The top 10 Indianapolis 500 liveries – where does Dogecoin rank?

America: Land of the Free, Home of the Corporate Tie-Up.

It’s a place that can’t hold a time-out water break without selling the rights and slapping a label on it, and there’s no better example of this than at the Indianapolis 500, where 33 200mph billboards fight it out for milk and glory.

There’s nothing wrong with any of the above of course, having given us some of the greatest racing colour schemes ever seen.

It’s a good effort from Rahal-Letterman-Lannigan’s Devlin Defrancesco’s Dogecoin cryto kart for this year’s 500, probably the most infamous livery seen for a while.

Though the brand’s logo image of Kabosu the Japanese pooch, looking like butter wouldn’t melt as he peers from Defrancesco’s sidepod, has an undoubted appeal, it doesn’t make our top 10 500 liveries.

Read below for what does.

10. Al Unser Jr – Valvoline Galles Racing – 1988

These days Valvoline knocks around with Aston Martin in F1, but during the late ’80s and early ’90s it was synonymous with Galles Racing and Al Unser Jr.

The livery went as fast as it looked, and ‘Little Al’ would eventually secure the Indy 500 win in 1992, before doing it again with Penske in 1994.

9. Bobby Unser – Norton Penske – 1981

The younger Unser comes from racing royalty, with both is father Al and uncle Bobby multiple IndyCar series and 500 winners too.

The latter’s final 1981 Brickyard triumph came in controversial circumstances, as the New Mexico-native was penalised the day after the race for passing cars during a caution period.

Having initially celebrated his win, Bobby found himself disqualified 24 hours later, the victory being given to second-placed Mario Andretti instead.

After a five-month protest by his team Bobby finally got his third and final 500 back, but was so incensed by the debacle that he retired at the end of that year.

‘Uncle Bobby’ did it all in this rather fetching blue and yellow Norton livery though for Penske. Speed with style indeed.

8. Graham Hill – STP Lotus – 1968

The first out on track for 1968 practice, Graham Hill set a new qualifying record with 171.208mph on his initial run in the ground-breaking Lotus 56, the wedge-shaped racer powered by a Pratt & Whitney turbine.

Team-mate Joe Leonard would go even faster to take pole in his ‘doorstop’ 56, and was leading when the jet puttered out with nine laps to go.

Hill meanwhile had retired earlier in the race. The Brit’s livery was quite something though – almost as striking as the car itself.

7. Joe Leonard – Johnny Lightning 500 VPJ – 1968

Speaking of Joe Leonard, here’s his Johnny Lightning 500 Vel Miletich and Parnelli Jones Colt 70.

It wasn’t just the livery that was a winner – Leonard’s team-mate Al Unser Sr secured the 1970 win with a similar colour scheme.

We can’t have three Unsers almost in a row though, so the Californian makes it in instead, despite his VPJ giving up on lap 73.

6. Bobby Rahal – Budweiser Truesports – 1986

Does this image get any more ’80s racing?

Bobby Rahal (the greatest spectacles in racing) had won eight IndyCar events up to this point in 1986, but never the 500.

An Ohioan driving for an Ohioan team in Truesports, Midwest master Rahal snatched the win from Kevin Cogan with two laps to go on a safety car restart.

All powered by Budweiser too. Beautiful.

5. Danny Sullivan – Miller High Life Penske – 1986

Danny Sullivan is most famous for his ‘Spin and Win’ 1985 500 triumph, but his all-time greatest livery came with this stunning gold effort four years later.

He may have started on the ninth row and finished well down that year, but the Louisville, Kentucky man triumphed in the style stakes.

4. Emerson Fittipaldi – Marlboro Penske – 1994

Not only did Emerson Fittipaldi’s 1994 Penske PC-23 (designed and built in Poole, Dorset no less) look the business, it also packed a power unit punch with a Mercedes-Benz 500I in the back.

The Brazilian appropriately nicknamed the 1000bhp-engine ‘The Beast’, and he dominated the ’94 race by leading 145 of the 200 laps.

Incredibly, ‘Emmo’ crashed out with 15 tours to go when trying to lap second-placed team-mate Al Unser Jr, who would go on to win. How’s that for irony?

3. Santino Ferrucci – Homes For Our Troops AJ Foyt Racing – 2024

Previously renowned for driving around with his phone in an F2 car and ramming into one of his competitors on the slow-down lap, Santino Ferrucci has since carved out a reputation as a pretty handy IndyCar pilot.

Becoming a mainstay for AJ Foyt in recent years, he’s run a Stars & Stripes Homes Four Our Troops livery a number of times at Indianapolis.

It doesn’t get any more American than running an Uncle Sam tribute touching 240mph.

2. Al Unser Jr – Domino’s Pizza ‘Hot One’ Shierson Racing – 1986

Al Unser Jr makes it in again after all. His Domino’s Pizza-daubed Lola T86 proved to be the fastest delivery vehicle going in 1986, but only the fifth best at the 500 that year.

1. Johnny Rutherford – Pennzoil Chaparral – 1980

Pennzoil has a long history with IndyCar, particularly with Penske, but none of those cars were as cool as Johnny Rutherford’s ground-effect Chaparral 2K, so there you go.

‘Lone Star JR’ has the Star Wars-esque Simpson Bandit crash helmet to match, and would win the 1980 500 by 30sec in the John Barnard-designed 2K.

A racing livery for the ages.

Bonus entries: Conor Daly – US Air Force Andretti Autosport – 2019

OK, with so many to choose from, we’ll give you a bonus entry: Conor Daly’s 2019 US Air Force Andretti car with extra sharp gnashers.

Son of former F1 driver Derek Daly, the American is a bit of an oval specialist, the above effort being the first of three 500 top-10 finishes. Could he make it an unlikely win with the backmarker Juncos quad this year?

Johhny Rutherford – Gatorade McLaren – 1975

More of Lone Star JR in a Gatorade McLaren. Just because. He finished second at the 1975 500 donning this scheme.