2007 Indianapolis 500

The 91st Indianapolis 500 was held at the

All entries utilized ethanol, after 42 years of utilizing methanol. As part of a two-year roll-out, the cars used a 10% ethanol blend in 2006, and for 2007, the cars utilized a full ethanol mixture. Although branded as "100% percent fuel-grade", the fuel was actually a denatured 98% ethanol/2% gasoline blend (E98). The 2007 race was also the final 500 to see the Panoz chassis in competition.

Race schedule

Practice (week 1)

Sunday May 6, 2007 - A. J. Foyt Opening Day & Rookie Orientation Program

• Weather: Sunny, 73 °F (23 °C)
• Practice summary: The first day of practice opened with a ceremonial lap celebrating A. J. Foyt's fiftieth year of participation at Indianapolis. Practice focused on the rookie tests of Milka Duno and Phil Giebler, as well as refresher tests by five veterans. Duno completed all four phases of her rookie test, and Giebler completed two. Michael Andretti posted the fastest speed of the day, while popular Davey Hamilton made his return to the cockpit, after a devastating 2001 crash at Texas. No incidents were reported.

May 6, 2007 - Top Practice Speeds^[3]

Rank	Car No.	Driver	Team	Best Speed
1	39	Michael Andretti	Andretti Green	219.871
2	12	Ryan Briscoe	Luczo-Dragon Racing	218.216
3	02	Davey Hamilton	Vision Racing	218.022
4	21	Jaques Lazier	Playa Del Racing	216.467
5	23	Milka Duno  R	SAMAX Motorsports	214.128

Monday May 7, 2007 - Rookie Orientation Program

• Weather: Sunny, 76 °F (24 °C)
• Practice summary: The second day of Rookie Orientation saw the same seven drivers from the previous day's practice without incident. Rookie Phil Giebler finished the final two phases of his rookie test. Rookie Milka Duno completed the most practice laps of the day (74), while Michael Andretti posted the fastest speed for the second day in a row.

May 7, 2007 - Top Practice Speeds^[4]

Rank	Car No.	Driver	Team	Best Speed
1	39	Michael Andretti	Andretti Green	221.579
2	12	Ryan Briscoe	Luczo-Dragon Racing	221.427
3	02	Davey Hamilton	Vision Racing	220.214
4	21	Phil Giebler  R	Playa Del Racing	217.091
5	19	Jon Herb	Racing Professionals	216.763

Tuesday May 8, 2007 - IndyCar Series practice

• Weather: Sunny, 82 °F (28 °C)
• Practice summary: The first full day of practice featured veterans on the track for the first time. Dan Wheldon led the speed chart as the first driver over 225 mph (362 km/h). Jon Herb was involved in the first crash of the month, doing a half-spin at the exit of turn two and crashing into the outside wall. Herb was not injured.

May 8, 2007 - Top Practice Speeds^[5]

Rank	Car No.	Driver	Team	Best Speed
1	10	Dan Wheldon	Target Chip Ganassi	225.074
2	3	Hélio Castroneves	Team Penske	224.996
3	2	Tomas Scheckter	Vision Racing	224.783
4	11	Tony Kanaan	Andretti Green	224.622
5	9	Scott Dixon	Target Chip Ganassi	224.564

Wednesday May 9, 2007 - IndyCar Series practice

• Weather: Morning rain, afternoon clouds, 78 °F (26 °C)
• Practice summary: Rain in the morning and early afternoon delayed the start of practice until 4:00 p.m. The two-hours session saw heavy action, with Dan Wheldon leading the speed chart for the second day in a row. No incidents were reported.

May 9, 2007 - Top Practice Speeds^[6]

Rank	Car No.	Driver	Team	Best Speed
1	10	Dan Wheldon	Target Chip Ganassi	226.391
2	3	Hélio Castroneves	Team Penske	225.820
3	9	Scott Dixon	Target Chip Ganassi	224.902
4	26	Marco Andretti	Andretti Green	224.745
5	11	Tony Kanaan	Andretti Green	224.112

Thursday May 10, 2007 - IndyCar Series practice

• Weather: Partly cloudy, 86 °F (30 °C)
• Practice summary: The warmest day of the week thus far saw some of the fastest laps turned so far for the month. Scott Dixon set fast lap with two minutes remaining in the session. Danica Patrick was second fastest for the day. No incidents were reported

May 10, 2007 - Top Practice Speeds^[7]

Rank	Car No.	Driver	Team	Best Speed
1	9	Scott Dixon	Target Chip Ganassi	226.473
2	7	Danica Patrick	Andretti Green	226.358
3	10	Dan Wheldon	Target Chip Ganassi	224.902
4	2	Tomas Scheckter	Vision Racing	226.161
5	12	Ryan Briscoe	Luczo-Dragon Racing	225.995

Friday May 11, 2007 - "Fast" Friday IndyCar Series practice

• Weather: Partly cloudy, 85 °F (29 °C)
• Practice summary: The final day of practice before pole qualifying saw Scott Dixon turn the fastest lap of the month. Rookie Milka Duno crashed in the exit of turn 1. She spun and hit the SAFER barrier hard with the rear of the car, but she was not injured.

