The outrageously dramatic last lap of the Indianapolis 500 will be talked about for years to come. JR Hildebrand, in a freak accident lost first place and $1.5 million in the last mile of the race. On the final turn of the last lap Hildebrand, overtook a slower car and slammed into the safety wall, allowing Dan Wheldon to win the Indy 500 on the 100th anniversary of the race.
Wheldon received $2,567,255 for his victory while Hildebrand coasted his dying race car into second place to win $1,064,895.
“It came down to a split-second decision,” Hildebrand said. “Am I going to go for it here and go around and try to make this work on the high side, or am I going to risk slowing down significantly in into a corner to stay behind the 83 (Charlie Kimball), who was trying to get out of the way as much as possible? But it is, as Mr. Unser so eloquently put it, a one-groove track.”
Hildebrand said he learned a hard lesson about racing that day and can be seen very clearly in the video.
“Sometimes, this race, you need a little luck,” he said. “The stars need to be aligned for you to go through 500 miles, and it was not our day.”
Watch the spectacular win after the jump!
