1,000 Greatest Drivers: Tommy Milton

The first two-time Indy 500 winner wouldn't be allowed to race today.

I realize for many people (especially anyone from the baby boomer or subsequent generations), the history of the Indy 500 seems to start with A.J. Foyt while anything before that has been relegated to the dustbin of history. This is deeply unfortunate since many elements of this era are arguably more interesting than the more famous period. While a lot of people know the story about Jules Goux literally drinking and driving to win the 1913 Indy 500, there are a lot of other oddities that would surprise people today: female car owners winning the Indy 500 and the IndyCar championship before female drivers were allowed to race, racing on “board tracks” made out of wood, which had both faster speeds and closer finishes than the Indy 500 usually did (they were essentially the cookie-cutters of their day before they were deemed too dangerous and fell off the schedule), and a half-blind driver winning the Indy 500. Eddie Rickenbacker, the top World War I flying ace, was a top IndyCar driver before buying the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for over a decade. A lot of people know who Milton is still, but a lot of the rest of this has been strangely forgotten as the first half of IndyCar history in general has been (think of how Milton was never inducted to the International Motorsports Hall of Fame for instance). While his contemporary Jimmy Murphy was definitely better, Milton was close. And for all the talk of the legitimacy of NASCAR’s various playoff formats right now, it’s really funny (and also pretty appalling) to learn about how Milton was awarded a championship he didn’t win six years after the fact, even though the actual champion won the title posthumously. Talk about spitting on someone’s grave… Admittedly, even though I fully acknowledge Gaston Chevrolet was the best driver that year, I do think Milton was the best driver that season, but you don’t take a championship away from somebody half a decade after their death. Not cool bro.