May 11, 2007 - Top Practice Speeds^[8]

Rank	Car No.	Driver	Team	Best Speed
1	9	Scott Dixon	Target Chip Ganassi	227.167
2	10	Dan Wheldon	Target Chip Ganassi	226.650
3	11	Tony Kanaan	Andretti Green	226.236
4	26	Marco Andretti	Andretti Green	226.230
5	27	Dario Franchitti	Andretti Green	226.189

Qualifying (first weekend)

Saturday May 12, 2007 - AAMCO Pole Day

• Weather: Sunny, high 82 °F (28 °C)
• Qualifying summary: Pole day time trials were held under a new qualifying procedure, implemented in 2005, but not fully utilized in 2005 or 2006 due to rain delays. Only the top 11 cars would qualify on pole day, and the remaining would be "bumped" out. Each qualifying run consisted of four laps, and each car was allowed three attempts per day. Buddy Rice was the first out to qualify, but his speed ultimately did not make the top 11. During the first trip through the qualifying order, Team Penske pulled both Hélio Castroneves and Sam Hornish Jr. out of line, and decided to attempt to qualify later in the day, when the temperatures would be cooler. After the initial qualifying runs, Dario Franchitti qualified for the provisional pole position. Later in the afternoon, both Castroneves and Hornish completed qualifying runs, but neither were unable to knock Franchitti off the pole. Hornish's first attempt would have been fast enough to take the pole, but he nearly hit the outside wall in the southchute on his second lap. Even with this error, however, Hornish's run was only 0.0327 seconds slower than Franchitti's. Almost immediately, Hornish withdrew and tried a second attempt, and again nearly took the pole, but on his final lap, his car bobbled in the north chute, and his second attempt was slower than his first. This would cost him a spot on the starting grid when Scott Dixon later withdrew his qualifying run and made another attempt, this one faster than Hornish's second attempt. With eight minutes left in qualifying, Castroneves' car was withdrawn, and he made a second attempt. After nearly four hours, Franchitti was finally knocked off the pole position. With only three minutes left, Tony Kanaan withdrew his first attempt, made the final qualifying run of the day. While his first three laps were fast enough to take the pole away from Castroneves, his last lap fell short and qualified second. This was Hélio Castroneves' second Indy 500 pole position. He also won the pole in 2003.

May 12, 2007 - Pole Day Qualifying Results Rank Car No. Driver Team Qual. Speed 1 3 Hélio Castroneves Team Penske 225.817 2 11 Tony Kanaan Andretti Green 225.757 3 27 Dario Franchitti Andretti Green 225.191 4 9 Scott Dixon Target Chip Ganassi 225.122 5 6 Sam Hornish Jr. Team Penske 225.109 6 10 Dan Wheldon Target Chip Ganassi 224.641 7 12 Ryan Briscoe Luczo-Dragon Racing 224.410 8 7 Danica Patrick Andretti Green 224.076 9 26 Marco Andretti Andretti Green 223.299 10 2 Tomas Scheckter Vision Racing 222.877 11 39 Michael Andretti Andretti Green 222.789

May 12, 2007 - Top Practice Speeds[9] Rank Car No. Driver Team Best Speed 1 11 Tony Kanaan Andretti Green 226.827 2 7 Danica Patrick Andretti Green 226.058 3 9 Scott Dixon Target Chip Ganassi 225.968 4 3 Hélio Castroneves Team Penske 225.920 5 10 Dan Wheldon Target Chip Ganassi 225.917

Sunday May 13, 2007 - Second Day Qualifying

• Weather: Fair skies, high 74 °F (23 °C)
• Qualifying summary: The second day of time trials filled positions 12–22 on the starting grid. The first hour saw heavy action, featuring strong runs from IndyCar Series regulars such as
  Jeff Simmons and Darren Manning. Fan favorite Davey Hamilton also qualified with a solid speed. Later in the afternoon, Sarah Fisher became the second woman to qualify for the field. Bumping began with Marty Roth, Buddy Lazier and Jon Herb all being bumped. Herb went out later, and bumped himself back into the field, only to be bumped out a second time by Lazier. As time was running out, Jaques Lazier took to the track to try to bump himself into the top 22, and effectively bump his brother Buddy out. He was too slow and waved off the run. At the end of the day, two-time Indy 500 winner Al Unser Jr.
  was the most notable driver bumped for the day, and had to attempt to qualify on the second weekend.

