2004 Indianapolis 500

All you want to know about 2004 Indianapolis 500

88th Indianapolis 500
Location Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Date May 30, 2004
Winner Buddy Rice
(450 miles due to rain)
Average speed 138.518 mph
Pole position Buddy Rice
Pole speed 222.024 mph
Fastest qualifier Rice
Rookie of the Year Kosuke Matsuura
Most laps led Buddy Rice (91)
Pre-race ceremonies
National anthem Jessica Simpson
Back Home Again in Indiana Jim Nabors
Starting command Mari Hulman George
Pace car Chevrolet Corvette
Pace car driver Morgan Freeman
Honorary starter Nick Lachey
Attendance 300,000 (estimated)
TV in the United States
Network ABC
Announcers Paul Page, Scott Goodyear, Jack Arute
Nielsen Ratings 4.7
Market share 11
Chronology
Previous Next
2003 2005

The 2004 Indianapolis 500 was held at Indianapolis on Sunday, May 30, 2004. It was cancelled early due to severe thunderstorms and a tornado in the area.

Recap

The combination of impending rain and pitstops threatened to turn the result into a lottery, with the winner being the driver that hadn’t been forced to pit for fuel. First to go is Bruno Junqueira, who originally gained the lead earlier by not pitting in hopes that rain would come before his fuel ran out. Junqueira pitted on lap 151, handing the race back to the day’s pacesetting trio of Buddy Rice, Tony Kanaan and Dan Wheldon. Kanaan and Wheldon, respectively, came in soon afterwards. Rice, who had steadily become the dominant car past lap 145, came in next and gave up the lead on lap 167 to Bryan Herta, who stopped in turn on lap 169. Adrian Fernandez made it to lap 172, but the rain still hadn't arrived. After several more laps, Fernandez pitted and put Rice back into the lead ahead of second place Kanaan and third place Wheldon, which remained the running order. A severe thunderstorm finally fell to bring a halt to proceedings at lap 180, 450 miles. With the victory, Rice became the first American winner since Eddie Cheever in 1998. It was also the first rain-shortened 500 since 1976. As the victory celebration occurred indoors, a tornado rating F3 on the Fujita Scale missed the Speedway and its quarter-million spectators by only six miles as it raked across the South Central portion of Indianapolis. The tornado caused widespread damage.

Results

Sister project Wikimedia Commons has media related to: 2004 Indianapolis 500
Finish Start No Name Qual Rank C E Laps Led Status Entrant
1 1 15 Flag of the United States Buddy Rice 222.024 1 P H 180 91 Running Rahal Letterman Racing
2 5 11 Flag of Brazil Tony Kanaan 221.200 5 D H 180 28 Running Andretti Green Racing
3 2 26 Flag of the United Kingdom Dan Wheldon 221.524 2 D H 180 26 Running Andretti Green Racing
4 23 7 Flag of the United States Bryan Herta 219.871 13 D H 180 3 Running Andretti Green Racing
5 4 36 Flag of Brazil Bruno Junqueira 221.379 4 P H 180 16 Running Newman/Haas Racing
6 7 17 Flag of Brazil Vitor Meira 220.958 7 P H 180 0 Running Rahal Letterman Racing
7 6 5 Flag of Mexico Adrian Fernández 220.999 6 P H 180 3 Running Fernandez Racing
8 13 1 Flag of New Zealand Scott Dixon 219.319 14 P T 180 0 Running Chip Ganassi Racing
9 8 3 Flag of Brazil Hélio Castroneves (W) 220.882 8 D T 180 0 Running Team Penske
10 12 16 Flag of the United States Roger Yasukawa 220.030 12 P H 180 0 Running Rahal Letterman Racing
11 9 55 Flag of Japan Kosuke Matsuura (R) 220.740 9 P H 180 0 Running Super Aguri Fernandez Racing
12 24 51 Flag of the United States Alex Barron 218.836 17 D C 180 3 Running Team Cheever
13 20 8 Flag of the United States Scott Sharp 215.635 24 D T 180 0 Running Kelley Racing
14 3 27 Flag of the United Kingdom Dario Franchitti 221.471 3 D H 180 1 Running Andretti Green Racing
15 25 24 Flag of Brazil Felipe Giaffone 216.259 22 D C 179 0 Running Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
16 29 21 Flag of the United States Jeff Simmons (R) 214.783 26 D T 179 0 Running Mo Nunn Racing
17 17 20 Flag of the United States Al Unser, Jr. (W) 217.966 19 D C 179 0 Running Patrick Racing
18 10 4 Flag of South Africa Tomas Scheckter 220.417 10 D C 179 0 Running Panther Racing
19 26 12 Flag of Japan Tora Takagi 214.364 27 D T 179 0 Running Mo Nunn Racing
20 30 33 Flag of the United States Richie Hearn 213.715 29 P T 178 0 Running Sam Schmidt Motorsports
21 19 39 Flag of the United States Sarah Fisher 215.771 23 D T 177 0 Running Kelley Racing
22 33 18 Flag of the United States Robby McGehee 211.631 33 D C 177 0 Running PDM Racing
23 28 91 Flag of the United States Buddy Lazier (W) 215.110 25 D C 164 0 Fuel System Hemelgarn Racing
24 32 25 Flag of Canada Marty Roth (R) 211.974 32 D T 128 0 Accident FS Roth Racing
25 15 10 Flag of the United Kingdom Darren Manning (R) 219.271 16 P T 104 0 Accident T4 Chip Ganassi Racing
26 11 6 Flag of the United States Sam Hornish, Jr. 220.180 11 D T 104 9 Accident T4 Team Penske
27 27 13 Flag of the United States Greg Ray 216.641 20 P H 98 0 Accident T4 Access Motorsports
28 31 98 Flag of the United States P. J. Jones (R) 213.355 30 D C 92 0 Accident BS CURB/Agajanian/Beck Motorsports
29 18 70 Flag of the United States Robby Gordon
Flag of the United States Jaques Lazier		 216.522 21 D C 88 0 Mechanical Robby Gordon Motorsports
30 14 2 Flag of the United Kingdom Mark Taylor (R) 219.282 15 D C 62 0 Accident T3 Panther Racing
31 16 52 Flag of the United States Ed Carpenter (R) 218.590 18 D C 62 0 Accident T3 Team Cheever
32 22 41 Flag of the United States Larry Foyt (R) 213.277 31 P T 54 0 Accident T2 A.J. Foyt Enterprises
33 21 14 Flag of the United States A. J. Foyt IV 214.256 28 D T 26 0 Handling A.J. Foyt Enterprises

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

*C Chassis: D=Dallara, P=Panoz

*E Engine: C=Chevrolet, H=Honda, T=Toyota

All cars in the 2004 Indianapolis 500 used Firestone tires.

Failed to qualify:
#10 Flag of Mexico Luis Díaz
#14 Flag of the United States Jaques Lazier

Notes: Race halted on lap 27 due to rain. The race was resumed, and when rain pelted the Speedway again late in the race, officials waved the checkered flag 15 minutes after the traditional 6 PM closing time. It was only the second time in IMS history racing went past the 6 PM closing time; in 1995, the Brickyard 400 raced into 7 PM because of rain delays. Since the adoption of Daylight Saving Time, the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard will usually run past 6 PM.

During the rain delay, Robby Gordon flew to Charlotte for the Coca-Cola 600, which prompted the team to put Jaques Lazier in the car, but a crash forced the car not to finish

2003 Indianapolis 500
Gil de Ferran		 2004 Indianapolis 500
Buddy Rice		 2005 Indianapolis 500
Dan Wheldon
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indianapolis_500"

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