2010 Indianapolis 500

The 94th Indianapolis 500 was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Sunday, May 30, 2010. It was the 15th Indy 500 sanctioned by the Indy Racing League, and was the premier event of the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series season. The race was won by Dario Franchitti, ahead of Dan Wheldon and Marco Andretti. Tony Kanaan, who had started in the final position, ran as high as second during the race before finishing eleventh.

The race came down to fuel mileage strategy. A caution on laps 161–165 left at least 35 laps for the final fuel stint for most of the leaders. Four drivers (Mike Conway, Justin Wilson, Helio Castroneves, and Graham Rahal) did not pit during that yellow flag, gambling on another caution, and possibly making it to the finish without another pit stop. Their strategies failed to pay off, and each of the four had to pit for fuel. Dario Franchitti, himself desperately conserving fuel, cycled to the front on lap 192. A terrible crash involving Mike Conway, Ryan Hunter-Reay, and others, occurred in the north shortchute as the leaders were taking the white flag. Conway's car launched into the catchfence, and he suffered a broken leg and a compression fracture, but he would later recover. Franchitti took the checkered flag, with Dan Wheldon finishing second for the second year in a row.

The race was the second of the three-year-long Centennial era, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the opening of the track (1909) and the 100th anniversary of the inaugural race in 1911. It was the 53rd time the race had been held on a May 30. This year marked the first race with four female drivers (repeated in 2011), and Simona de Silvestro was awarded Rookie of the Year. The race is also remembered for a dramatic Bump Day where rookie Sebastian Saavedra make the race while laying in a hospital bed, and veteran driver Paul Tracy missed the field after a last-minute qualifying gamble gone awry.