May 13, 2007 - Second Day Qualifying Results Rank Car No. Driver Team Qual. Speed 12 8 Scott Sharp Rahal Letterman 223.875 13 17 Jeff Simmons Rahal Letterman 223.693 14 20 Ed Carpenter Vision Racing 223.495 15 14 Darren Manning A. J. Foyt Racing 223.471 16 15 Buddy Rice Dreyer & Reinbold 222.820 17 55 Kosuke Matsuura Panther Racing 222.595 18 22 A. J. Foyt IV Vision Racing 222.413 19 4 Vítor Meira Panther Racing 222.333 20 02 Davey Hamilton Vision Racing 222.327 21 5 Sarah Fisher Dreyer & Reinbold 221.960 22 99 Buddy Lazier Sam Schmidt Motorsports 221.380

May 13, 2007 - Top Practice Speeds[10] Rank Car No. Driver Team Best Speed 1 8 Scott Sharp Rahal Letterman 224.214 2 20 Ed Carpenter Vision Racing 224.106 3 17 Jeff Simmons Rahal Letterman 223.894 4 14 Darren Manning A. J. Foyt Racing 223.603 5 4 Vítor Meira Panther Racing 223.095

Practice (week 2)

Wednesday May 16, 2007 - IndyCar Series practice

• Weather: Mostly cloudy early, clearing late, high 62 °F (17 °C), 18 mph (29 km/h) WNW winds
• Practice summary: The first day of practice for second-week deals. Only incident was a spin of Jimmy Kite's car when the gearbox casing of his PDM Racing Panoz cracked in turn 2, causing the left-rear suspension to fail. The car made moderate wall contact with the left-front corner and Kite was cleared to drive. Several teams that qualified during the first weekend tested race set ups and ran in packs, including Danica Patrick who set the fastest lap of the day. Jaques Lazier (217.159 mph (349.484 km/h)) had the fastest lap among drivers who are not yet in the field.

May 16, 2007 - Top Practice Speeds^[11]

Rank	Car No.	Driver	Team	Best Speed
1	7	Danica Patrick	Andretti Green	221.189
2	9	Scott Dixon	Target Chip Ganassi	220.556
3	6	Sam Hornish Jr.	Team Penske	220.484
4	26	Marco Andretti	Andretti Green	220.399
5	27	Dario Franchitti	Andretti Green	220.131

Thursday May 17, 2007 - IndyCar Series practice

• Weather: Mostly cloudy early, clearing late, high 65 °F (18 °C), 16 mph (26 km/h) North winds
• Practice summary: The second straight day of cold and windy weather resulted in fewer than 800 total laps being turned among 23 drivers. The only incident of the day resulted when
  Stephan Gregoire lost control on the exit of turn 1 and backed the car into the wall in the south short chute. Only light damage was sustained to the car, but Gregoire complained of back pain and was transported to Methodist Hospital where he was diagnosed with a fracture of the third vertebra endplate and was ruled out for the rest of the month. John Andretti made his first appearance in an IndyCar since 1994 and completed his refresher test. Scott Dixon turned the fastest lap of the day while drafting with teammate Dan Wheldon
  . Gregoire (217.851 mph (350.597 km/h)) turned the fastest lap among drivers yet to qualify before his encounter with the wall.

May 17, 2007 - Top Practice Speeds^[12]

Rank	Car No.	Driver	Team	Best Speed
1	9	Scott Dixon	Target Chip Ganassi	219.985
2	10	Dan Wheldon	Target Chip Ganassi	219.773
3	14	Darren Manning	A. J. Foyt Racing	219.116
4	2	Tomas Scheckter	Vision Racing	218.230
5	20	Ed Carpenter	Vision Racing	217.995

Friday May 18, 2007 - IndyCar Series practice

• Weather: Sunny, high 65 °F (18 °C)
• Practice summary: The final full day of practice went incident free as 31 cars took to the track. All the front runners were running in packs, learning how their cars performed in "dirty air."
  drafting
  assistance as their teams trimmed their cars out to prepare for qualifying. Friday marked the last day of full practice; however, all cars will be permitted to practice on Saturday and Sunday during down periods when no cars are presenting to qualify.

