The Blue Crowns

By Sigur Whitaker
With his victory in the 2024 Indianapolis 500, Joseph Newgarden became the sixth driver to win back-to-back races. The others were Wilbur Shaw (1939-1940), Mauri Rose (1947-1948), Bill Vukovich (1953-1954), Al Unser, Sr. (1970-1971) and Helio Castroneves (2001-2002).
 
Mauri Rose’s consecutive victories were driving Lou Moore’s Blue Crown Spark Plug Special. He is the only driver in Speedway history to beat his teammate, Bill Holland, in two consecutive races.
 
Lou Moore had an interest in racing from childhood and started out racing on dirt tracks. He raced at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for nine years from 1928 until 1935. He started from the pole in 1932 and finished 25th after the timing gear failed. He finished second in his rookie year (1928) and third twice (1933-1934). In the other six races, his car failed.
 
When he retired from racing, he became the team owner of the Blue Crown Spark Plug Specials. This team was the most successful team in the Indianapolis 500 with five victories between 1938 and 1954 until Al Unser, Sr. won Team Penske’s sixth Indianapolis 500 victory in 1987 Roger Penske now holds the record with twenty victories. Lou Moore’s first victory as a car owner was with Floyd Roberts at the wheel in 1938. Roberts had an almost four-minute margin over second place finisher Wilbur Shaw.
 
After the 1940 Indianapolis 500, Lou Moore bought Lucy O’Reilly Schell’s two Maseratis. In 1941, his Indianapolis 500 included Mauri Rose who started from the pole in one of the Maserati’s, Duke Nalon in the second Maserati, and Floyd Davis in a Wetteroth/Offy. Floyd Davis, who started from the 17th position,  had improved his position to 12th when Lou Moore replaced him with Mauri Rose on lap 72. Rose’s car spark plugs failed on lap 60. Rose tried to share the victory with Davis but he had disappeared. There are no photographs of him taken as one of the winners of the race.
 
After a hiatus during World War II, racing resumed in 1946. Lou Moore bought two of the first Meyer & Drake 270 cubic inch, six-cylinder Offenhauser engines.  Mauri Rose was at the wheel of the number 8 car designed by Leo Goossen. He started from the ninth position. A crash in Turn 3 ended his day of racing on lap 41.
 
In 1947, Lou Moore’s two-car team dominated the race. Rookie Bill Holland in the # 7 Blue Crown Spark Plug Special was leading the race with Rose in close pursuit at the 250-mile mark. At the 400-mile mark, Holland was leading Rose by 56 seconds. With his two racers in command of the race, owner Lou Moore hung out a sign “E-Z” signaling both drivers to back off. Believing he was a lap ahead, Holland followed the instructions, but Rose did not. With 50 miles to go, Holland’s lead had dropped to 35 seconds. By the 475-mile mark, Holland’s lead was down to 35 seconds. Rose passed Holland with 7-laps to go and went on to win the race by 32 seconds.
 
The 1948 Indianapolis 500 was a repeat of the 1947 race with Mauri Rose winning and teammate Bill Holland coming in second. Although the third-place finisher, Duke Nalon, led at 400 and 425 miles after Rose and Holland pitted, the race was not close at the end . Mauri Rose finished more than a lap ahead of Bill Holland. Holland later explained that he did not challenge Rose during the later part of the race as his car kept jumping out of gear and he didn’t feel comfortable pushing the car for more speed. As part of the celebration in Victory Lane, Rose announced his engagement to Ruth Wentworth.
 
The 1948 race was not without controversy. Late in the race, it appeared that there might be a protest from either Lou Welch, owner of the Novi car driven by Duke Nalon, or Lou Moore. Both teams were certain that their car was in the lead. Welch believed that the 131st lap had not been counted. He asked AAA steward Harry Hartz to announce a correction near the 435-mile mark. When he learned of this, Lou Moore immediately left the pits and went to the steward in the pagoda. When he returned to the pits, a sign was posted to Holland to “get Nalon.” The potential protest by Lou Welch faded when Nalon pitted to take on more fuel.
 
