Mark Sandten/Getty Images Arie Luyendyk — born in Sommelsdijk, the Netherlands, on Sept. 21, 1953 — is nothing short of Indy 500 royalty. Not only does the Flying Dutchman have two wins to his credit, but he also owns the marks for fastest-ever one- and four-lap qualifying times. Oddly enough, those records came in a year he didn't win the race, or even get the pole. Luyenduyk seemed to like the Brickyard right from the start. He earned rookie of the year honors in 1985, which was also his first full year of racing at the Indianapolis 500. Then, when he took the checkered flag five years later, he did it while setting a long-lasting record for fastest-ever average race speed. It would be 23 years before anyone covered the 500-mile race at a pace faster than Luyenduyk's 185.981 mph. He won in 1997, too, but his record-setting qualifying runs came in 1996, when he clocked a single-lap top speed of 237.498 mph and averaged 236.986 mph for four laps. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum also reports that, unofficially, Luyendyk notched one lap at 239.26 mph. Scott Brayton, though, was named the official pole sitter, despite his four-lap qualifying time of 233.718 mph. Unfortunately, Brayton would be killed during practice just six days later, with Tony Stewart taking his place on the starting grid. Luyendyk's mark doesn't look likely to fall any time soon, either. This year's Indy 500 winner, Felix Rosenqvist, had a thrilling final lap, but he qualified well off Luyendyk's pace at 231.375 mph. Of course, that's partly because the race's governing body changed the engine rules after the Flying Dutchman's record-breaking performance 30 years earlier. Why no one has qualified faster at Indy than Luyendyk David Taylor/Getty Images Like many sports in the U.S., the history of top-level open-wheel racing in this country includes its fair share of labor strife in the form of competing leagues. In motorsports, for instance, Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) had broken away from the United States Auto Club (USAC) in 1978 to become the dominant force in the sport, but USAC remained the sanctioning body in charge of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Tony George, who managed the track from 1990 to 2009, put the CART controversy into overdrive by forming his own motorsports series for the 1996 season, creating the Indy Racing League (IRL), which would eventually take over the Champ Car series. IRL would later morph into the NTT IndyCar Series. One major factor in George's maneuvering was a MAGA-like goal of making the sport more American. It was pushback against foreign racers and engine makers who were finding success in the CART series. John Oreovicz outlined the story behind the Indy-car civil war in his book "Indy Split," but one key was a change to the sport's engine rules. The series essentially eliminated the high-powered turbocharged V8s preferred by CART and replaced them with naturally aspirated 4.0-liter blocks with redlines capped at 10,500 rpm. In other words, the 1996 Indy 500 qualifying sessions, including Luyendyk's record-setting runs, were the last ones featuring the more powerful CART-style motors. Nowadays, the series supports two engine brands – Chevrolet and Honda — each delivering twin-turbocharged V6 mills with hybrid assistance — which hasn't helped anyone catch up to the Luyendyk, either. Why didn't Luyendyk get the Indy 500 pole in 1996? David Taylor/Getty Images Qualifying for the 1996 Indy 500 was a fairly complicated affair for both Luyendyk and Brayton. First, Luyendyk's primary car was damaged, so he had to run in his backup for qualifying — initially seeming to claim the day's fastest time with a speed north of 233 mph. Brayton was in second place at the time, but decided to throw away that time to try to qualify his own backup car at an even quicker pace. Brayton finished the day with an average speed of 233.718 mph, which was the fastest ever recorded for a pole winner – the current record was set in 2024 at 234.220 mph by Scott McLaughlin. It doesn't take a calculator to see that Brayton's speed was about 4 mph slower than Luyendyk's 237-mph record. So what happened? As it turned out, Luyendyk's backup car was disqualified from the day-one sessions when it was discovered to be 7 pounds under the rules' minimum weight requirement, prompting him to return on the second day in his primary car. However, because he was disqualified from day-one sessions, he was locked out of the top 19 starting positions in the race, which were reserved for day-one qualifiers. Luyendyk would be the fastest qualifier on day two, setting the famous 236.986-mph average speed, yet that left him in 20th position at the start. In the end, he finished 16th, leaving the race on the 149th lap due to car damage. The good news is that Luyendyk got his revenge the year after, earning a second pole position and his second win.
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