May 18, 2007 - Top Practice Speeds^[13]

Rank	Car No.	Driver	Team	Best Speed
1	6	Sam Hornish Jr.	Team Penske	225.006
2	9	Scott Dixon	Target Chip Ganassi	224.458
3	11	Tony Kanaan	Andretti Green	224.340
4	27	Dario Franchitti	Andretti Green	224.253
5	26	Marco Andretti	Andretti Green	223.668

Qualifying (second weekend)

Saturday May 19, 2007 - Third Day Qualifying

• Weather: 72 °F (22 °C), sunny and fair skies
• Qualifying summary: The third day of time trials focused on positions 23–33. Rookie
  Alex Barron also completed runs. In the final hour, Jon Herb finally made the field, after being bumped the weekend before, but rookie Phil Giebler crashed on his fourth and final lap. Veteran Roberto Moreno, just named to replace Gregoire on Friday, along with Jimmy Kite
  , wrapped up the qualifying for the day. At the end of the day, the field stood with 32 qualified cars, one short of a full field. During the morning and afternoon, 32 cars made practice runs, most in preparations for race day. Since only 10 of the 11 allotted positions were filled, no bumping occurred Saturday.

May 19, 2007 - Third Day Qualifying Results Rank Car No. Driver Team Qual. Speed 23 24 Roger Yasukawa Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 222.654 24 33 John Andretti Panther Racing 221.756 25 50 Al Unser Jr. A. J. Foyt Racing 220.876 26 98 Alex Barron CURB/Agajanian/Beck Motorsports 220.471 27 19 Jon Herb Racing Professionals 220.108 28 21 Jaques Lazier Playa Del Racing 219.409 29 23 Milka Duno SAMAX Motorsports 219.228 30 25 Marty Roth Roth Racing 218.922 31† 77 Roberto Moreno Chastain Motorsports 216.229 32†† 18 Jimmy Kite PDM Racing 214.528 †Qualification withdrawn on bump day. ††Bumped on bump day.

May 19, 2007 - Top Practice Speeds[14] Rank Car No. Driver Team Best Speed 1 10 Dan Wheldon Target Chip Ganassi 224.895 2 3 Hélio Castroneves Team Penske 224.692 3 11 Tony Kanaan Andretti Green 224.593 4 9 Scott Dixon Target Chip Ganassi 223.692 5 39 Michael Andretti Andretti Green 223.417

Sunday May 20, 2007 - Bump Day Qualifying

• Weather: Sunny and warm
• Qualifying summary: The field filled to 33 cars just before 3 p.m. as Richie Hearn completed a qualifying attempt. Phil Giebler recovered from his crash the previous day and was able to put his car solidly in the field, bumping Jimmy Kite. Roberto Moreno withdrew his time from the previous day and improved his average by about 4 mph (6.4 km/h), putting Marty Roth on the bubble. P. J. Jones and Jimmy Kite spent the afternoon trying to get their cars up to speed. In the final hour, both Jones and Kite were running out of miles on their Honda engines leases, and neither had made much progress. Ultimately, Jones gave up. Meanwhile, Kite decided to go out and make last ditch qualifying effort, but his speed was not nearly fast enough to bump Roth. The 6 p.m. gun sounded, and Roth held on to qualify for his third Indy 500.

May 20, 2007 - Bump Day Qualifying Results Rank Car No. Driver Team Qual. Speed 31 77 Roberto Moreno Chastain Motorsports 220.299 32 91 Richie Hearn Hemelgarn Racing/Racing Professionals 219.860 33 31 Phil Giebler Playa Del Racing 219.637

May 20, 2007 - Top Practice Speeds[15] Rank Car No. Driver Team Best Speed 1 10 Dan Wheldon Target Chip Ganassi 222.797 2 9 Scott Dixon Target Chip Ganassi 222.779 3 27 Dario Franchitti Andretti Green 222.699 4 11 Tony Kanaan Andretti Green 222.632 5 26 Marco Andretti Andretti Green 222.144

Carb Day

Friday May 25, 2007 - IndyCar Series final practice

• Weather: cloudy, humid, 82 °F (28 °C)
• Practice summary: All 33 qualified cars took to the track and turned in a complete hour-long final practice without incident. Later that day at 3:30 the Miller Lite Concert started with headline act Kid Rock.

May 25, 2007 - Top Practice Speeds

Rank	Car No.	Driver	Team	Best Speed
1	11	Tony Kanaan	Andretti Green	225.467
2	27	Dario Franchitti	Andretti Green	223.807
3	39	Michael Andretti	Andretti Green	223.575
4	3	Hélio Castroneves	Team Penske	223.527
5	21	Jaques Lazier	Playa Del Racing	223.468

Friday May 25, 2007 -

Checkers/Rally's

Pit Stop Challenge

Team Penske won the 31st annual pit stop contest, their record tenth overall victory in the event. The teams of Hélio Castroneves and Sam Hornish Jr. (both Penske entries) met in the finals with Castroneves and his chief mechanic Rick Rinaman winning the $100,000 first prize after an 8.335-second pit stop.

