'Flat miserable:' Indy 500's most extreme weather and drivers who outsmarted Mother Nature

Indianapolis Star

21-05-2025

INDIANAPOLIS -- For 108 years of spectacular Indy 500 racing -- no matter what the lineup has been for the field of 33 drivers circling each May around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway -- one contender has remained the same.
The wild car racer. She's been there for every single running of the greatest spectacle in racing, putting her own spin on the results.
Her name is Mother Nature and she has proven to be the great equalizer for drivers, sometimes wreaking havoc on track conditions and, when it suits her, putting on a glorious sun-drenched display. She is an opponent and an ally, depending on the weather.
Through more than a century of Indy 500s, teams have wilted in 92-degree heat and cold tires have struggled to gain traction, performing in 36-degree wind chills. Rain storms have delayed races -- and most certainly affected the outcome. And one May, snow added a layer of heavy flakes during practice.
Take a look back on the most extreme weather conditions in Indy 500 history and the drivers who outsmarted Mother Nature.
"Speed records fall despite wilting heat," read the headline in the May 31, 1937, Indianapolis News.
By 7 a.m. on race day 88 years ago, the temperature at IMS had already reached 75 degrees. By 10 a.m., it had risen to 87 and, by the time the cars were whizzing around the track, the mercury had shot up to 92 degrees. Drivers called the weather "blistering."
"Records tumbled at each successive 25-mile mark as the race progressed, but with the records went drivers, tires and motors. They could not stand the terrific heat," the News reported. "It was above 90 degrees this last day of May which had threatened at first to be a showery one and the excessive speeds made the heat from the motors doubly unbearable."
Race winner: Local Speedway legend and Hoosier native Wilbur Shaw won the first of his three Indy 500s, despite the heat. It wasn't easy. In the final laps, Shaw's car started leaking oil and it battled critically low oil pressure. Shaw "had to nurse his car to the finish line," newspapers reported.
Second place driver Ralph Hepburn noticed Shaw's troubles and began closing in dramatically. While Shaw held off Hepburn at the checkered flag, it was the closest finish in Indy 500 history to that point, just 2.16 seconds separating first and second place. That record would stand 45 years until 1982 when Gordon Johncock beat pole sitter Rick Mears by a margin of 0.16 seconds.
Hottest runner-up: Coming in second as the hottest Indy 500 is a four-way tie in 1919, 1953, 2012 and 2018 when temperatures reached 91 degrees.
Cold tires and a cold track made for tricky driving at the 1992 Indy 500 where multiple accidents involving 13 drivers sent eight of them to Methodist Hospital.
"You know the problem. Cold tires on a cold track don't provide the traction you get with warm tires on a warm track," sportswriter Wayne Fuson wrote in the Indianapolis News. "In case you missed it, the temperature hovered around 50 all day with the windchill factor in the high 30s. It was flat miserable."
While the high temperature reached 58 degrees, the weather was windy, cloudy and filled with blustery conditions that made if feel more like January. More than 30 years later, the race is still the coldest Indy 500 in history.
"It was terrible, terrible out there," sixth place finisher Eddie Cheever told IndyStar after the race. "The safety out there was a concern. It wasn't a race, just stop-and-gos, yellows, accidents."
One analyst called the race a "wild, wintry 200-lap tire test."
"The next time you have trouble getting your car going in cold weather?" wrote Joseph Siano, who covered the race for The New York Times. "Take comfort in the fact that chilly temperatures can stop the best drivers in the fanciest race cars."
Race winner: Al Unser, Jr. won the race, but he acknowledged the trials of the chilly weather. "With the cold last night and the cold today, those tires are rock hard," he said after beating second place finisher Scott Goodyear by 0.043 seconds. The race is still the closest finish in Indy 500 history.
Coldest runner-up: The next coldest Indy 500 took place in 1997 with a temperature of 60 degrees. The coldest low temperature recorded on race day was 37 degrees in 1947. But, it reached 63 degrees during that Indy 500.
What meteorologists like to classify as "measurable rainfall" has occurred at 30% of Indy 500 races -- 32 races, to be exact. That means at least one hundredth of an inch of rain fell in a 12-hour period.
But the rainiest Indy 500 race day in history in 2004 blew that so-called measurable rainfall out of the water when 3.8 inches poured down.
The race started two hours late after morning showers, then on Lap 27 was stopped due to rain. The track was dried and the race resumed but, on Lap 180 with 50 miles to go, the race was called when severe weather invaded the area.
A monstrous thunderstorm, which eventually produced an F2 tornado, formed in Speedway shutting down the track and leaving fans and drivers to take cover.
Race winner: Buddy Rice, a 28-year-old driver from Phoenix captured the trophy in the rain-shortened race. "But nothing about Rice's victory was soggy," IndyStar wrote. Rice led a race high 91 of 180 laps to become the first pole sitter to win since Arie Luyendyk in 1997.
"It's indescribable. I don't think the rain made any difference," David Letterman, with Rice's team Rahal Letterman Racing, said after the weather-impacted race. "We could've gone the whole 200 laps."
Rainiest runner-up: In 1973, the Indy 500 was stopped after one lap by an accident, then it was postponed by rain before it could be restarted. The next day, it was rained out again. It restarted the third day but was shortened after 332.5 miles by rain yet again.
Most humid: The 1953 Indy 500 is widely considered the most brutal race in history, due to a combination of high temperatures, poor ventilation in cars and high humidity. The front straightaway's brick surface reached 130 degrees on race day. The muggy, suffocating conditions on track resulted in more than 10 drivers receiving medical treatment.
Even more devastating, driver Carl Scarborough was taken to the infield hospital during the race suffering from heat exhaustion. A few hours later, Scarborough died. He was 38 years old.
Race winner: Bill Vukovich.
Snow? There's never been snow on race day, but the most famous May snow in Indianapolis happened during the Indy 500's opening day in 1989, when heavy flakes fell during practice. Just 0.2 inches were recorded, but the wintry precipitation briefly covered the track.