The 1974 Indianapolis 500

The 58th 500 Mile International Sweepstakes was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Sunday, May 26, 1974.

The race was run in the wake of the energy crisis, which precipitated several changes to the schedule. During the offseason, government officials were pressuring sports and recreational organizations to curtail their energy consumption. Track management did not want to shorten the traditional 500-mile race distance, but agreed to voluntarily curtail other track activities. In the first half of 1974, NASCAR decided to trim all of their race distances by 10%, as well as scale back practice and ancillary events. Earlier in the year, the Daytona 500 was notably trimmed by 20 laps (the race officially started on lap 21), and the race ran a distance of only 450 miles. Furthermore, the 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring were canceled outright.