1969 Indianapolis 500

Results of the 1969 Indianapolis 500 held at Indianapolis on Friday, May 30, 1969.

Jigger Sirois
On pole day, Saturday May 17, rain threatened to wash out the afternoon. At the time, the rules did not specifically provide for rain delay extensions during the pole round. Only cars who made an attempt before the rains came (and the track being closed) might be eligible for the pole unless officials made a ruling. Rookie Jigger Sirois drew the #1 qualifying spot in the order.

At 4:12 p.m., the track finally was opened for qualifying, and Sirois took to the track. He completed his first three laps at:
 * Lap 1 - 161.783 mph
 * Lap 2 - 162.279 mph
 * Lap 3 - 160.542 mph

However, on his fourth and final lap, his crew waved off the run, and it was aborted. Arnie Knepper was the second car in line, and pulled away for his warm up laps. Rain began to fall, and Knepper was unable to complete a single lap. The rain washed out the rest of the afternoon, and continued into Sunday, washing out the entire weekend. Had Sirois' crew not waved off his final lap, he would have been the lone qualifier of the weekend, and would have sat on the provisional pole position for an entire week.

On the second weekend of time trials, Sirois waved off his second attempt, and also waved off his third and final attempt when his speed was not fast enough. Sirois's first attempt the weekend before would have been fast enough to qualify for the race. Sirois never managed to qualify at Indy in subsequent years, and became a source of popular folklore.