Part three brings us into the 50s, and we will come across what might be the best number to win the Indianapolis 500. As we get into the 60s and 70s, a few numbers will become quite rare. Some we have not seen in decades.
#51
Total Uses: 27
First Use: 1933
Most Recent: 2022
Wins: 1 (3.7037%)
Top Fives: 3 (11.111%)
Top Tens: 4 (14.814%)
Average Finish: 19.074
Eddie Cheever is responsible for all three of car #51's top five finishes. The other top ten? That was Janet Guthrie finishing ninth in 1978. In the last three years, car #51 has finished 25th or worse in all three races. Of the race winning numbers with at least ten appearances, #51 has the third worst average finish. Only #23 (19.28) and #24 (19.31) have worse average finishes.
#52
Total Uses: 23
First Use: 1936
Most Recent: 2006
Wins: 0
Top Fives: 4 (17.391%)
Top Tens: 6 (26.087%)
Average Finish: 17.30435
The second Team Cheever number in the early 2000s, car #52 has had 22 different drivers in 23 starts. The only one to used it twice was Troy Ruttman in 1957 and 1961. Jeff Ward is responsible for the best finish for car #52, third in 1997. Ward is also responsible for the best finish for car #21.
#53
Total Uses: 20
First Use: 1929
Most Recent: 2002
Wins: 0
Top Fives: 1 (5%)
Top Tens: 5 (25%)
Average Finish: 19.4
Max Papis started two Indianapolis 500s. Papis is the most recent driver to use each of those numbers. Papis was in car #53 in 2002 and he drove car #52 in 2006. He started 18th in each race. As for car #53, Jimmy Gleason was third in 1929.
#54
Total Uses: 27
First Use: 1931
Most Recent: 2003
Wins: 0
Top Fives: 7 (25.925%)
Top Tens: 14 (51.8519%)
Average Finish: 14.074
It mights surprise you, but car #54 has the best average finish among the winless car numbers with a minimum of ten starts. Car #54 is eighth in average finish among qualified cars. The next closest is car... well, we will get to that one in a little bit. Car #54 ranks third in top ten finish percentage, one of three entries to finish in the top ten in over half its appearances. It is sixth in top five finish percentage.
It hasn't finished in the top five since Bobby Marshman was fifth in 1962. Robbie Buhl was ninth in 1996, its most recent top ten finish. The last two drivers to use it were Japanese drivers (Hideshi Matsuda in 1999 and Shinji Nakano in 2003).
#55
Total Uses: 30
First Use: 1931
Most Recent: 2020
Wins: 0
Top Fives: 2 (6.667%)
Top Tens: 6 (20%)
Average Finish: 18
Car #55 had consecutive top five finishes in 1998 (3rd with Steve Knapp) and 1999 (fifth with Robby McGehee). Roger Yasukawa was tenth in 2003, its most recent top ten finish. Josele Garza used car #55 seven times, more than any other driver.
#56
Total Uses: 15
First Use: 1939
Most Recent: 1990
Wins: 0
Top Fives: 1 (6.667%)
Top Tens: 1 (6.667%)
Average Finish: 19.933
Jim Hurtubise's number, it was actually Gary Bettenhausen who drove car #56 to a fifth place finish in 1987. Hurtubise's best finish was 14th with this number. Hurtubise was 18th in 1960 to win Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year. It was also Billy Vukovich III's number when he won Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year in 1988 with a 14th-place finish.
#57
Total Uses: 11
First Use: 1931
Most Recent: 1984
Wins: 0
Top Fives: 1 (9.09%)
Top Tens: 1 (9.09%)
Average Finish: 22
Andy Linden was fourth in 1951. The only other time car #57 finished in the top fifteen was in 1956 with Bob Christie. It last appearance was Spike Gehlhausen last start, finishing 31st.
#58
Total Uses: 13
First Use: 1931
Most Recent: 1977
Wins: 0
Top Fives: 0
Top Tens: 2 (15.384%)
Average Finish: 22
Here is an Indianapolis 500 question you have probably never asked yourself, "How many numbers have finished outside the top 33 multiple times?"
The answer? Thirteen! And car #58 is the highest number to have it happen. It was 38th in 1932 with Bob McDonogh and 36th the following year with Frank Brisk. What are the other numbers to have finished outside the top 33 at least twice?
Car #10, #16, #17, #21, #23, #24, #26, #34, #39, #45 (four times!), #48 (three times!), and #49.
The good news for car #58? Its best finish was seventh with Bud Tingelstad in 1971. Earl DeVore was eighth in 1938. The most recent driver to use it was Eldon Rasmussen.