Qualifying chronology

Pole Day - Saturday, May 12, 2007^[16][17]

Attempt	Time	Day	Car No.	Driver	Laps	Total Time	Speed (mph)	Result	Position	Rank
1	12:03	1	15	Buddy Rice	4	2:42.3336	221.766	Qualified; bumped by Michael Andretti	—	—
2	12:08	1	9	Scott Dixon	4	2:40.4630	224.351	Qualified; withdrawn	—	—
3	12:12	1	12	Ryan Briscoe	4	2:40.4208	224.410	Qualified	7	7
4	12:18	1	8	Scott Sharp	4	2:41.7994	222.498	Qualified; bumped by Marco Andretti	—	—
5	12:21	1	10	Dan Wheldon	4	2:40.9401	223.686	Qualified; withdrawn	—	—
6	12:27	1	20	Ed Carpenter	4	2:41.6630	222.685	Qualified; bumped by Castroneves	—	—
7	12:31	1	22	A. J. Foyt IV	4	2:42.5527	221.467	Qualified; bumped by Scheckter	—	—
8	12:36	1	55	Kosuke Matsuura	4	2:42.2603	221.866	Qualified; bumped by Simmons	—	—
9	12:40	1	7	Danica Patrick	4	2:40.6596	224.076	Qualified	8	8
10	12:45	1	4	Vítor Meira	2	1:21.4705	220.939	Waved off	—	—
11	12:48	1	11	Tony Kanaan	4	2:40.2719	224.618	Qualified; withdrawn	—	—
12	12:53	1	27	Dario Franchitti	4	2:39.8642	225.191	Qualified	3	3
13	12:58	1	2	Tomas Scheckter	4	2:41.5238	222.877	Qualified, bumping Foyt IV	10	14
14	1:03	1	39	Michael Andretti	4	2:41.5880	222.789	Qualified, bumping Rice	11	16
15	1:07	1	17	Jeff Simmons	4	2:41.6617	222.687	Qualified, bumping Matsuura; bumped by Hornish	—	—
16	1:11	1	26	Marco Andretti	4	2:41.2186	223.299	Qualified, bumping Sharp	9	13
17	4:12	1	3	Hélio Castroneves	4	2:40.0088	224.988	Qualified, bumping Carpenter; withdrawn	—	—
18	4:36	1	6	Sam Hornish Jr.	4	2:39.8969	225.145	Qualified, bumping Simmons; withdrawn	—	—
19	4:51	1	6	Sam Hornish Jr.	4	2:39.9227	225.109	Qualified	5	5
20	5:23	1	9	Scott Dixon	4	2:39.9136	225.122	Qualified	4	4
21	5:28	1	8	Scott Sharp	4	2:41.6209	222.743	Failed to qualify	—	—
22	5:33	1	17	Jeff Simmons	4	2:41.8433	222.437	Failed to qualify	—	—
23	5:38	1	10	Dan Wheldon	4	2:40.2557	224.641	Qualified	6	6
24	5:42	1	20	Ed Carpenter	4	2:41.6871	222.652	Failed to qualify	—	—
25	5:48	1	14	Darren Manning	4	2:41.6844	222.656	Failed to qualify	—	—
26	5:52	1	3	Hélio Castroneves	4	2:39.4214	225.817	Qualified	1	1
27	5:57	1	11	Tony Kanaan	4	2:39.4634	225.757	Qualified	2	2

Sunday May 13, 2007^[17][18]

Attempt	Time	Day	Car No.	Driver	Laps	Total Time	Speed (mph)	Result	Position	Rank
28	12:02	2	8	Scott Sharp	4	2:40.8041	223.875	Qualified	12	9
29	12:07	2	55	Kosuke Matsuura	4	2:41.7290	222.595	Qualified	17	18
30	12:11	2	99	Buddy Lazier	4	2:43.3010	220.452	Qualified; bumped by Rice	—	—
31	12:16	2	17	Jeff Simmons	4	2:40.9352	223.693	Qualified	13	10
32	12:20	2	25	Marty Roth	4	2:43.7193	219.889	Qualified; bumped by Foyt IV	—	—
33	12:25	2	14	Darren Manning	4	2:41.0950	223.471	Qualified	15	12
34	12:30	2	50	Al Unser Jr.	4	2:42.9233	220.963	Qualified; bumped by Herb	—	—
35	12:35	2	19	Jon Herb	4	2:43.7065	219.906	Qualified; bumped by Fisher	—	—
36	12:39	2	02	Davey Hamilton	4	2:41.9238	222.327	Qualified	20	21
37	1:09	2	4	Vítor Meira	4	2:41.9196	222.333	Qualified	19	20
38	1:45	2	20	Ed Carpenter	4	2:41.0777	223.495	Qualified	14	11
39	2:24	2	22	A. J. Foyt IV	4	2:41.8607	222.413	Qualified, bumping Roth	18	19
40	3:26	2	5	Sarah Fisher	4	2:42.1914	221.960	Qualified, bumping Herb	21	22
41	3:34	2	15	Buddy Rice	4	2:41.5612	222.826	Qualified, bumping B. Lazier	16	15
42	5:29	2	19	Jon Herb	4	2:42.8440	221.070	Qualified, bumping Unser Jr.; bumped by B. Lazier	—	—
43	5:53	2	99	Buddy Lazier	4	2:42.6165	221.380	Qualified, bumping Herb	22	24
44	5:58	2	21	Jaques Lazier	1	0:40.8700	220.210	Waved off	—	—

