2006 Indianapolis 500

The 2006 Indianapolis 500 (formally the 90th Indianapolis 500-Mile Race) was an IRL IndyCar Seriesopen-wheel race held on Sunday, May 28, 2006, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana, before approximately 250,000 spectators. It was the fourth race of the 2006 IRL IndyCar Series season, the 90th running of the event, and the ninth under Indy Racing League (IRL) sanctioning.

The month of May began with Rookie Orientations on May 7, and the track was opened to all competitors for practice two days later. Time trials were scheduled to be held on May 13–14 and May 20–21; however, the first two days were rained out, forcing IRL officials to push pole qualifying back to May 20. Sam Hornish Jr. of Team Penske quickly emerged as a pre-race favorite, setting quickest times in all but one practice session and earning the pole position. The last day of qualifying, Bump Day, saw a battle for the final starting position between Thiago Medeiros and Marty Roth. Medeiros took the position after Roth crashed with less than an hour left. The 30th annual Pit Stop Challenge was won by Hélio Castroneves' pit crew.

In the race, Wheldon first took the lead on the tenth lap and went on to lead a race-high 148 laps, relinquishing the lead during pit stop cycles. Hornish Jr. overtook Wheldon soon after a restart on lap 130, but Wheldon got by him 15 laps later. Hornish Jr. was then dropped to the rear of the field due to a pit stop blunder under a caution flag period. As part of a strategy to assume the lead late in the race, he and Michael Andretti made their final stops on the 160th lap. Meanwhile, during a battle for the lead with Tony Kanaan, Wheldon drifted up the track and his tire punctured. An unexpected pit stop cost him a shot at the victory.

A luckily-timed caution with under ten laps remaining helped Michael Andretti and Hornish Jr. move up to the front of the field along with 19-year-old rookie Marco Andretti, who pitted seconds before the caution. One lap after the restart, Marco Andretti passed his father, Michael, in the first corner. Hornish Jr. soon moved up to second place and made several attempts to pass Andretti. On the final lap, Hornish Jr. executed a slingshot pass to the left side of Andretti with about 450 feet (140 m) from the finish line to take his sole Indianapolis 500 win and Roger Penske's record-extending 14th win as a car owner in the event. It was the first time in Indianapolis 500 history that a driver completed a pass on the last lap for the win, and the margin of victory — 0.0635 seconds — was the second-closest in the race's history at the time, and the fourth-closest finish as of 2026. Despite Andretti's loss, he was unanimously named Rookie of the Year.

Hornish Jr. went on to win his third (and final) Drivers' Championship in the IndyCar Series later that season, becoming the second consecutive driver to accomplish the feat. Tom Carnegie, who had commentated the Indianapolis 500 every year since 1946, announced his retirement from being Indianapolis Motor Speedway's public address announcer weeks after this race.