1979 Indianapolis 500

he 1979 Indianapolis 500 was held at Indianapolis on Sunday, May 27, 1979.

The month was filled with controversy on and off the track. A court injunction was issued after USAC denied entries by the start-up CART series. During time trials, several cars were disqualified due to illegal wastegate manifolds. Qualifying closed with 33 cars in the field. However, the day before the race a special qualifying session was held to allow certain entries a last chance to qualify. Two additional cars were added to the field, for a total of 35 cars (the most since 1933).

Al Unser dominated the first half in Jim Hall's radical Chaparral 2K chassis. However, Unser's brother Bobby took over the lead just prior to the halfway point, and Al was soon eliminated when his car began smoking with a failed transmission. When Bobby slowed with gearbox trouble late in the race, young second-year driver Rick Mears moved out front with less than 20 laps to go and won his first Indy 500. Born in 1951, Mears became the first Indy winner born after World War II. They also changed to the pace car system during caution periods, instead of the pacer light system during the USAC era.

Race results

Finish	Start	No	Name	Qual	Rank	Laps	Led	Status
1	1	9	Rick Mears	193.736	1	200	25	Running
2	6	14	A.J. Foyt	189.613	6	200	1	Running
3	12	36	Mike Mosley	186.278	16	200	0	Running
4	27	25	Danny Ongais	188.009	10	199	0	Flagged
5	4	12	Bobby Unser	189.913	4	199	89	Flagged
6	5	3	Gordon Johncock	189.753	5	197	0	Flagged
7	13	46	Howdy Holmes	185.864	19	195	0	Flagged
8	34	22	Bill Vukovich II	187.042	12	194	0	Flagged
9	15	11	Tom Bagley	185.414	23	193	0	Flagged
10	31	19	Spike Gehlhausen	185.061	27	192	0	Flagged
11	28	7	Steve Krisiloff	186.287	15	192	0	Flagged
12	16	77	Salt Walther	184.162	33	191	0	Flagged
13	25	72	Roger McCluskey	183.908	35	191	0	Flagged
14	30	44	Tom Bigelow	185.147	25	190	0	Flagged
15	2	1	Tom Sneva	192.999	2	188	0	Crash T4
16	26	69	Joe Saldana	188.778	7	186	0	Flagged
17	29	97	Phil Threshie	185.855	20	172	0	Flagged
18	8	4	Johnny Rutherford	188.137	9	168	0	Flagged
19	23	31	Larry Rice	184.218	31	142	0	Crash T2
20	17	10	Pancho Carter	185.806	21	129	0	Wheel Bearing
21	22	34	Vern Schuppan	184.341	29	111	0	Transmission
22	3	2	Al Unser	192.503	3	104	85	Transmission
23	33	50	Eldon Rasmussen	183.927	34	89	0	Header Pipe
24	24	80	Larry Dickson	184.181	32	86	0	Fuel Pump
25	32	92	John Mahler	184.322	30	66	0	Fuel Pump
26	20	17	Dick Simon	185.071	26	57	0	Clutch
27	7	6	Wally Dallenbach, Sr.	188.285	8	43	0	Lost Wheel
28	10	24	Sheldon Kinser	186.674	13	40	0	Piston
29	18	29	Cliff Hucul	186.200	17	22	0	Rod
30	11	89	Lee Kunzman	186.403	14	18	0	Scavenger Pump
31	21	73	Jerry Sneva	184.379	28	16	0	Piston
32	9	15	Johnny Parsons	187.813	11	16	0	Piston
33	35	59	George Snider	185.319	24	7	0	Fuel Pump
34	14	45	Janet Guthrie	185.720	22	3	0	Piston
35	19	23	Jim McElreath	185.880	18	0	0	Valves

Failed to Qualify: Bill Alsup (#19, #41, #68 - Disqualified), Gary Bettenhausen (#44, #98), Tony Bettenhausen, Jr. (#23, #26), Neil Bonnett (#73), Earle Canavan, Larry Cannon (#95), Dana Carter (#30), Billy Engelhart (#83), Dick Ferguson (#81), Ed Finley (#62), Woody Fisher (#52), Tom Frantz (#16), Todd Gibson (#75), Bob Harkey (#19), Hurley Haywood (#51), Jim Hurtubise (#56), Jerry Karl (#38), Al Loquasto (#39), John Martin (#20), Larry McCoy (#93), Jerry Miller (#97), Jan Opperman, Bill Puterbaugh (#35), Roger Rager (#66), Billy Scott (#28), Frank Weiss (#50)

See also

• 1979 USAC Championship Car season

Template:CART World Series race report

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