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2005 Indianapolis 500

The 2005 Indianapolis 500 was held at Indianapolis on Sunday, May 29, 2005. Dan Wheldon won the race under a yellow flag.

Rookie Danica Patrick, who qualified fourth and finished fourth, became the first female driver to lead laps during the race and won the Rookie of the Year award. Patrick led three separate times for a total of 19 laps, even after spinning and recovering between the third and fourth turns on a restart. She was the fourth driver in history to do so. However, she slipped back from the lead to fourth place during the last seven laps, with Dan Wheldon winning to become the first English victor since Graham Hill in the 1966 race.

Starting Grid

Row	Inside	Middle	Outside
1	Tony Kanaan	Sam Hornish, Jr.	Scott Sharp
2	Danica Patrick	Hélio Castroneves	Dario Franchitti
3	Vitor Meira	Kosuke Matsuura	Buddy Lazier
4	Tomáš Enge	Tomas Scheckter	Bruno Junqueira
5	Scott Dixon	Adrian Fernández	Sébastien Bourdais
6	Dan Wheldon	Roger Yasukawa	Bryan Herta
7	Darren Manning	Richie Hearn	Jeff Bucknum
8	Alex Barron	Kenny Bräck	Ryan Briscoe
9	Patrick Carpentier	Ed Carpenter	Jaques Lazier
10	A. J. Foyt IV	Marty Roth	Larry Foyt
11	Jeff Ward	Jimmy Kite	Felipe Giaffone

Full race results

Finish	Start	Car No.	Driver	C^*	E^*	Qual	Rank	Laps	Status	Team
1	16	26	Dan Wheldon	D	H	224.308	17	200	Running	Andretti Green Racing
2	7	17	Vitor Meira	P	H	226.848	8	200	Running	Rahal Letterman Racing
3	18	7	Bryan Herta	D	H	223.972	20	200	Running	Andretti Green Racing
4	4	16	Danica Patrick (R)	P	H	227.004	5	200	Running	Rahal Letterman Racing
5	9	95	Buddy Lazier (W)	D	C	226.353	10	200	Running	Panther Racing
6	6	27	Dario Franchitti	D	H	226.873	7	200	Running	Andretti Green Racing
7	3	8	Scott Sharp	P	H	227.126	4	200	Running	Fernandez Racing
8	1	11	Tony Kanaan	D	H	227.566	2	200	Running	Andretti Green Racing
9	5	3	Hélio Castroneves (W)	D	T	226.927	6	200	Running	Team Penske
10	24	33	Ryan Briscoe (R)	P	T	224.080	19	199	Running	Chip Ganassi Racing
11	26	20	Ed Carpenter	D	T	221.439	25	199	Running	Vision Racing
12	15	37	Sébastien Bourdais (R)	P	H	224.955	16	198	Crash T3	Newman/Haas Racing
13	22	51	Alex Barron	D	T	221.053	27	197	Running	Team Cheever
14	14	5	Adrian Fernández	P	H	225.120	15	197	Running	Fernandez Racing
15	33	48	Felipe Giaffone	P	T	217.645	36	194	Running	A.J. Foyt Enterprises
16	27	21	Jaques Lazier	P	T	221.228	26	189	Running	Playa Del Racing
17	8	55	Kosuke Matsuura	P	H	226.397	9	186	Crash T4	Super Aguri Fernandez Racing
18	17	24	Roger Yasukawa	D	H	224.131	18	167	Mechanical	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
19	10	2	Tomáš Enge (R)	D	C	226.107	11	155	Crash T4	Panther Racing
20	11	4	Tomas Scheckter	D	C	226.031	12	154	Crash T4	Panther Racing
21	25	83	Patrick Carpentier (R)	D	T	222.803	22	153	Mechanical	Team Cheever
22	21	44	Jeff Bucknum (R)	D	H	221.521	24	150	Crash T4	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
23	2	6	Sam Hornish, Jr.	D	T	227.273	3	146	Crash T1	Team Penske
24	13	9	Scott Dixon	P	T	225.215	14	113	Crash T1	Chip Ganassi Racing
25	20	70	Richie Hearn	P	C	222.707	23	112	Crash T1	Sam Schmidt Motorsports
26	23	15	Kenny Bräck (W)	P	H	227.598	1	92	Mechanical	Rahal Letterman Racing
27	31	22	Jeff Ward	D	T	218.714	34	92	Handling	Vision Racing
28	28	14	A.J. Foyt IV	D	T	220.442	28	84	Handling	A.J. Foyt Enterprises
29	19	10	Darren Manning	P	T	223.943	21	82	Mechanical	Chip Ganassi Racing
30	12	36	Bruno Junqueira	P	H	225.704	13	76	Crash T2	Newman/Haas Racing
31	29	25	Marty Roth	D	C	219.497	32	47	Handling	Roth Racing
32	32	91	Jimmy Kite	D	T	218.565	35	47	Handling	Hemelgarn Racing
33	30	41	Larry Foyt	D	T	219.396	33	14	Crash T2	A.J. Foyt Enterprises

Failed to qualify:
#91 Paul Dana (injured)
#98 Arie Luyendyk, Jr.
#41 Scott Mayer (failed rookie orientation)
#15 Buddy Rice (injured)

(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 2005 Indianapolis 500 used Firestone tires.

