That left rookie JR Hildebrand in the lead for Panther Racing, a team that had finished second for the previous three 500s with 2005 winner Dan Wheldon. The closing laps of the Centenary event were epic as a variety of strategy gambles failed to mesh with yellow-flag periods, leaving some great driver/team combinations, such as Chip Ganassi Racing's Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon, trying to coax their cars home on fumes.Īfter Danica Patrick was forced to give up the lead with 12 laps to go, Bertrand Baguette took over at the front until lap 197, when his Conquest Racing Dallara was forced into taking on a late splash-and-dash. Less than 20 laps later, a fired up Sullivan moved into the lead which he'd never lose, able to pull away from Andretti after all subsequent restarts, with Roberto Gurrero completing the top three in a Team Cotter March-Cosworth. Equally remarkably, 1969 500 winner Andretti avoided him through the smokescreen.

Remarkably he completed 360 degrees without striking the wall. Moving out to make the pass on the inside of Turn 1, Sullivan found himself having to use the track and the apron, and the transition wobbled his car into a spin. Sullivan's March 85C got stronger throughout the event, and he found it relatively easy to haul up onto Andretti's tail at the start of lap 120. Mario Andretti led the majority of the first half of the race for Newman/Haas Lola, but Danny Sullivan had learned well from Penske team-mate Rick Mears - still recovering from his previous year's shunt at Sanair - about constantly fine-tuning his car for the final shootout in 500-mile races. And omitting the events that finished under caution, we narrowed down a list of races that had tense finishes and drama aplenty to come up with our top 10 Indy 500s.

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