Britain's Dan W⭕heldon pulled off a shock last-second victory for Bryan Herta Autosport, t💯o claim his second Indy 500 title.

Wheldon was a༺lways well-placed during the race, but after strong early challenges from Sam Schmidt Motorsports' Alex Tagliani and Newman/Haas' Oriol Servia faded away it seemed that the race wa🅘s falling into the hands of the perpetually threatening Ganassi duo of Scott Dixon and Dario franchitti.

But a pit stop gamble for Franchitti back-fired for the team, with the 2010 Indy 500 winner running dry before the end; Scott Dixon also faded toward the end, leaving the lead in the hands of Panther Racing's 23-year-old rookie JR 🐠Hildebrand from California.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway crowd was on its feet at his bit of history about to be made - not to mention an All-American w🦄inner at last - but then the unthinkable happened when Hildebrand got up the race track far and slid on the marbles into a heavy impact with the wall out of turn 4 on the last lap. The wrecked car continued to slide and crossed the finish line, but in the meantime Dan Wheldon had materialised at speed to take the cheque✱red flag, leading for the first and only time in the entire race.

A potential challenge to the race result from Panther (on th♑e grounds that the race order should have been frozen when Hildebrand hit the wall, giving Panther the win) did not materialise.

Race results

1. #98 Dan Wheldon William Rast - Curb/Big Machine 2:56:11.7267s (200 laps)
2. #4 JR Hildebrand (R) National Guard Panther Racing + 2.1086s
3. #38 Graham Rahal Service Central + 5.5949s
4. #82 Tony Kanaan GEICO - KV Racing Technology - Lotus + 7.4870s
5. #9 Scott Dixon Target Chip Ganassi Racing + 9.5434s
6. #2 Oriol Servia CDW/Telemundo + 8.8757s *
7. #30 Bertrand Baguette The RACB/Aspria RLL Special + 23.9631s
8. #07 Tomas Scheckter Team REDLINE Xtreme - Circle K + 24.3299s
9. #26 Marco Andretti Team Venom + 25.4711s
10. #7 Danica Patrick Team GoDaddy + 26.4483s
11. #67 Ed Carpenter Dollar General/Sarah Fisher Racing + 27.0375s
12. #10 Dario Franchitti Target Chip Ganassi Racing + 56.4167s
13. #83 Charlie Kimball (R) Levemir and Novolog FlexPen + 1 lap
14. #12 Will Power Verizon Team Penske + 1 lap
15. #14 Vitor Meira ABC Supply Co./A.J. Foyt Racing + 1 lap
16. #22 Justin Wilson Z-Line Designs/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing + 1 lap
17. #3 Helio Castroneves Shell V-Power/Pennzoil Ultra Team Penske + 1 lap
18. #44 Buddy Rice Fuzzy's Vodka/Panther Racing + 2 laps
19. #19 Alex Lloyd Boy Scouts of America + 2 laps
20. #36 Pippa Mann (R) Conquest Racing + 2 laps
21. #24 Ana Beatriz Team Ipiranga/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing + 3 laps
22. #43 John Andretti Team Window World + 3 laps
23. #41 Ryan Hunter-Reay ABC Supply/DHL/Sun Drop + 3 laps
24. #11 Davey Hamilton HP/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing + 7 laps
25. #23 Paul Tracy WIX Filters/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing + 25 laps
26. #99 Townsend Bell Herbalife Schmidt Pelfrey Racing Lap 157 Contact
27. #6 Ryan Briscoe IZOD Team Penske Lap 157 Contact
28. #77 Alex Tagliani Bowers & Wilkins/Sam Schmidt Lap 147 Contact
29. #06 James Hinchcliffe (R) Sprott Newman Haas Racing Lap 99 Contact
30. #88 Jay Howard (R) Service Central Schmidt RLL Racing Lap 60 Contact
31. #78 Simona de Silvestro Nuclear Clean Air Energy Lap 44 Handling
32. #59 EJ Viso PDVSA - KV Racing Technology - Lotus Lap 27 Contact
33. #5 Takuma Sato Monavie-KV Racing Technology - Lotus Lap 20 Contact

* = Oriol Servia demoted to sixth after being found to have passed Scott Dixon after the final yellow came out.