Arie Luyendyk

ARIE LUYENDYK competed in 17 Indianapolis 500 races from 1985 through 2002, winning twice (1990 and 1997), capturing the pole position three times (1993, 1997, and 1999), and establishing a number of long-lasting records. His winning average speed of 185.961 miles per hour in 1990 held the record for more than 20 years until Tony Kanaan exceeded it in 2013. The Dutch-born Luyendyk continues to hold the all-time one- and four-lap qualifying records of 237.498 and 236.986 miles per hour, plus the unofficial single-lap record of 239.260 miles per hour, all set in 1996. He was the Indianapolis 500 runner-up in 1993 and the third-place finisher in 1991. His career earnings of $6,110,859 at Indianapolis stood for several years as the highest of any driver. He won a total of seven National Championship races from 1990 through 1998, with a pair at Phoenix (Arizona) International Raceway and one each at Texas Motor Speedway (Fort Worth, Texas), Las Vegas (Nevada) Motor Speedway, and Nazareth (Pennsylvania) Speedway, in addition to the two at Indianapolis. The Sports Car Club of America’s Super-Vee champion in 1984, Luyendyk went on to share the winning Nissan in the 1989 Sebring 12-Hours and the winning Ferrari in the 24-Hours of Daytona in 1998.