1958: Jimmy Bryan This is the video I found from 1958.....it starts with Daytona Stock Cars
and around 11 minutes it covers the Indy 500.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OStPTyU6dUs



1959: Rodger Ward The video story:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bCVI3hphX4
Robin Miller recounts the life of Indy 500 winner Roger Ward, who was the benchmark for success during the 1960s.

Another Roger Ward story:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-aLsxDyuqM
Race for Heros Dr Indy



1960: Jim Rathman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1uv9Aw4InY Brock yates last year where scaffolding was allowed due to an infield collapse

NASCAR Legend Smokey Yunick prepared this car. Click here, scroll down around posts 79-80.
https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/g...history-2.html

This is the 44th Indianapolis 500, run on May 30, 1960.Although I use the host segments that Brock Yates used from "Faces of Victory: Memories of Indy" on the 1960 race portion of that program, the vast majority of this program came from the Indy 500: The Classics episode that dealt with the 1960 race, which explains why there's no mention of the "car #10" dropping out that Brock mentions in the opening of this presentation.

Because the majority of this presentation comes from the speedway's official film of the race (which was the first the speedway ever did), most of it's in black and white, as the speedway didn't film the race in color until 1961. Also, qualifications are extensively covered, including Jim Hurtubise's record run that earned him Rookie of the Year honors for the race. Also seen during the qualifying coverage are Tommy Milton, the first two-time winner of the race (1921, '23) and actor Jim Garner, who would drive the pace car multiple times in the 70s and 80s.

As for the race, it's considered by many to be the greatest Indianapolis 500 ever run, even to this day,with five drivers swapping the lead a total of 29 times officially, a record that wasn't broken until last year (2012). Among those swapping the lead were pole sitter Eddie Sachs, 1959 pole sitter Johnny Thomson, 1952 winner Troy Ruttman, defending champion Rodger Ward, and 3-time runner-up Jim Rathmann.

But Ward's and Rathmann's cars were the best, as they swapped the lead at will during the second half of the race. Ruttman and Sachs dropped out, while Thomson had engine problems late inthe race while gaining on the first two, forcing him to slow down dramatically, dropping him to fifth behind NASCAR driver Paul Goldsmith and Don Branson.

But in the end, tire and race strategy would finally allow Rathmann to upend Ward and finally win the race after 12 years of trying. Incidentally, one of Rathmann's chief mechanics was none other than Smokey Yunick, who had already won championships in NASCAR with Herb Thomas (with considerable help from another Indy legend, three-time winner Mauri Rose), and would win the next two Daytona 500s with Marvin Panch and Fireball Roberts.

And from the front to the back, Dempsey Wilson gained infamy by being the first driver in Indianapolis 500 history to start last and finish last in the same race.

All credits go to SPEED (SpeedVision, the predecessor to the current SPEED channel, originally aired all parts of this presentation), the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, USAC, and Championship Racefilms.

If there are any others who I'm forgetting, please let me know so I can add them to the list of those to credit.

cjs83172
@eriq affandi, what happened was that on his first pit stop, Rodger Ward stalled his car coming out of the pits, which cost him a lot of time, which his car was fast enough to make up, enabling him to engage Jim Rathmann in that duel for the entire second half of the race. Then in the closing laps, both Rathmann and Ward ran their cars hard, putting excessive wear on their tires, which was an important thing at Indy back then because they had to make their tires last for one-quarter of the race, since they usually pitted around laps 50, 100, and 150 for fuel, and because the cars were so heavy and the tires so thin (they were using tires first developed in the 1920s), tire wear became a frequent concern. What ended up happening was that, with four laps remaining, the cords came through on Ward's right front tire, and he saw it, so he slowed down to make sure of finishing, and would up second. And actually, of all the races he ran at Indianapolis, and he ran 15, Ward said that this race from 1960 was his best, even though he didn't win and did win two other times. Tire wear would also decide the race the following year, with Eddie Sachs not willing to risk running the last three laps on a corded right front tire, so he decided to pit from the lead instead of gambling on his tire lasting, which handed that race to A.J. Foyt, the first of his four Indy wins. But when the track was repaved following the 1961 race, tire wear ceased to be a factor, and it really has never been a factor in the Indianapolis 500 since, and because the cars now have to pit more frequently (every 25-30 laps), tire wear is likely never to be a factor in the Indianapolis 500 again.



1961: AJ Foyt last year for bricks see also 1964, 1967, 1977



1962: Rodger Ward first paved track-no more bricks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVaLocVHKOs