Englishman Dan Wheldon clinched his second victory in the Indy 500 after JR Hildebrand crashed into the wall on the final lap.
Englishman wins after Hildebrand hits the wall
Dan Wheldon clinched his second victory in the Indianapolis 500 after a dramatic finish to Sunday's race.
The Englishman looked set to finish in second place for the third year running until leader JR Hildebrand crashed into the wall on the very last turn.
Hildebrand, making his debut at Indy, looked certain to clinch a memorable victory until he went too high at the fourth turn, veering off the racing line and losing control.
As the rookie's damaged car crawled down the home stretch with sparks flying, Wheldon swept past to take the chequered flag.
Officials judged that the 32-year-old had passed Hildebrand just before the caution lights went on, giving him a second triumph after his victory back in 2005.
The race was Wheldon's first of the season after he signed a one-race deal with part-time outfit Bryan Herta Autosport.
Ironically, he was sacked by the Panther Racing team at the end of last season to be replaced by Hildebrand.
Incredible day
"It's just an incredible day," Wheldon said in Victory Lane. "I'm struggling being a part-timer right now. It's a fantastic achievement being here."
Hildebrand, 25, acknowledged afterwards that he had made a mistake in trying to overtake fellow rookie Charlie Kimball on the last lap.
He said: "I caught him in the wrong piece of track. I got up in the marbles and that was it."
American Graham Rahal came in third for the Chip Ganassi Racing, while his team-mate Scott Dixon finished fifth after leading for 73 of the 200 laps.
Brazilian Tony Kanaan was sandwiched between the pair in fourth place. Oriol Servia was sixth ahead of Bertrand Baguette, who had led before stopping for fuel with just four laps to go.
Tomas Scheckter, Marco Andretti and Danica Patrick completed the top 10 - the latter having also led but needing a caution period to complete the final 41 laps without refuelling.
