Thursday 30th May 1912
Ralph DePalma’s Mercedes broke its connecting rod after leading 196 laps. Joe Dawson, in a National, won after leading the only 2 laps of his Indy career. No driver has ever matched DePalma’s 196 fruitless laps in the lead, (only not being in the lead for the first two and the last two laps) and only Billy Arnold’s 198 lap domination of the 1930 race has topped DePalma’s time at the front; no driver has equalled or undercut Dawson’s 2 laps led by a winner, the fewest ever.