The 92nd Indianapolis 500 was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Sunday May 25, 2008. It was the fifth round of the 2008 IndyCar Series in DIRECTV HD season. Scott Dixon of New Zealand won the race from the pole position. It marked the first Indy 500 victory for Chip Ganassi Racing since 2000. Dixon led 115 laps, taking the lead for the final time during a sequence of yellow-flag pit stops on lap 172. Dixon held off Vítor Meira and Marco Andretti over the final 24 laps to secure the win. The 2008 Indy 500 took place just three months after the open wheel "unification" took place. It featured a full complement of IndyCar Series regulars, as well as several teams and drivers from the now-shuttered Champ Car World Series. Following the organizational merger, the 2008 running was expected to be one of the most competitive in many years. However, most of the former Champ Car team struggled a bit to adapt to the new equipment. The transitioning Champ Car teams were provided a fleet of IRL chassis for the season, but many were used having been sold off by defunct teams. IRL/IndyCar Series-based teams swept the top ten finishing positions, with the best former Champ Car team finishing 11th. It was the first Indy 500 where all qualifiers utilized the Dallara IR-03/IR-05 chassis after Phil Giebler failed to qualify with the Panoz chassis. Panoz had already ceased supporting their chassis program in 2006, effectively ushering in a four-year "spec" era. In addition, all full-time entries began utilizing semi-automatic paddle shifters in 2008. Paddle shifters for part-time Indy 500-only entries were optional due to cost reasons. IndyCar Series practice began May 4. Time trials took place over the two weekends prior to the race (May 10–11 and May 17–18). The final practice was held Friday May 23.

Schedule

Entry list

The official entry list was released April 11. The initial list featured 39 cars and 32 drivers. Additional drivers were announced during practice and qualifying. Ryan Hunter-Reay, the 2007 IndyCar Series rookie of the year was eligible to compete for the Rookie of the Year award, under race rules. Even though he was an established IndyCar driver, he had not yet made a start at Indianapolis. Several other former Champ Car drivers were individually evaluated and some were only required to take a "refresher" level test in lieu of the traditional four-phase rookie test.

Practice (week 1)

Sunday May 4 - Rookie Orientation and Veteran Refreshers

Monday May 5 - Rookie Orientation and Veteran Refreshers

Tuesday May 6 - Practice

Wednesday May 7 - Practice

Thursday May 8 - Practice

Friday May 9 - Fast Friday practice

Time trials (weekend 1)

Saturday May 10 - Pole Day

Sunday May 11 - Second Day

Practice (week 2)

Wednesday May 14 - Practice

Thursday May 15 - Practice

Friday May 16 - Practice

Time trials (weekend 2)

Saturday May 17 - Third Day

Sunday May 18 - Bump Day

Carb Day

Practice - Friday May 23

Starting grid

Failed to qualify

Race summary

Start

At 1:03 p.m., Mari Hulman George gave the command to start engines. All cars except Sarah Fisher pulled away, but Fisher quickly caught up to the field. Emerson Fittipaldi was booed during the parade laps due to his incident where he drank orange juice instead of milk after winning in 1993. He pulled the pace car off the track after the third pace lap, and a well-aligned field took the green flag. Polesitter Scott Dixon took the lead into turn one, and led the first two laps. His teammate Dan Wheldon took the lead on lap three. On the 8th lap, Bruno Junqueira lost a mirror, and the first of many caution periods slowed the field.

First half

Nearly the entire field pitted on the first caution, with Buddy Rice staying out to lead. Sarah Fisher also stayed out, and moved to third. Moments later, she spun in the north chute while warming her tires, and lost 3 laps. When the green resumed, Dan Wheldon quickly regained the lead. He held it until lap 36, when Dixon passed him. At the same time, rookie Graham Rahal drifted high and hit the wall exiting turn four. Marty Roth and Jaime Camara each brought out the yellow in the first half, suffering single-car crashes. Wheldon and Dixon continued to trade the lead. On lap 94, Tony Kanaan charged into the lead. He set a new all-time record by leading a lap in seven consecutive Indy 500 races. He broke Rick Mears' record of six straight races led (1979–1984). His continuing bad luck at Indy returned however 11 laps later. Scott Dixon took the lead back on lap 105. Marco Andretti, Kanaan's AGR teammate, dove low in turn three to overtake, which was followed by Kanaan going high and into the marbles. Kanaan lost control of his car, brushing the wall, then collecting the lapped car of Sarah Fisher. Both cars were heavily damaged. The caution was then extended when Jeff Simmons car suddenly veered and hit the inside wall on the frontstretch.

Second half

Marco Andretti gained the lead on lap 122. Dixon ran second, while Wheldon began to slip deep in the standings with handling problems. Justin Wilson brought out the yellow in turn 2 on lap 133 with yet another single-car crash. His crash was followed 20 laps later by Alex Lloyd, who brushed the wall in turn 4, and spun wildly into the pit area. Tomas Scheckter, who had been running amongst the leaders all afternoon, dropped out with a broken driveshaft. On the lap 159 restart, Vítor Meira went three-wide and stormed into the lead. With Dixon second and Andretti third, the stage was set to decide the race between those three drivers. Other contenders, Hélio Castroneves, Ed Carpenter, Danica Patrick, Ryan Briscoe, Oriol Servia and rookie Ryan Hunter-Reay, were battling for the balance of the top ten. On lap 169, Milka Duno dove below Buddy Lazier in turn three. The two cars touched slightly, and Duno spun to the warm-up lane. She suffered a flat tire, but was able to continue. The leaders all headed to the pits on lap 171 for what would be the final sequence of pit stops. At pit exit, Ryan Briscoe swung wide and clipped the right rear of Danica Patrick's car. Patrick spun around, and Briscoe hit the pit wall. Both cars were eliminated. Patrick climbed out of the car, and started walking down towards the Team Penske pits, presumably to confront Briscoe. A security guard intervened, and she later walked back to her pit stall. Patrick and Briscoe were called to the Indycar hauler after the race. Patrick and Briscoe were fined $100,000 and were placed on probation until the end of the 2008 season for an aggressive pit incident.

Finish

While most of the attention in the moment was focused on the Briscoe/Patrick incident, Scott Dixon took over the lead. His crew completed a 7-second pit stop, and beat Vitor Meira out of the pits. With 24 laps to go, the green came out with Dixon first, Meira second, and Marco Andretti third. The race went green the remainder of the distance, and Dixon held on by 1.7498 seconds to win his first Indianapolis 500. He became the 19th pole winner to win the race, and the first winner from New Zealand.

Box score

**** Former**** Indianapolis**** 500 winner**** **** Indianapolis**** 500 Rookie**** All entrants utilized Firestone tires.

Race statistics

Broadcasting

Television

The race was televised in high definition in the United States on ABC, the 44th consecutive year on that network. Time trials were shown live in high definition on ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2 at various timeslots and was available via broadband at MediaZone.com. 1998 Indianapolis 500 winner Eddie Cheever joined the announcing crew for the first time. For the first time, two hours of pre-race was aired, one hour on ESPN2, followed by one hour on ABC. For the third year in a row, the telecast utilized the Side-by-Side format for commercial breaks.

Radio

The race was broadcast on radio by the IMS Radio Network for the 56th consecutive year. Mike King served as anchor. For the second year in a row, Davey Hamilton offered live in-car reporting during caution periods. Chris Economaki offered pre-race and post-race commentary for the final time. This was also the last time that former 'voice' of the 500 Bob Jenkins served as a turn announcer. For the fourth year in a row, Kevin Olson conducted his annual pre-race interview with David Letterman.

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