Race leaders

Seven drivers led the race, with a total of twenty-seven lead changes.

Laps	Leader
1-2	Sam Hornish, Jr.
3	Tony Kanaan
4-7	Sam Hornish, Jr.
8-25	Tony Kanaan
26	Dario Franchitti
27-37	Tony Kanaan
38-54	Sam Hornish, Jr.
55	Dario Franchitti
56	Danica Patrick
57-58	Bruno Junqueira
59-97	Sam Hornish, Jr.
98-100	Tony Kanaan
101-111	Sam Hornish, Jr.
112-115	Tony Kanaan
116-119	Sam Hornish, Jr.
120-122	Tony Kanaan
123	Dario Franchitti
124-135	Tony Kanaan
136-143	Dario Franchitti
144-145	Tony Kanaan
146-149	Dario Franchitti
150-161	Dan Wheldon
162-164	Vitor Meira
165-171	Dan Wheldon
172-185	Danica Patrick
186-189	Dan Wheldon
190-193	Danica Patrick
194-200	Dan Wheldon

Driver	Laps led
Sam Hornish, Jr.	77
Tony Kanaan	54
Dan Wheldon	30
Danica Patrick	19
Dario Franchitti	15
Vitor Meira	3
Bruno Junqueira	2

Caution periods

There were 8 caution periods during the race, with a total of forty-six laps run under yellow, including the race's final lap.

Laps	Cause
18-24	Larry Foyt crash
77-86	Bruno Junqueira crash and A.J. Foyt IV incident
114-119	Scott Dixon/Richie Hearn crash
147-154	Sam Hornish, Jr. crash
155-161	Tomáš Enge/Tomas Scheckter/Danica Patrick/Jeff Bucknum crash (Patrick received minimal damage and was able to remain in the race)
171-173	Roger Yasukawa car smoking
187-189	Kosuke Matsuura crash
199-200	Sébastien Bourdais crash

ABC's television coverage controversy

ABC Sports and in particular first-time lead IRL announcer Todd Harris (having taken over for veteran announcer Paul Page) were widely criticized by sportswriters after the race for their alleged bias in coverage. Harris, from World's Strongest Man was largely inexperienced calling live auto racing, and used to pre-recorded, highlight-style reporting.

One of the most significant stories of the race was that female racer Danica Patrick, who started 4th and finished 4th, became the first woman ever to lead the race (leading 19 laps total). Even when Patrick was running mid-pack, as she had through the middle portion of the race, ABC and Harris focused significant attention on her. This angered several columnists, who thought the front-runners deserved more coverage than they received.

When Patrick took the race lead for the first time on lap 59, during a sequence of pit stops by the leaders, Harris said, "50 years from now, you will remember where you were." Orlando Sentinel sportswriter Jerry Greene disputed this, writing the next day, "I seriously doubt it, Todd." Greene also wrote that Harris "said many stupid things Sunday because of Ms. Patrick's efforts."

Houston Chronicle writer David Barron said during the pre-race show and the race's first 90 minutes, he "counted an average of one Patrick reference every five minutes, and each reference went on for some time."

Toronto Star writer Richard Sandomir wrote that Harris and his analyst, former two-time Indy 500 runner-up Scott Goodyear, failed to note that Wheldon had overtaken Patrick on lap 193, seven from the finish, until 20 seconds after it happened. Sandomir also wrote that it took Harris thirty seconds to note Patrick had drifted back to fourth place, behind Vitor Meira and Bryan Herta.

Jerry Lundquist of the Richmond Times-Dispatch mentioned Page in his review, saying, "Viewers lose. [Page's] professionalism was missed. Harris' enthusiasm for the event was over the edge." Lundquist also wrote, "Either [Harris] was told to or took it on himself to become Patrick's personal flack."

Newsday writer Steve Zipay said that in the final laps, Harris "raised the volume in what seemed suspiciously like rooting for Patrick." Two days later, on May 31, Zipay appeared on sportscaster Tim Brando's radio show on The Sporting News' radio network, and wondered if ABC seemed like too much of a cheerleader for Patrick.

The television broadcast of the race concluded with The Finn Brothers song "Luckiest Man Alive" being played during the credits. It is not known whether ABC Sports would have chosen a different song had Patrick had won the race.