Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year

The Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year is awarded annually to the racing driver deemed to have been the best performing rookie in the Indianapolis 500.[1] Criteria includes drivers' performance during practice, qualifying, and the race, their relationship with fans and the media, their sportsmanship and positive impact on the race.[2] Sportsmanship is a drivers' relationship with fellow racers and fans, and media interaction is their availability to spectators and the press during the event.[3] The Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) itself encourages voters of the award to treat each criterion equally.[3][4] Competitors who outperform in their equipment during qualifying and the race, as well as those who led part of the event but retired for various reasons such as a mechanical failure or involved in an accident, can be given leeway by voters.[5] The award is not always presented to the highest-finishing rookie,[3][4] and it is not given if there are no rookie entrants.[6] There is no current sponsor of the accolade; it has formerly been sponsored by Stark and Wetzel, American Fletcher National Bank, Bank One, Chase, and Sunoco.[7][8][9][10]

Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year

Original Stark and Wetzel Rookie of the Year Award trophy on display at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum
Sport	American open-wheel car racing
Competition	Indianapolis 500
Discipline	IndyCar Series
Awarded for	"the driver who has performed with the most distinction among first-year drivers in the Indianapolis 500."[1]
History
First award	1952
Editions	71
First winner	Art Cross (1952)
Most recent	Benjamin Pedersen (2023)

The rules state that the driver must be a rookie who competes in qualifying and the race.[11] Previous Indianapolis 500 racers and prize money winners are ineligible for the award at future events.[11] According to earlier regulations, drivers were evaluated on their ability to follow United States Auto Club regulations, mental attitude, willingness to listen to advice from experts, actions to improve the welfare and safety of other competitors, and their own performance in qualifying and the race.[12] In 1958, officials amended the regulations to make competitors who paid for or took part in prize money for one of the race's 33 starting spots eligible to compete for the award; this was done by redefining "appearance" in the rules following a two-car collision between Elmer George and Eddie Russo prior to the start of the 1957 race that resulted in differing opinions on whether the former was a rookie driver.[13] The IMS disqualified drivers who crashed before the start of the 1958 Indianapolis 500 from competing for the accolade the following year.[14]

The award established before the 1952 Indianapolis 500 to reward rookie drivers for their performance in the race.[11][15] Each year, after the race has ended, a small group of current and former media members, along with IndyCar Series and IMS officials, vote. They use a points-based voting system to choose their first and second choices.[3][16] The winners' names are engraved on the Stark and Wetzel Rookie of the Year Award Trophy in the IMS Museum,[16] and they receive $50,000 in cash and a cut glass trophy.[lower-alpha 1][23][24] The Herff-Jones company spent $6,000 to create the 40-inch (1,000 mm)-tall trophy.[lower-alpha 2] It has an onyx base with sterling rest googles and a sterling plate featuring the name and year of each recipient is mounted on a central walnut shaft.[26] A sterling bar in the shape of the IMS official emblem (wings sprouting from a racing tire) adorns the trophy's head. The trophy features the number 500 in gold and a gold race car going through the middle numeral.[26][27] The award is presented after the race at the Victory Banquet in Indianapolis.[lower-alpha 3][30] Previous awards have included a plaque, a ring, and a year's worth of meat from Stark and Wetzel.[12][17]

There have been 77 drivers who have won the accolade in the 71 years that it has been awarded.[31][32] The first recipient was Art Cross in the 1952 race.[33] It is typically given to one driver per year, but on five occasions it was awarded to two racers for their performance in a single race: Parnelli Jones and Bobby Marshman for 1961, Rick Mears and Larry Rice for 1978, Michael Andretti and Roberto Guerrero for 1984, Bernard Jourdain and Scott Pruett for 1989, and Alex Barron and Tomas Scheckter for 2002.[lower-alpha 4][3] American Lyn St. James became the first woman driver to win the award at the 1992 edition.[35] Since then, two other women have won: Danica Patrick in 2005 and Simona de Silvestro in 2010.[36] Juan Pablo Montoya (2000), Hélio Castroneves (2001) and Alexander Rossi (2016) are the three drivers who have won both the rookie prize and the race in the same calendar year.[37] Josele Garza is the youngest winner of the award; he was 19 years and 70 days old when he won it after the 1981 event.[38] The most recent winner was Benjamin Pedersen in the 2023 race.[31][32]