Lou Moore entered the record books as the first car owner to have a winning car three consecutive years when his Blue Crown Spark Plug Special No 7, piloted by Bill Holland, won the 1949 Indianapolis 500. Team Penske matched the record in 2002 when Gil de Ferran won the Indianapolis 500 following the two victories by Helio Castroneves in 2001 and 2002.
 
Lou Moore entered three cars in the 1949 Indianapolis 500. Mauri Rose piloted the number 7 car, Bill Holland the No. 8 car and George Connor the No. 22 car. The Connor car first appeared at the Speedway in 1948 with an undersized 220-cubic inch motor but was withdrawn before qualifying.
 
Bill Holland, who started from the fourth position, won the race with a record speed of 121.377 mph. He took the lead on lap 55 and was in control for the remainder of the race. With his cars running first and second (Rose), Lou Moore instructed his drivers to take it easy. Remembering how he followed directions two years previously and lost the race, Holland only backed off slightly. Meanwhile, Mauri Rose, who was running in second, pushed his car in an effort to overtake Holland and become the first driver to win three consecutive Indianapolis 500s and become the first four-time winner. This was not to be. Rose’s car suffered magneto trouble on the 192nd lap of the race. At the time, his car was in second place, and he was trying to overtake Holland. With only twelve cars running at the end of the race, Rose was awarded 13th place.  Second place was taken by rookie Johnny Parsons some 3 minutes, 11 seconds behind Holland. George Connor finished third. Furious that Rose didn’t follow his instructions, Lou Moore fired him after the race.
 
For the 1950 contest, Moore fielded a four-car team with drivers Bill Holland, George Connor, Lee Wallard, and Tony Bettenhausen, Sr. In a rain shortened race halted at 138 laps, Johnny Parson finished first followed by Bill Holland. In third place was Mauri Rose, who was driving for Howard Keck, the Superior Oil tycoon. Lee Wallard finished sixth, two laps behind the winner George Connor finished eighth, three laps behind. Tony Bettenhausen’s car had a wheel bearing failure on lap 31 and he finished in 31st.
 
After the 1950 race, Blue Crown Spark Plugs didn’t renew their relationship with Lou Moore. In June 1950, Moore sold the cars to William B. Anstead, Jr. As part of the transaction, Moore had a two-year contract to manage the team for Anstead.
 
The story might have been different had Bill Holland not been suspended by the AAA Contest Board in the fall of 1950. Holland did not appear in another Indianapolis 500 race until 1953 and Lou Moore was deprived of his premier driver. In 1951, Moore again had a four-car team consisting of Tony Bettenhausen, Sr., Henry Banks (the AAA National Champion), George Connor, and Duane Carter. The race was won by Lee Wallard. Banks was the top finisher for the Lou Moore team in sixth place, Carter finished in eighth one lap down, Bettenhausen ninth, and Connor twenty-first after having a driveshaft failure.
 
1952 was the final year that Lou Moore participated in the Indianapolis 500. By then, his two race cars were outdated. His two-car team didn’t fare well. Henry Banks finished 19th in the race and Bettenhausen Sr. 24th.
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As an aside, I went to the Indianapolis 500. While the race start was delayed by four hours because of a thunderstorm, it was a good race with an exciting finish as Pato O'Ward passed Josef Newgarden in Turn 1 on the final lap and Josef Newgarden passed Pato O’Ward in turn three for the victory.
The weather deprived Kyle Larson from driving in both the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte. Larson drove well and at one point, was in the lead. For most of the day, he was running in the top ten until he exceeded the speed limit on pit road. You could hear the crowd sigh when the penalty was announced. He finished eighteen. He won the Rookie of the Year honors.
Despite his performance, Larson told Bruce Martin of NBC Sports that he felt he was letting the Hendrick Motorsports NASCAR team and his fans down. He said. “Race day just sucked. Honestly, yesterday sucked. I didn’t really enjoy any of it.” Despite this, Larson stated he hoped he would get to try to do The Double at some point in the future.
After completing the 500-mile run in Indianapolis, Larson and Hendrick Motorsports officials hopped into a waiting helicopter for a short flight to a waiting jet. Ten minutes after arriving at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, the Coca-Cola 600 was red flagged for rain.
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