Cindric might have won the Daytona 500, a historic achievement in its own right, especially when it is your first career NASCAR Cup Series victory and comes in your eighth career start. But nobody asks who was the 199th winner in NASCAR Cup Series history, and that is what Cindric will forever be.
A race winner is a race winner, but whoever becomes the 200th Cup Series winner will get that glory forever. It will be little more than a trivia fact but a trivia fact nonetheless, one that will be shared with generations for years to come. And if you don't think it is a big deal, the 100th winner in Cup Series history was Mario Andretti. Anyone going to poo-poo that? Didn't think so.
Cindric was a little premature to make history, but he is in the record book as a race winner nonetheless. With NASCAR approaching 200 winners, it got me thinking about IndyCar's record book. IndyCar's complex, century-plus history often goes unexplored. We know A.J. Foyt's record for most victories and Mario Andretti's record for most pole positions with Will Power closing in on that mark, but we don't know or appreciate the intricacies of the history book.
For example, did you know the first IndyCar race of record was held on June 12, 1909, and Howard Covey won driving a Cadillac? Probably not. IndyCar talks about its past, but it never goes back to the very beginning, before the Indianapolis 500, Ray Harroun and the Marmon Wasp. Did you know that race Covey won was one of three races held on June 12, 1909 that are recognized as the first three races in IndyCar history? If you think doubleheaders are a problem in the 21st century, wait until you find out about IndyCar's inaugural season.
Three races a day, Friday-Saturday doubleheaders, doubleheaders on Thursdays with another race the following Saturday, four races over a three-day stretch from Monday through Wednesday, and the season ended with a point-to-point race that begin in Los Angeles and ended in Phoenix. Oh, and there were only three oval races, all held at the same track.
But I am not here to go season-by-season, looking at how each calendar was different. I am more focused on where IndyCar is, how many winners there have been, and who have won the key milestone races?
The 2022 IndyCar season began with a first-time winner, Scott McLaughlin. And while NASCAR is one winner away from a milestone, IndyCar is closing in on one as well. McLaughlin became the 297th different winner in IndyCar history.
You know about Covey being the first recognized IndyCar race winner, but who are some of the other famed milestone winners?
Joe Dawson, most remembered for winning the 1912 Indianapolis 500, was IndyCar's 25th different winner. Dawson's first victory came in the 33rd race in IndyCar's history, coincidentally, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He won the Cobe Trophy Race, a 200-mile event that featured 14 cars, held on Independence Day in 1910. It was the fifth of eventually nine races held at IMS that season, which consisted of 19 races total.
The 50th winner came nearly two years and three months later in the penultimate round of the 1912 season, IndyCar's 80th race. Mortimer Roberts won the Pabst Blue Ribbon Trophy Race, a 28-lap race around a 7.88-mile course. This was also a time where races were held simultaneously on the same course. At the same time, the Wisconsin Challenge Trophy Race was taking place, a 22-lap race for cars with 161-230 cubic inch engines. The Pabst Blue Ribbon Trophy Race was for cars with 231-300 cubic inch engines.
After having 50 winners in less than three years, IndyCar would not reach its 75th winner until the opening race of the 1920 season. Jimmy Murphy won the 250-mile race held on the 1.25-mile Los Angeles Motor Speedway in Beverly Hills, IndyCar's 207th race. Murphy would go on to become the first American to win a grand prix the following year in the French Grand Prix at Le Mans and with that same Duesenberg won the Indianapolis 500 the year after that.
It would be 11 years, three months, and two days until IndyCar reached its 100th winner. But, it was a notable winner. In the Indianapolis 500, Louis Schneider won after leading the final 39 laps and won by 43.19 seconds over Fred Frame, the second closest Indianapolis 500 finish at the time. It was IndyCar's 375th race.
With a limited number of races over the 1930s due to the Great Depression and then no races from the end of 1941 until the 1946 Indianapolis 500 due to World War II, the milestones did not come at the same rate as IndyCar's early years.
IndyCar's 125th winner did not until August 15, 1948. Over two years before famously becoming the winner of the inaugural Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, Johnny Mantz took his one and only IndyCar victory in his fourth career start driving for J.C. Agajanian at Milwaukee, and it came with a last lap pass on Emil Andres. It was also the first victory for car #98 in IndyCar history in IndyCar's 410th race.
Just over six years later, Keith Andrews became IndyCar's 150th winner. Where? The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, and that wasn't the only IndyCar race that day. On September 6, 1954, Pikes Peak and the Ted Horn Memorial from the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds were both held. Sam Hanks won on the oval. Pikes Peak is listed as the 491st race in IndyCar history.
The 1965 season includes arguably IndyCar's greatest string of first-time winners. There were six that season. Jim McElreath was the first, winning the second race of the season at Trenton. McElreath was IndyCar's 172nd winner. Al Unser scored his first career victory on Independence Day in the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, making him the 173rd winner. Three weeks later, Mario Andretti picked up his first career victory in the Hoosier Grand Prix, a 150-mile race on the Indianapolis Raceway Park road course. Andretti was the 174th winner.
Who was 175?
Seven days after Andretti's first trip to victory lane, Johnny Rutherford won the Atlanta Championship 250 with Andretti coming in second. It was IndyCar's 629th race. The other first-time winners that season would include Joe Leonard at Milwaukee and Gordon Johncock, also at Milwaukee. They raced eight days a part at opposite ends of the Wisconsin State Fair.
The six first-time winners in the 1965 season account for 154 victories, ten Indianapolis 500 victories and 11 championships. Can any other group top that? Doubt it.
As stated above, IndyCar's history is complex, and that is a nice way to say messy at times. IndyCar's 200th winner falls right in the middle of the slop. After the emergence of CART in 1979 and split from USAC, the two series ran simultaneously for a handful of years. After nearly a decade of being solely paved circuits, USAC brought dirt tracks back to its Gold Crown Championship as CART took control of the American open-wheel landscape. Those USAC Gold Crown races are recognized in the IndyCar record book. One of those USAC Gold Crown races saw IndyCar's 200th winner etch his name in the history book.
On August 30, 1981, Rich Vogler won the Ted Horn 100 at DuQuoin. The starting grid was set via two 15-lap qualifying races. Other entries in the race were Tom Bigelow, George Snider, Jack Hewitt, Joe Saldana, Ken Schrader, Larry Rice, Sheldon Kinser, Jim McElreath and Gary Bettenhausen. It was the 896th race in IndyCar history.
If you thought we were out of the woods when it comes to splits and historic winners, guess again!
Buzz Calkins wasn't only the winner of the inaugural Indy Racing League race at Walt Disney World Speedway. Calkins was the 225th race winner in IndyCar history. Just over four years later, Max Papis became the 250th winner with his victory in the 2000 CART season opener at Homestead-Miami Speedway. We weren't even out of the split when the 275th winner occurred. It was Nelson Philippe at the 2006 Surfers Paradise Champ Car round, the 1,446th race in the record books.
Now, we are at 297 winners thanks to Scott McLaughlin's triumph in the 1,713rd IndyCar race. If IndyCar repeats 2021's pace, we will hit 300 before we get to this summer. It could be longer than that. IndyCar only had three new winners from the start of the 2016 season through the 2020 season. There are plenty of winless drivers in IndyCar currently. A few we expect to win and expect to do it this year. We are going to hit 300 before we know it, but not necessarily this year. Patience. It will happen.
The IndyCar record book has vastly gone unexplored, but I think over the course of 2022 we should uncover some parts that have gone unnoticed.
