1926 Indianapolis 500

The 14th International 500-Mile Sweepstakes Race was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Monday, May 31, 1926. Louis Chevrolet drove the Chrysler pace car for the start.^[1]

Rain halted the race at lap 72, and officials waited for the track to dry out. The race was resumed over an hour later. Rain fell again, and the race was called at the 400 mile mark (160 laps).

Rookie Frank Lockhart moved up from 20th to fifth by lap 5, having had passed 14 cars on that lap alone.^[2] He moved up to second on Lap 16.^[2] After the rain delay, Lockhart and Dave Lewis battled for the lead for about 20 laps, until Lewis dropped out.^[2] Lockhart stretched out a two-lap lead when the race was called, and he was declared the winner. It was the first rain-shortened race in "500" history, and Lockhart was the fourth rookie to win the race. Lockhart may have actually completed as many as 163 laps (407.5 miles), but official scoring results reverted to the completion of lap 160.

Time trials

Four-lap (10 mile) qualifying runs were utilized. Earl Cooper won the pole position. Frank Lockhart set a new 1-lap track record during his first attempt at 115.488 mph, but the run was aborted after a tire failure on the second lap. He later blew an engine during another attempt, and finally put a car in the field 20th on the grid.^[3]

Results

Finish	Start	No	Name	Qual	Rank	Laps	Led	Status
1	20	15	Frank Lockhart (R)	95.780	19	160	95	Running
2	2	3	Harry Hartz	109.542	2	158	6	Flagged
3	14	36	Cliff Woodbury (R)	105.109	10	158	0	Flagged
4	13	8	Fred Comer	100.612	16	155	0	Flagged
5	27	12	Peter DePaolo (W)	96.709	18	153	0	Flagged
6	8	6	Frank Elliott	105.873	8	152	0	Flagged
7	16	14	Norman Batten (R)	101.428	15	151	0	Flagged
8	15	19	Ralph Hepburn	102.517	14	151	0	Flagged
9	28	18	John Duff (R)	95.549	20	147	0	Flagged
10	5	4	Phil Shafer	106.647	5	146	16	Flagged
11	12	31	Tony Gulotta (R)	102.789	13	142	0	Flagged
12	7	16	Bennett Hill	105.876	7	136	0	Flagged
13	21	33	Thane Houser (R)	93.672	22	102	0	Flagged
14	17	27	Douglas Hawkes	94.977	21	91	0	Camshaft
15	4	1	Dave Lewis	107.009	4	91	43	Valve
16	1	5	Earl Cooper	111.735	1	73	0	Transmission
17	11	9	Cliff Durant	104.855	12	60	0	Fuel tank leak
18	18	29	Ben Jones (R)	92.142	24	54	0	Crash
19	23	26	E. A. D. Eldridge (R)	89.777	25	45	0	Tie rod
20	24	23	L. L. Corum (W)	88.849	26	44	0	Shock absorbers
21	22	24	Steve Nemesh (R)	92.937	23	41	0	Transmission
22	6	7	Jules Ellingboe	106.376	6	39	0	Supercharger
23	3	10	Leon Duray	109.186	3	33	0	Broken axle
24	26	17	Fred Lecklider (R)	100.398	17	24	0	Rod
25	25	28	Jack McCarver (R)	86.418	28	23	0	Rod
26	9	34	Bon McDougall (R)	105.180	9	19	0	Valve
27	10	22	W. E. Shattuc	104.977	11	15	0	Valve
28	19	39	Albert Guyot	88.580	27	8	0	Piston
[4]

Race details

• For 1926, riding mechanics were optional,^[5] however, no teams utilized them.
• First alternate: none^[6]

References