Most Indy 500 Wins in History

Four drivers share the record for the most Indianapolis 500 wins, with four victories each: A.J. Foyt, Al Unser, Rick Mears and Helio Castroneves. Foyt was the first to reach four, in 1977, and Castroneves became the fourth member of the club when he won in 2021.

The Indy 500 is the crown jewel of American open-wheel racing, and winning it once is a career-defining achievement. Winning it four times places a driver among the immortals. Here is the full leaderboard of the race’s most successful drivers, and why a fifth win has proven impossible. All figures are as of the 2025 season.

The record: four wins, shared four ways

A.J. Foyt opened the four-win club with victories in 1961, 1964, 1967 and 1977, spanning 16 years of the sport’s evolution. Al Unser matched him with wins from 1970 to 1987, and Rick Mears did it entirely with the powerhouse Penske team between 1979 and 1991. Helio Castroneves became the fourth member in 2021, two decades after his first win.

No one has ever won the race a fifth time, and several of these drivers came agonizingly close. That is what makes the four-win mark the enduring standard at Indianapolis.

The full leaderboard of Indy 500 winners

The table below ranks drivers by Indianapolis 500 victories. Active drivers are noted.

Rank	Wins	Driver	Winning years
1	4	A.J. Foyt	1961, 1964, 1967, 1977
1	4	Al Unser	1970, 1971, 1978, 1987
1	4	Rick Mears	1979, 1984, 1988, 1991
1	4	Helio Castroneves*	2001, 2002, 2009, 2021
5	3	Louis Meyer	1928, 1933, 1936
5	3	Wilbur Shaw	1937, 1939, 1940
5	3	Mauri Rose	1941, 1947, 1948
5	3	Johnny Rutherford	1974, 1976, 1980
5	3	Bobby Unser	1968, 1975, 1981
5	3	Dario Franchitti	2007, 2010, 2012

*Helio Castroneves is active and chasing a record fifth win.

The list stretches from the race’s earliest three-time winners in the 1920s and 1930s to Castroneves in the modern era.

Foyt, Unser and Mears

A.J. Foyt is a motorsport legend whose four Indy wins are just part of a career that also included Daytona 500 and Le Mans triumphs. Al Unser won two in a row in 1970 and 1971 and later took a surprise fourth in 1987 at age 47. Rick Mears, the master of qualifying, also won a record-tying number of poles at the Speedway. For how the series compares to Formula 1, see our explainer on IndyCar versus F1.

The active threat: Helio Castroneves

Helio Castroneves is the only active member of the four-win club and continues to enter the race in pursuit of an unprecedented fifth victory. His energetic fence-climbing celebrations have made him one of the event’s most popular figures, and each May he keeps the record in play. For a key overtaking tool in the series, see our guide to push-to-pass in IndyCar.

Why the record matters

The Indy 500 is a race of attrition and chance as much as speed, so winning it four times demands sustained excellence across changing eras of technology. That difficulty is why the record has held at four for so long. For more motorsport greatness, compare the stock-car side in our leaderboard of the most wins in NASCAR history and the open-wheel titles in our list of the most F1 world championships.

The short version: A.J. Foyt, Al Unser, Rick Mears and Helio Castroneves share the Indy 500 record with four wins each. As of the 2025 season, Castroneves is the only active member of that group, chasing a fifth victory no driver has ever achieved.