Bill Vukovich

Bill Vukovich was the top driver in the United States when he was killed in a tragic multiple car wreck at Indianapolis on Memorial Day 1955. Bidding to win the event for a third and unprecedented time, Vukovich was caught with nowhere to turn but right by a number of cars ahead of him on the backstretch. When he made what turned out to be a fatal turn the Fresno, California native was catapulted in his Hopkins Special and landed upside down. Killed instantly, his car is in flames around him in a popular photo taken that day. While rescue workers struggled to cover the car one of Vukovich's hands can be seen protruding from underneath the upside down racer.