1976 Indianapolis 500

The 1976 Indianapolis 500 was held at Indianapolis on Sunday, May 30, 1976.

Rain stopped the race on lap 102. Two hours later, the race was about to be restarted, but the rain fell again. Officials called the race at that point and Johnny Rutherford was declared the winner. Rutherford walked to Victory Lane, having completed only 255 miles (410 km), the shortest official race on record. It was also the third 500 in four years to have been shortened by rain. Later in the year, the entire track was repaved in asphalt, the first time the entire track had been repaved at once since 1909. The yard of bricks at the start/finish line still remains from the original surface. Longtime Voice of the 500 Sid Collins called his final race, as he committed suicide eleven months later.

Janet Guthrie became the first female driver to enter the Indy 500, but experienced numerous mechanical and engine problems during the month. She was unable to pass her rookie test until the second week of practice, but finally got her car up to sufficient speed. She practiced in A. J. Foyt's back-up car on the morning of final day of time trials, but the day ended without her making an attempt to qualify. She instead flew to Charlotte and drove in the NASCAR World 600.

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