretti Green Racing
3	2	26	Dan Wheldon	221.524	2	D	H	180	26	Running	Andretti Green Racing
4	23	7	Bryan Herta	219.871	13	D	H	180	3	Running	Andretti Green Racing
5	4	36	Bruno Junqueira	221.379	4	P	H	180	16	Running	Newman/Haas Racing
6	7	17	Vitor Meira	220.958	7	P	H	180	0	Running	Rahal Letterman Racing
7	6	5	Adrian Fernández	220.999	6	P	H	180	3	Running	Fernandez Racing
8	13	1	Scott Dixon	219.319	14	P	T	180	0	Running	Chip Ganassi Racing
9	8	3	Hélio Castroneves (W)	220.882	8	D	T	180	0	Running	Team Penske
10	12	16	Roger Yasukawa	220.030	12	P	H	180	0	Running	Rahal Letterman Racing
11	9	55	Kosuke Matsuura (R)	220.740	9	P	H	180	0	Running	Super Aguri Fernandez Racing
12	24	51	Alex Barron	218.836	17	D	C	180	3	Running	Team Cheever
13	20	8	Scott Sharp	215.635	24	D	T	180	0	Running	Kelley Racing
14	3	27	Dario Franchitti	221.471	3	D	H	180	1	Running	Andretti Green Racing
15	25	24	Felipe Giaffone	216.259	22	D	C	179	0	Running	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
16	29	21	Jeff Simmons (R)	214.783	26	D	T	179	0	Running	Mo Nunn Racing
17	17	20	Al Unser, Jr. (W)	217.966	19	D	C	179	0	Running	Patrick Racing
18	10	4	Tomas Scheckter	220.417	10	D	C	179	0	Running	Panther Racing
19	26	12	Tora Takagi	214.364	27	D	T	179	0	Running	Mo Nunn Racing
20	30	33	Richie Hearn	213.715	29	P	T	178	0	Running	Sam Schmidt Motorsports
21	19	39	Sarah Fisher	215.771	23	D	T	177	0	Running	Kelley Racing
22	33	18	Robby McGehee	211.631	33	D	C	177	0	Running	PDM Racing
23	28	91	Buddy Lazier (W)	215.110	25	D	C	164	0	Fuel System	Hemelgarn Racing
24	32	25	Marty Roth (R)	211.974	32	D	T	128	0	Accident FS	Roth Racing
25	15	10	Darren Manning (R)	219.271	16	P	T	104	0	Accident T4	Chip Ganassi Racing
26	11	6	Sam Hornish, Jr.	220.180	11	D	T	104	9	Accident T4	Team Penske
27	27	13	Greg Ray	216.641	20	P	H	98	0	Accident T4	Access Motorsports
28	31	98	P. J. Jones (R)	213.355	30	D	C	92	0	Accident BS	CURB/Agajanian/Beck Motorsports
29	18	70	Robby Gordon Jaques Lazier	216.522	21	D	C	88	0	Mechanical	Robby Gordon Motorsports
30	14	2	Mark Taylor (R)	219.282	15	D	C	62	0	Accident T3	Panther Racing
31	16	52	Ed Carpenter (R)	218.590	18	D	C	62	0	Accident T3	Team Cheever
32	22	41	Larry Foyt (R)	213.277	31	P	T	54	0	Accident T2	A.J. Foyt Enterprises
33	21	14	A. J. Foyt IV	214.256	28	D	T	26	0	Handling	A.J. Foyt Enterprises

(W) = Former Indianapolis 500 winner; (R) = Indianapolis 500 rookie

*C Chassis: D=Dallara, P=Panoz

*E Engine: C=Chevrolet, H=Honda, T=Toyota

All cars in the 2004 Indianapolis 500 used Firestone tires.

Failed to qualify:
#10 Luis Díaz
#14 Jaques Lazier

Notes: Race halted on lap 27 due to rain. The race was resumed, and when rain pelted the Speedway again late in the race, officials waved the checkered flag 15 minutes after the traditional 6 PM closing time. It was only the second time in IMS history racing went past the 6 PM closing time; in 1995, the Brickyard 400 raced into 7 PM because of rain delays. Since the adoption of Daylight Saving Time, the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard will usually run past 6 PM.

During the rain delay, Robby Gordon flew to Charlotte for the Coca-Cola 600, which prompted the team to put Jaques Lazier in the car, but a crash forced the car not to finish