1912 Indianapolis 500
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| Indianapolis Motor Speedway | |||||
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| Indianapolis 500 | |||||
| Sanctioning body | AAA | ||||
| Date | 30 May 1912 | ||||
| Winner |
 Joe Dawson
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| Winning Entrant | National Motor Vehicle Company | ||||
| Average speed | 72.457 mph (116.608 km/h) | ||||
| Pole position |
 Gil Andersen
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| Pole speed | N/A | ||||
| Most laps led |
Ralph DePalma (196) |
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| Pre-race | |||||
| Pace car | Stutz | ||||
| Pace car driver | Carl G. Fisher | ||||
| Chronology | |||||
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The 1912 Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, or International 500-Mile Sweepstakes Race, the second such race in history, was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Thursday, May 30, 1912.
No race is won until the tape is crossed and I realized that all the time. It's hard luck, but it's all in the game.
I did my best, and since I've lost out, I'm for the man who picked the prize.
In the aftermath of victory by Ray Harroun in the single-seat Marmon "Wasp" in the first 500-Mile Race the year before, new rules make the presence of riding mechanics mandatory; maximum engine size remains 600 cubic inches (9.83 liters) displacement. At $50,000, the race purse is nearly double that of 1911.
Out of 29 original entries, 24 qualify for the race by sustaining a speed faster than a minimum of 75 mph (120.7 km/h) for a full lap, an increase from the quarter-mile qualifying distance of the inaugural year. David L. Bruce-Brown runs fastest at 88.45 mph (142.35 km/h), but starting positions are again determined by entry date. Lining up five cars to the first four rows and four to a fifth, a change from the previous year's starting method is movement of the pace car, a Stutz, from the inside of the first row to out in front of the field.
Upon wave of the then-red starting flag, Teddy Tetzlaff takes the lead in a Fiat from the third starting position in the center of the first row, and leads for the first two laps before being overtaken by the grey # 4 Mercedes of Italian-born Ralph DePalma.
DePalma's domination of most of the event is total, as he builds an eventual five-and-a-half lap, eleven-minute advantage over second, and leads uncontested for the next 194 laps...before suffering one of the most confounding mechanical failures in motorsport history at the beginning of lap 197, as his Mercedes begins misfiring, and slowing on the mainstretch at the conclusion of the lap. Nursed on the 198th lap by DePalma at reduced speed, the car finally loses all power at the end of the backstretch on lap 199, as a broken connecting rod rips a hole in the crankcase.
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