1976 Indianapolis 500

The 60th 500 Mile International Sweepstakes was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, May 30, 1976. Polesitter Johnny Rutherford took the lead on lap 80, and was leading when rain halted the race on lap 103. Two hours later, the race was about to be resumed, but rain fell again. USAC officials called the race at that point, reverted the scoring back to the completion of lap 102, and Johnny Rutherford was declared the winner. Rutherford famously walked to Victory Lane, his second career Indy 500 triumph, having completed only 255 miles (410 km), the shortest official race on record.

During time trials, Janet Guthrie became the first female driver to enter the Indianapolis 500. However, her team was underfunded, and she experienced numerous mechanical and engine problems during the month. While she managed to pass her rookie test, she was unable to make an attempt to qualify. She would return with a successful effort a year later in 1977.

Hours after the race, IMS Vice President in charge of the IMS Radio Network and former driver Elmer George (husband of Mari Hulman George) was shot and killed during a confrontation. The confrontation was unrelated to the running of the race. In addition, 1976 would be the final Indy 500 for longtime radio anchor Sid Collins. After a surgery to repair a disk in his neck, Collins was still suffering muscular and neurological ailments, which made his work at the 1976 race physically difficult. He was later diagnosed with ALS, and committed suicide on May 3, 1977.

Rutherford's victory would be the final win at Indy for the venerable Offenhauser engine. It was the beginning of the end of an era which had seen 27 Indy 500 victories for the Offy powerplant.

The month of May 1976 was highlighted by the grand opening of the new Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum. Located in the track infield, the new museum replaced a much smaller facility on the corner of 16th Street and Georgetown Road.

Race schedule

Race schedule — May, 1976 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat             1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8 Opening Day 9 Practice 10 Practice 11 Practice 12 Practice 13 Practice 14 Practice 15 Pole Day 16 Time Trials 17 Practice 18 Practice 19 Practice 20 Practice 21 Practice 22 Time Trials 23 Time Trials 24   25   26   27 Carb Day 28   29 Parade 30 Indy 500 31 Memorial Day

Color Notes Green Practice Dark Blue Time trials Silver Race day Red Rained out* Blank No track activity * Includes days where track activity was significantly limited due to rain

Race results

Finish	Start	No	Name	Qual	Rank	Laps	Led	Status
1	1	2	Johnny Rutherford	188.957	2	102	48	Running
2	5	14	A.J. Foyt	185.262	10	102	29	Running
3	2	20	Gordon Johncock	188.531	3	102	18	Running
4	7	40	Wally Dallenbach	184.445	12	101	3	Flagged
5	6	48	Pancho Carter	184.824	11	101	3	Flagged
6	3	68	Tom Sneva	186.355	8	101	1	Flagged
7	4	21	Al Unser	186.258	9	101	0	Flagged
8	19	6	Mario Andretti	189.404	1	101	0	Flagged
9	22	77	Salt Walther	182.796	17	100	0	Flagged
10	12	3	Bobby Unser	187.520	5	100	0	Flagged
11	30	51	Lloyd Ruby	186.480	7	100	0	Flagged
12	14	93	Johnny Parsons	182.843	16	98	0	Flagged
13	27	23	George Snider	181.141	31	98	0	Flagged
14	32	24	Tom Bigelow	181.965	24	98	0	Flagged
15	11	12	Mike Mosley	187.588	4	98	0	Flagged
16	33	8	Jan Opperman	181.717	27	97	0	Flagged
17	10	69	Larry Cannon	181.388	29	97	0	Flagged
18	17	9	Vern Schuppan	182.011	21	97	0	Flagged
19	29	97	Sheldon Kinser	181.114	33	97	0	Flagged
20	28	96	Bob Harkey	181.141	32	97	0	Flagged
21	15	98	John Martin	182.417	18	96	0	Flagged
22	18	83	Bill Puterbaugh	182.002	22	96	0	Flagged
23	21	28	Billy Scott	183.383	15	96	0	Flagged
24	23	92	Steve Krisiloff	182.131	20	95	0	Flagged
25	24	86	Al Loquasto	182.002	23	95	0	Flagged
26	26	63	Larry McCoy	181.387	30	91	0	Flagged
27	20	73	Jerry Grant	183.617	13	91	0	Flagged
28	8	45	Gary Bettenhausen	181.791	25	52	0	Turbocharger
29	31	33	David Hobbs	183.580	14	10	0	Water Leak
30	13	7	Roger McCluskey	186.499	6	8	0	Crash T3
31	9	5	Bill Vukovich, Jr	181.433	28	2	0	Rod
32	16	17	Dick Simon	182.342	19	1	0	Rod
33	25	19	Spike Gehlhausen	181.717	26	0	0	Oil Pressure

Failed to qualify: Ed Crombie (#67), Larry Dickson (#65), Bill Engelhart (#44), Janet Guthrie (#1, #17, #27), Mike Hiss (#11), Jim Hurtubise (#56), Jerry Karl (#8), Mel Kenyon (#61), Lee Kunzman (#65), John Mahler (#19, #91, #92), Jim McElreath (#65, #76), Ed Miller (#46), Rick Muther (#99), Bobby Olivero (#78), Eldon Rasmussen (#58), Bill Simpson (#38)

Notes: The race was stopped on lap 103 due to rain (which had begun falling on lap 101). Two hours later, the race was about to be restarted but rain started to fall again. Officials at that point called off the race, and reverted scoring back to the completion of the 102nd lap. It is the shortest race in history, and just one lap past the minimum distance of 101 laps.

See also

• 1976 USAC Championship Car season

References

This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at 1976 Indianapolis 500. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Autopedia, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.