Results of the 1994 Indianapolis 500 held at Indianapolis on Sunday, May 29, 1994.

Emerson Fittipaldi dominated the 1994 Indianapolis 500 until his crash on lap 184

Recap

• Al Unser, Jr. took the pole position at 228.011 mph, a cumulative four-lap effort of 2 minutes and 37.887 seconds. Brazilians Raul Boesel and two-time winner Emerson Fittipaldi started second and third on the front row. The fastest rookie qualifier was Jacques Villeneuve. Lyn St. James qualified an impressive 6th for Dick Simon, as Dominic Dobson, Stan Fox, Hideshi Matsuda, and Dennis Vitolo also performed well in time trials, qualifying 12th through 15th respectively. Paul Tracy qualified a surprising 25th. Unser Jr, Fittipaldi, Arie Luyendyk (8th), Mario Andretti (9th), and Bobby Rahal (28th) were the five past winners in the field.
• Bobby Rahal, who had failed to qualify in 1993, entered practice with the Honda HRX Indy V-8. It proved slow and uncompetetive, and Rahal risked missing the race for the second year in a row. During the second week of practice, Rahal-Hogan Racing made an arrangement with Team Penske to lease a pair of Penske/Ilmor machines (the 2.65L powerplants, not the 500I, 209 c.i. Ilmor-Mercedes Penske used, however).
• Notable failures to qualify included Jeff Andretti, Davy Jones, Roberto Moreno, and Al Unser. Unser announced his retirement during the second week of practice after struggling to find speed during the first week. Jones was forced to give up his ride with King Racing after Scott Goodyear was bumped on the final day of qualifying by Marco Greco.
• The driver change meant that for the second time in three years, Goodyear would start 33rd in a car he did not qualify (Mike Groff qualified the car Goodyear ran in 1992). However, unlike his runner-up finish in 1992, Goodyear would finish 30th in the 1994 event falling out of the race early due to suspension failure.
• Indy Lights champion and IndyCar debutante Bryan Herta drove A.J. Foyt's familiar #14 car (one year after Foyt retired from driving) with the slowest average speed in the field. Herta was scheduled to run for Tasman Motorsports, but took over the Foyt seat when Davy Jones parted ways with the team before the month of May. As a result, Tasman withdrew their entry, but would return the next year. Herta's teammate, John Andretti, qualified the second Foyt car in tenth position.
• Unser led the first 23 laps. During this time Dennis Vitolo spun in Turn 4 (Lap 7) and 1992 polesitter Roberto Guerrero crashed in Turn 2 (Lap 21). Under the yellow, Mario Andretti's final Indy 500 ended early with fueling issues. Emerson Fittipaldi took the lead after pit stops. On the restart, Mike Groff and Dominic Dobson crashed in Turn 1. Rookie Adrian Fernandez retired with suspension problems. At Lap 52 some great racing between Raul Boesel and Robby Gordon took place for fifth. Through Turn 4 Boesel was caught behind a lapped car, and Gordon bravely chose the outer groove to gain the spot. However, on the frontstraight, the lapped car was now towards the wall in front of Gordon, allowing Boesel to come back on the inside. The ABC broadcast showed live pictures from Gordon's car as this took place. The two came within inches of each other before Gordon backed off. Danny Sullivan said he had "never seen anybody today run around the outside (groove) like Robby".
  • On Lap 92 Hideshi Matsuda crashed in Turn 1. Under the yellow, John Paul, Jr. crashed in turn 3. Seconds later, Dennis Vitolo somehow ended up on top of Nigel Mansell's car. ABC Sports were replaying Paul's crash, so no broadcast footage of the incident exists. The Englishman remained in his car for several seconds, due to a concussion, before coming to and leaping out when he felt evidence of something burning. Dr. Jerry Punch spoke with him in the infield care center where he described the incident as "a joke. We were under yellow for a lap and a half; and someone tries to take my head off!". When Dr. Punch asked Nigel if he had spoken to Dennis he said, "You speak to him", as he pushed the camera away. When interviewed by Jack Arute, Vitolo admitted that he had been at fault. Going too fast as he tried to catch up to the field under yellow, he had hit John Andretti and been launched on top of Mansell. In the broadcast booth, Danny Sullivan and Paul Page commended Vitolo's candor in admitting he had made a mistake.
  • Rookie Jacques Villeneuve became the third and final new leader of the race, leading seven laps after Fittipaldi made his routine stops. Besides Mansell, Boesel and Paul Tracy also dropped out of the race. On Lap 121 "Emmo" set the race's fastest lap at 40.783 seconds, equaling . Lap 194 was chosen as the time to bring Emerson in for his final stop. Al Unser Jr was immediately ahead of him, nearly a lap back in second place. On Lap 185 Fittipaldi, noted for making few if any mistakes, suddenly oversteered in Turn 4 and clobbered the wall after leading 145 of his 184 laps (78.8%). A number of spectators cheered, as his orange juice celebration from last year proved unpopular with the fans (drinking milk is an Indy tradition which was started by Louis Meyer, the first three time Indy champion, in 1936). This left Unser and Bobby Rahal as the only winners left in competition, as Arie Luyendyk's engine failed just before Emerson's crash. On Lap 197 top ten runner Stan Fox crashed in Turn 1, ending the race under yellow. Unser won his second Indy 500 in the 1000 hp (750 kW), 250 mph (400 km/h), pushrod Mercedes Benz-powered Penske PC-23. Second place was Rookie of the Year Jacques Villeneuve (scoring his first championship points of the year), followed by 1986 winner Rahal (also his first points), Vasser, and Gordon in the Top 5. Michael Andretti, Teo Fabi, Eddie Cheever, rookie Bryan Herta, and John Andretti completed the top ten.

Starting Grid

Results

Post-race CART PPG IndyCar World Series Standings

Other notes

• This was the last Indianapolis 500 for Mario Andretti, who retired after the 1994 season. On May 17, 1994 Al Unser Sr. withdrew from his Arizona Motorsports team during practice after the ride proved uncompetitive, and announced his retirement. Johnny Rutherford, who had not qualified for the Indy 500 since 1988, failed to qualify yet again, and officially retired shortly thereafter.
• Emerson Fittipaldi garnered a large lead over the rest of the field -- he led 145 of the 200 laps in the race -- but he crashed into the wall in the closing laps while leading and ended up not finishing.
• Mercedes-Benz used the Indianapolis 500 to debut their Mercedes 209 engine (the 209 stands for the size of the engine in cubic inches). The engine was built to take advantage of a USAC rule change that no longer required pushrod powerplants (Buick/Menard V6 as an example) to be based on production stock block engines. The Penske cars were dominant for the entire month.
• Al Unser Jr.'s margin of victory was 8.6 seconds behind the safety car.
• John Andretti became the first racer in history to compete in the Indianapolis 500 and NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600 on the same day. After finishing 10th at Indianapolis, he started 9th in the Coca-Cola 600. Unfortunately he crashed in Turn 4 and retired after 220 (of 400) laps due to a failed crankshaft, finishing 37th of 43 cars.
• Emerson Fittipaldi's crash left the month of May bookended with both tragedy and heartbreak for the Brazilian fans, as the month started with the death of Ayrton Senna on May 1 in the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola.

Quotes

- Bob Lamey

- Bob Jenkins, as both described the incredible scene of Emerson Fittipaldi's crash on lap 184, while leading by almost a full lap, on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network

"The Checkered flag waves, and Al Unser Jr. has won the 78th running of the Indianapolis 500"

- Bob Jenkins describing the finish on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network