Saturday May 19, 2007^[17][19]

Attempt	Time	Day	Car No.	Driver	Laps	Total Time	Speed (mph)	Result	Position	Rank
45	12:03	3	23	Milka Duno	4	2:44.2129	219.228	Qualified	29	32
46	12:07	3	24	Roger Yasukawa	4	2:41.6855	222.654	Qualified	23	17
47	12:12	3	19	Jon Herb	3	2:02.5974	220.233	Waved off	—	—
48	12:25	3	25	Marty Roth	4	2:44.4421	218.922	Qualified	30	33
49	12:59	3	33	John Andretti	4	2:42.3403	221.756	Qualified	24	23
50	2:20	3	50	Al Unser Jr.	4	2:42.9871	220.876	Qualified	25	25
51	5:14	3	98	Alex Barron	4	2:43.2871	220.471	Qualified	26	26
52	5:18	3	21	Jaques Lazier	4	2:44.0774	219.409	Qualified	28	31
53	5:23	3	19	Jon Herb	4	2:43.5561	220.108	Qualified	27	28
54	5:27	3	31	Phil Giebler	3	2:01.9724	221.362	Crashed in turn 2 on 4th lap	—	—
55	5:44	3	77	Roberto Moreno	4	2:46.4902	216.229	Qualified; withdrawn on bump day	—	—
56	5:54	3	18	Jimmy Kite	4	2:47.8104	214.528	Qualified; bumped by Giebler on bump day	—	—

Bump Day - Sunday May 20, 2007^[17][20][21]

Attempt	Time	Day	Car No.	Driver	Laps	Total Time	Speed (mph)	Result	Position	Rank
57	2:39	4	91	Richie Hearn	4	2:43.7408	219.860	Qualified	32	29
58	3:52	4	31	Phil Giebler	4	2:43.9071	219.637	Qualified, bumping Kite	33	30
59	5:01	4	77	Roberto Moreno	4	2:43.4139	220.299	Qualified	31	27
60	5:57	4	18	Jimmy Kite	1	0:41.9103	214.744	Waved off	—	—

Starting grid

Row	Inside		Middle		Outside
1	3	Hélio Castroneves  W	11	Tony Kanaan	27	Dario Franchitti
2	9	Scott Dixon	6	Sam Hornish Jr.  W	10	Dan Wheldon  W
3	12	Ryan Briscoe	7	Danica Patrick	26	Marco Andretti
4	2	Tomas Scheckter	39	Michael Andretti	8	Scott Sharp
5	17	Jeff Simmons	20	Ed Carpenter	14	Darren Manning
6	15	Buddy Rice  W	55	Kosuke Matsuura	22	A. J. Foyt IV
7	4	Vítor Meira	02	Davey Hamilton	5	Sarah Fisher
8	99	Buddy Lazier  W	24	Roger Yasukawa	33	John Andretti
9	50	Al Unser Jr.  W	98	Alex Barron	19	Jon Herb
10	21	Jaques Lazier	23	Milka Duno  R	25	Marty Roth
11	77	Roberto Moreno	91	Richie Hearn	31	Phil Giebler  R

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

Failed to Qualify

No.	Driver	Team	Reason
18	Jimmy Kite	PDM Racing	Bumped, too slow
40	P. J. Jones	Team Leader Motorsports	Too slow
77	Stéphan Grégoire	Chastain Motorsports	Injured in practice crash

Race summary

Pre-race

• Weather: 76 °F (24 °C), cloudy and rain, some patches of sunshine in the afternoon

Rain fell overnight, but stopped before the gates opened in the morning. At 7:45 a.m., rain began to fall again, and threatened to delay or wash out the race. Around 10:00 a.m., the rain stopped and maintenance crews began to dry the track. Despite the morning showers, Speedway chairperson Mari Hulman George gave the command to start engines on time as scheduled at 1:05 p.m. EDT.