#59
Total Uses: 22
First Use: 1931
Most Recent: 2021
Wins: 0
Top Fives: 2 (9.09%)
Top Tens: 4 (18.18%)
Average Finish: 19.59
Both of car #59's top five finishes came in consecutive years, second in 1952 with Jim Rathman and fourth in 1953 with Fred Agabashian. This was Chip Ganassi's number in his final Indianapolis 500 as a driver in 1986. Ganassi ended up 21st.
#60
Total Uses: 18
First Use: 1968
Most Recent: 2022
Wins: 0
Top Fives: 1 (5.555%)
Top Tens: 5 (27.776%)
Average Finish: 18.529
Like #40, car #60 made its debut as a turbine. It also made its debut from pole position in the Lotus 56 with Joe Leonard as its drivers in 1968. How many car numbers, with the exception of car #1 (because the grid for 1911 was set via the order entries were received in the mail and numbers were assigned the same way) started on pole position on debut? It would be just car #60. Car #60 has finished in the top ten of the Indianapolis 500 in two of the last three years after only having three top ten results in its first 15 appearances.
You probably learned earlier that car #54 has the best average finish among the car numbers with at least ten appearances and no Indianapolis 500 victories. Car #60 is the second best in that category, but 20th among qualified numbers. Only two of the top 20 numbers in average finish have not won the race. Car #60 has a chance to change that this year with Simon Pagenaud.
#61
Total Uses: 14
First Use: 1932
Most Recent: 2016
Wins: 0
Top Fives: 2 (14.285%)
Top Tens: 6 (42.85%)
Average Finish: 17.642
This was Arie Luyendyk's number when he made his Indianapolis 500 debut in 1985, finishing seventh and taking rookie of the year honors. Luyendyk would use it the following year as well. Car #61 would not make another Indianapolis 500 start for 20 years. Who was the next driver to use the number? Arie Luyendyk, Jr. It then went unused for another ten years before Matthew Brabham drove it in 2016.
#62
Total Uses: 10
First Use: 1935
Most Recent: 1973
Wins: 0
Top Fives: 0
Top Tens: 0
Average Finish: 19.4
This year marks the 50th anniversary since the last time car #62 made an Indianapolis 500 appearance. Wally Dallenbach was 24th in that race. The number's best finish was 11th in 1939 with Tony Gulotta, one of two Louisiana-born driver to start an Indianapolis 500.
#63
Total Uses: 11
First Use: 1934
Most Recent: 2019
Wins: 0
Top Fives: 0
Top Tens: 1 (9.09%)
Average Finish: 21.454
Pippa Mann made this number famous in the 2010s, though her best finish would come in 2019 when she was 16th in car #39. Mann's finish in car #63 improved every year she ran this number. Her first start with it was in 2013. Its only top ten result was sixth in 1948 with Hal Cole.
#64
Total Uses: 12
First Use: 1933
Most Recent: 2018
Wins: 0
Top Fives: 0
Top Tens: 0
Average Finish: 24.0833
Eleven numbers have made at least ten Indianapolis 500 appearances and has an average finish worse than 20th. Car #64 has the third worst average finish amongst those numbers. In seven of its appearances it has finished outside the top 25. It has twice finished 33rd, Johnny Unser in 1996 and Jean Alesi in 2012.
#65
Total Uses: 12
First Use: 1932
Most Recent: 1989
Wins: 0
Top Fives: 0
Top Tens: 2 (16.667%)
Average Finish: 18.333
Nobody remembers that Lee Kunzman was seventh in the 1977 Indianapolis 500 in car #65. The other top ten finish was eighth in 1932 with Freddie Winner. Its most recent appearance was with John Jones as its driver.
#66
Total Uses: 20
First Use: 1935
Most Recent: 2020
Wins: 1 (5%)
Top Fives: 3 (15%)
Top Tens: 4 (20%)
Average Finish: 16.95
The most famous entrant in the 60s, Mark Donohue will forever be tied to car #66, responsible for Team Penske's first Indianapolis 500 victory using this number. Donohue was runner-up two years prior to his 1972 victory. It was also the first Indianapolis 500 victory for a McLaren chassis. This was Cale Yarborough's number on his Indianapolis debut in 1966. Gil de Ferran drove to second in 2001.
#67
Total Uses: 14
First Use: 1931
Most Recent: 2020
Wins: 0
Top Fives: 0
Top Tens: 0
Average Finish: 24.5
Car #67 has the second worst average finish among car numbers with at least ten Indianapolis 500 appearances. Perhaps it is recency bias, but I would have thought car #67 would have done a little better than this. Josef Newgarden did use this number twice, and he started seventh and eighth in those two starts, but finished 25th and 30th in them respectively. His first top ten finish in this race came in car #21.
