An old axiom in racing and other sports too is that “second place is the first loser.” One could argue that second is still better than 14th. The truth is, you can have hundreds of races in your memory bank and easily remember who won, but the second place guy is forgotten.
It might be fun to change history a bit and see what would be the different if we moved the standings up a spot. The Indianapolis 500 would be a good race to observe, since there have been 92 of them. So how would the Borg-Warner Trophy look if all of those 92 winners dropped out with three laps to go? Talk about bad luck.
In reviewing the Indy 500 winners, A.J. Foyt, Al Unser and Rick Mears have four wins each. Three-time winners were Louis Meyer, Wilbur Shaw, Mauri Rose, Bobby Unser and Johnny Rutherford. Two-time victors were Tommy Milton, Bill Vukovich, Rodger Ward, Gordon Johncock, Emerson Fittipaldi, Al Unser, Jr., Arie Luyendyk and Helio Castroneves.
Sometimes the second placer made an impression. The most ardent try was by Rodger Ward, who chased and fought with Jim Rathmann for the last 250 miles in 1960. The next year, Eddie Sachs fought hard with A.J. Foyt, but mysteriously stopped for a tire with two laps to go.
Rick Mears, Scott Goodyear and Marco Andretti all lost by less then a car length. However, in 1913, Spencer Wishart was more than 13 minutes behind Jules Goux. Marco’s runner-up in 2005 saw him follow his grandfather and dad in just missing the win.
Apparently, it is more difficult to finish second in the 500 then it is to win. While three drivers have four wins, three is the most times someone has finished second, shared by six.
Harry Hartz would be the most frustrated of those half dozen. He is the only one to be runner-up three times and never win. He did get two wins later on as a car owner.
Jim Rathmann and Tom Sneva were second three times and both got their wins after achieving that feat. In fact, Sneva was cashiered by Roger Penske for not winning.
Bill Holland has had three “place” finishes. He has the best four-year run in Indy 500 history. After being second in 1947-48, he won in 1949 and was second again in 1950.
Three- time winner Wilbur Shaw and four-time victor Al Unser both finished second three times.
Rodger Ward, A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, Jim Clark and Buddy Lazier have all won the race and have finished second twice. Non-winners with two runner-up finishes include Rex Mays, Dan Gurney, Roberto Guerrero and Scott Goodyear.
Some of the greatest names in racing have their mugs on the Borg- Warner trophy, but men such as George Souders, Kelly Petillo and Pat Flaherty are engraved on it too. Rex Mays, Ted Horn and Michael Andretti are among those whose likeness aren’t on it.