Start

During the pace lap, the race nearly took a dramatic turn as pole-sitter Hélio Castroneves failed to start. After several attempts, his car finally fired, and he joined the field in turn 4. A rather ragged start saw Castroneves take the lead into the first turn, but Tony Kanaan slipped by to lead lap one. Green-flag racing continued until lap 11, when John Andretti lost a rear-view mirror, bringing out a debris caution yellow flag.

When racing resumed, Castroneves, Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti, and Scott Dixon all took their turn at the lead. Roberto Moreno caused the 2nd caution when he slid high in turn 1, slapped the wall, and hit the wall again in turn 2 before coming to rest. Jon Herb was the next car to be in an accident after he slid in turn 2 and hit the wall, ending his day. Milka Duno also spun in turn 1 and backed her car into the wall, damaging and ending her day as well.

On the 74th lap,

Tony Kanaan took over where he left off and pulled away from the field. Danica Patrick got by Marco Andretti and took over second place. Approximately 30 laps of uninterrupted intense green flag racing followed. Another sequence of green-flag pit stops saw all of the leaders head to the pits. Jaques Lazier stayed out a couple of extra laps, and led the race for the first time in his career. After the stops, Kanaan returned to the lead, followed by defending champion Sam Hornish Jr.

Finish

On the 151st lap, Marty Roth slid high in turn 1 and smacked the wall, and started an exciting sequence of events. The skies were darkening, and rain was fast approaching again, which would certainly end the race for good. Under the yellow, many leaders pit for tires and fuel, while some drivers, including Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon, stayed out to gain track position. On the 156th lap, the field went back to green, however, in turn four, Tony Kanaan came up on the back of Jaques Lazier, sending Lazier into the wall, and sending Kanaan's car into a spin. He blew a tire and coasted into the pits. Moments later, the field assembled for what was expected to be the final restart before the rains came. Franchitti, working lap 163, held the lead into the backstretch. Behind him, Marco Andretti tangled with Dan Wheldon, and Andretti's car flipped down the backstretch. Buddy Rice was also involved. Before the track could be cleared, a heavy rainstorm fell on the track, and the race was called after 166 laps with Dario Franchitti declared the winner. A makeshift victory lane celebration was held indoors underneath the Pagoda, as had been done for Rice who also won in the rain in 2004.

As of the 2022 race, this was the most recent "500" to be shortened by rain.

Box score

Finish	Start	Car No.	Driver	Team	Chassis	Engine	Laps	Status	Points
1	3	27	Dario Franchitti	Andretti Green Racing	Dallara	Honda	166	2:44:03.5608	50
2	4	9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	Dallara	Honda	166	+0.3610	40
3	1	3	Hélio Castroneves  W	Team Penske	Dallara	Honda	166	+1.8485	35
4	5	6	Sam Hornish Jr.  W	Team Penske	Dallara	Honda	166	+4.6324	32
5	7	12	Ryan Briscoe	Luczo-Dragon Racing	Dallara	Honda	166	+5.2109	30
6	12	8	Scott Sharp	Rahal Letterman Racing	Dallara	Honda	166	+9.3470	28
7	10	2	Tomas Scheckter	Vision Racing	Dallara	Honda	166	+11.3823	26
8	8	7	Danica Patrick	Andretti Green Racing	Dallara	Honda	166	+12.1789	24
9	20	02	Davey Hamilton	Vision Racing	Dallara	Honda	166	+15.4116	22
10	19	4	Vítor Meira	Panther Racing	Dallara	Honda	166	+17.6991	20
11	13	17	Jeff Simmons	Rahal Letterman Racing	Dallara	Honda	166	+19.7119	19
12	2	11	Tony Kanaan	Andretti Green Racing	Dallara	Honda	166	+21.4339	18+3
13	11	39	Michael Andretti	Andretti Green Racing	Dallara	Honda	166	+35.1235	17
14	18	22	A. J. Foyt IV	Vision Racing	Dallara	Honda	165	+1 Lap	16
15	26	98	Alex Barron	CURB/Agajanian/Beck Motorsports	Dallara	Honda	165	+1 Lap	15
16	17	55	Kosuke Matsuura	Panther Racing	Dallara	Honda	165	+1 Lap	14
17	14	20	Ed Carpenter	Vision Racing	Dallara	Honda	164	+1 Lap	13
18	21	5	Sarah Fisher	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	Dallara	Honda	164	+2 Laps	12
19	22	99	Buddy Lazier  W	Sam Schmidt Motorsports	Dallara	Honda	164	+2 Laps	12
20	15	14	Darren Manning	A. J. Foyt Racing	Dallara	Honda	164	+2 Laps	12
21	23	24	Roger Yasukawa	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	Dallara	Honda	164	+2 Laps	12
22	6	10	Dan Wheldon  W	Chip Ganassi Racing	Dallara	Honda	163	Crash	12
23	32	91	Richie Hearn	Hemelgarn Racing/Racing Professionals	Dallara	Honda	163	+3 Laps	12
24	9	26	Marco Andretti	Andretti Green Racing	Dallara	Honda	162	Crash	12
25	16	15	Buddy Rice  W	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	Dallara	Honda	162	Crash	10
26	25	50	Al Unser Jr.  W	A. J. Foyt Racing	Dallara	Honda	161	+5 Laps	10
27	28	21	Jaques Lazier	Playa Del Racing	Panoz	Honda	155	Crash	10
28	30	25	Marty Roth	Roth Racing	Dallara	Honda	148	Crash	10
29	33	31	Phil Giebler  R	Playa Del Racing	Panoz	Honda	106	Crash	10
30	24	33	John Andretti	Panther Racing	Dallara	Honda	95	Crash	10
31	29	23	Milka Duno  R	SAMAX Motorsport	Dallara	Honda	65	Crash	10
32	27	19	Jon Herb	Racing Professionals	Dallara	Honda	51	Crash	10
33	31	77	Roberto Moreno	Chastain Motorsports	Panoz	Honda	36	Crash	10