#68
Total Uses: 14
First Use: 1933
Most Recent: 2014
Wins: 1 (7.14%)
Top Fives: 1 (7.14%)
Top Tens: 4 (28.571%)
Average Finish: 15.428
This was the number Team Penske won with on its Indianapolis 500 return in 2001 with Hélio Castroneves. Tom Sneva used it in his first two Indianapolis starts with Team Penske. It was David Hobbs' first number at Indianapolis.
#69
Total Uses: 10
First Use: 1931
Most Recent: 1989
Wins: 0
Top Fives: 1 (10%)
Top Tens: 2 (20%)
Average Finish: 16.8
Everyone's favorite number, Bernard Jourdain is the last driver to use car #69, and he finished ninth in that race. Denny Hulme was fourth in 1967 driving car #69. Hulme and Jourdain each won Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year in their respective races.
You probably learned earlier that car #54 has the best average finish among the car numbers with at least ten appearances and no Indianapolis 500 victories. You likely also learned car #60 is second best in that category. Car #69 has the third best average finish without a victory, but it is 27th among qualified numbers.
#70
Total Uses: 7
First Use: 1968
Most Recent: 2005
Wins: 0
Top Fives: 1 (14.285%)
Top Tens: 1 (14.285%)
Average Finish: 19.428
It doesn't have much of a history, but car #70 does have quite a few highlights. It debuted on one of the Lotus 56 turbines. This one had Graham Hill at the wheel and it was Hill's final Indianapolis 500 start. Davy Jones was second with car #70 in 1996, the first "500" after the CART/IRL Split and this was only a few weeks before Jones won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the most recent American driver to win Le Mans overall. Car #70 was also the car number of the most recent occasion a relief driver was needed in the Indianapolis 500. That was in 2004 when Robby Gordon exited the race during a rain delay to make it to Charlotte for the Coca-Cola 600. Jaques Lazier stepped in before retiring due to a mechanical issue.
#71
Total Uses: 12
First Use: 1949
Most Recent: 1994
Wins: 0
Top Fives: 0
Top Tens: 2 (16.667%)
Average Finish: 19
Three future IndyCar champions each used car #71 in their first Indianapolis 500 start: Rick Mears in 1978, Buddy Lazier in 1991 and Scott Sharp in 1994. Its best finish was seventh in 1955 with Al Herman.
#72
Total Uses: 7
First Use: 1931
Most Recent: 1997
Wins: 0
Top Fives: 1 (14.285%)
Top Tens: 1 (14.285%)
Average Finish: 17.714
It had been 34 years since car #72 appeared in the Indianapolis 500 when Gordon Johncock used it in 1966. Johncock drove it to a fourth place finish. The most recent driver to use it was Claude Bourbonnais, runner-up in the 1993 Toyota Atlantics Championship in a season that saw Canadians sweep the top three spots in the championship. David Empringham took the 1993 Atlantics title. Jacques Villeneuve was third.
#73
Total Uses: 18
First Use: 1934
Most Recent: 1984
Wins: 0
Top Fives: 4 (22.222%)
Top Tens: 4 (22.222%)
Average Finish: 17.888
The last time car #73 was in the Indianapolis 500 was the last time a car with a four-lap qualifying average of 200 mph made the race. Uncle Jacques Villeneuve was injured in a practice accident and withdrew from the race. The first alternate was Chris Kniefel with a four-lap aver at 199.831 mph. Kniefel completed 175 laps and finished 15th, directly ahead of Tom Sneva and Mario Andretti.
This kind of neglects that car #73 has finished fifth on four occasions, most recently with David Hobbs in 1974.
#74
Total Uses: 7
First Use: 1948
Most Recent: 1981
Wins: 0
Top Fives: 1 (14.285%)
Top Tens: 1 (14.285%)
Average Finish: 17.714
Al Miller was fourth in the 1965 race in car #74. Who was ahead of Miller? Jim Clark, Parnelli Jones and Mario Andretti. Who was behind Miller? Three rookies: Gordon Johncock, Mickey Rupp and Bobby Johns. Michael Chandler drove car #74 to 12th in 1981. Chandler's qualifying speed was 187.568 mph.
#75
Total Uses: 8
First Use: 1950
Most Recent: 1996
Wins: 0
Top Fives: 0
Top Tens: 1 (12.5%)
Average Finish: 23.75
Car #75's only top ten finish was ninth in 1970 with Carl Williams. It was Willy T. Ribbs' number for his second and final "500" start. It was Johnny O'Connell's number in his only Indianapolis 500 start in 1996. Richie Hearn, who is also the driver to have most recently used car #70, is the most recent driver to use car #75.
We hit car #75 and we are 75% done... kind of. As you will see in Part IV. There are a few extra numbers that really aren't numbers, but that is for another day. One more part remains.
