U.S. Open-Wheel Race Champions

Presented below is a scrollable list of all the Indy 500 winners.

Also included are the names of drivers who won national championships that year.

Open-wheel sanctioning bodies through the years have been:
AAA (1909-1955)
USAC (1956-1979)
CART (1979-2003)
IRL (1996-present)
Champcar (2003-present)

Pos	Driver	Total	Races
1.	A.J. Foyt	72	409
2.	Mario Andretti	52	422
3.	Michael Andretti	40	263
4.	Al Unser	38	321
5.	Al Unser, Jr	31	278
6.	Bobby Unser	29	263
7.	Rick Mears	28	196
8.	Rodger Ward	27	184
9.	Ralph DePalma	25	116
10.	Johnny Rutherford	25	332

Note: In 1909 the American Automobile Association (AAA) established the national driving championship and became the first sanctioning body for auto racing in the United States. In 1956, the United States Auto Club (USAC) was founded to take over sanctioning from the AAA which ceased sanctioning auto racing in the general outrage over motor racing safety. USAC controlled the championship until 1979 when a group of disenchanted race team owners started their own series called Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART). Tony George, president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, started the Indy Racing League (IRL) in 1996 in direct competion with CART. As the IRL, or Indycar, slowly grew, CART collapsed finally going bankrupt in 2003. Another group of team owners purchased CART and started a new race series to compete against the IRL called Champcar.