This is tough and I'll give it a shot.

row 1, Foyt, Al Unser Sr, Bobby Unser, this is because they won a lot and drove both front and rear engine.

row 2 Rutherford, Meyer, Shaw

row 3 , Vuky Sr., Rose, Mears, I put Mears here because the car was as important as the driver if not more so. When the guys in front of him won, the driver could manhandle the car.

row 4,Rose, Jimmy Bryan, , Tommy Milton

row 5, Frank Lockhart,Parnelli Jones, Jimmy Clark

row 6, Mario Andretti, Ralph Depalma,Al Unser Jr.

Row 7, Donahue, Gordon Johncock,Castrneves

Row 8, Ted Horn ,Rex Mays,Lloyd Ruby; these guys never won but were always up front.

Row 9, Bob Sweikart, Tom Sneva, Arie Luyendyk

row 10 Tony Bettenhausen, Gary Bettenhausen, Sam Hanks

Row 11, Graham Hill, Franchitti, Ray Keech

alternate, George ''Ziggy" Snider, nobody could put a car in the show with less laps then Ziggy.

Maybe we should include Jeff Gordon too. After all he was an open wheel star and would have been a brickyard star too if the illustrious "visionary" car owners of the day didn't give him the bums rush. How about PHil Hill, Ayrton Senna, Dick Gaines, Brian Redman...all great open wheelers.

AJ Foyt, Bill Vukovich, Rick Mears
Al Unser Sr., Wilbur Shaw, Ralph DePalma
Ted Horn, Johnny Rutherford, Bobby Unser
Mauri Rose, Mario Andretti, Gordon Johncock
Parnelli Jones, Jimmy Bryan, Louie Meyer
Jimmy Clark, Arie Luyendyk, Rodger Ward
Tommy Milton, Bill Holland, Duke Nalon
Mark Donohue, Gary Bettenhausen, Bob Sweikart
Sam Hanks, Helio Castroneves, Lloyd Ruby
Tony Bettenhausen, Bill Cummings, Johnnie Parsons
Jim Rathmann, Troy Ruttman, Rex Mays

Alternates:
Al Unser Jr. Floyd Roberts, Emerson Fitipaldi

All of the drivers who ever strapped into the mighty Novi!
Ralph Hepburn, Cliff Bergere, Duke Nalon, Jimmie Davies, Bill Cheesbourg, among many others already listed.

Ok, all of you talking about Stan Hegberg....he was my grandfather. He passed away in Sep 1995. My mom still has a lot of his old books.
I'm a daughter of his youngest daughter, Debbie.
Thanks for all the nice stuff you said about him.
We all miss him a lot.
Jennifer

Posted via Mobile Device

If anyone still wants to know, Stanley Hegberg, who sold books at the Indy 500 race and the Chicago auto show...was my maternal grandfather, my mom's father. He was born in 1906, and passed away in Sept 1995. His son and daughter survive him in addition to 11 grandchildren +. My uncle Bob Hegberg is going to be 90 yrs old in March 2023, and my mom is going to be 82 yrs old.
We all live in Oak Park, (my mom, who has auto books of my grandfather's if anyone is still interested. We live in Park Ridge, siblings are in Chicago and Riverside.
Sincerely, Jennifer Heer heersred@outlook.com

At the 1965 Rex Mays 100 Indy Car race at Milwaukee, I purchased my first Clymer 500 yearbook from Stan. I would always purchase my 500 yearbooks from Stan at either at the Rex Mays race or the Chicago Auto Show. Sadly, I lost my entire collection of yearbooks and 500 programs a few years ago. Slowly I'm rebuilding my Floyd Clymer 500 yearbook collection.

I just found this great lists. Now I am thinking about this. I really think we lost the overall big picture.
I think a few things we forget. For my immediate thoughts are guys that ran the 500 in T-shirts. And also guys that ran the 500 and the next weekend ran Milwaukee. So now I will start, I think.

Lynn

Sorry if I missed it bit would love to hear Donald Davidson list the top 33. He speaks the gospel when it comes to Indy.

How can I delete this? I thought at first that this was a new thread, now I see that it's over a decade old...

I must really be getting old, I remember about 90% of these people, Rex May's was my favorite I reckon, his deal about the seat belt ended up causing his demise, ran into Will Shaw, Wilbur's son, at Shelbyville a few years back, nice guy, like his Dad, I am 85 going on 21, but my memory is still pretty good, I was on the phone with Gary Schroeder's wife one day, and had just read where he had won a race, and asked her how old he was, and she said "Old enough to drive ", guess I got my answer!