 W  Former Indianapolis 500 winner

 R  Indianapolis 500 Rookie

All entrants utilized Firestone tires.

Race statistics

Nine drivers led the race, with a total of twenty-three lead changes.^[22]

Awards

The Victory Celebration was held Monday May 28, 2007.^[23] Some of the many awards handed out during the evening included:

• A record total purse of $10,668,815
• Race winner Dario Franchitti won $1,645,233
• Phil Giebler won the Rookie of the Year
• Tony Kanaan won the Scott Brayton Driver's Trophy

Broadcasting

Television

The race was broadcast in the United States on ABC for the 43rd consecutive year. Time trials were shown live on ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2. For the first time, the race would be aired in high definition.

This was the final 500 broadcast for Rusty Wallace as he was involved with ESPN on ABC NASCAR broadcasts.

For the second year in a row, the telecast utilized the

Radio

The race was broadcast on radio by the IMS Radio Network for the 55th consecutive year. Mike King served as anchor. Davey Hamilton, who previously served as the "driver expert" on the network, returned to cockpit for the first time since 2001. After six years recovery from his serious crash, he offered live in-car reporting to the broadcast during caution periods.

Making a popular return to the IMS Radio Network was former "Voice of the 500" Bob Jenkins. In 2006, Jenkins had worked on the Speedway public address system, but for 2007, he took over the turn two reporting location. Jenkins filled the spot previously held by Adam Alexander, who departed the network.

For the third year in a row, Kevin Olson conducted his annual pre-race interview with David Letterman. Olson served as a pit reporter in the center pits during the early stages of the race, then later moved to cover the garages and track hospital.

Miscellaneous

• The pace car for the 2007 Indy 500 was a Chevrolet Corvette.^[24] Patrick Dempsey was the driver.^[25]
• Kid Rock headlined the Miller Lite Carb Day concert.^[26] Other performers during the month included Daughtry, Saliva, Augustana, and Bräck (a band headed by the former Indy 500 champion).^[27]
• 500 Festival Parade on May 26, and waved the green flag to start the 2007 Indy 500.^[28]
• No testing took place prior to the start of official May activities.[29]
• The initial official entry list was released on April 10, 2007, featuring 69 cars, four former winners, and one rookie.^[30]
• Davey Hamilton's 02 car marks the first time in which a car number beginning with the digit "0" has been entered in the 500.^[31]
• Indy Racing League chief administrator Brian Barnhart called this "at least plausible," noting that the presence of water in the fuel mixture supports the claim that the fuel was old. The illegal mixture was used only during practice, not for a qualification attempt.^[32]
  From 1974 to 2005, only methanol fuel was used in the Indianapolis 500; and from 1965 to 1973, the rules were crafted in such a way to encourage the use of methanol in order to be competitive. In 2006, a 10% ethanol-90% methanol mixture had been used in the IRL in transition to the ethanol fuel used in the IRL for the 2007 season.
• Jim Nabors, who sang "Back Home Again in Indiana" during the pre-race festivities twenty-nine times from 1972 to 2006, missed the 2007 race due to an illness. The fans were asked to sing the song in his place.^[33]

See also

• Indy Racing League
• 2007 IndyCar Series season

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 2007 Indianapolis 500.

Notes

References

Works cited

• 2007 Indianapolis 500 Daily Trackside Report for the Media
• Indianapolis 500 History: Race & All-Time Stats - Official Site