INDIANAPOLIS — A veteran Indianapolis 500 driver who raced on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway over the course of nearly three decades died over the weekend at the age of 79.
Danny Ongais, a Hawaii native, died Saturday of heart complications in Anaheim Hills, California, according to a news release from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Ongais made 11 Indy 500 starts between 1977 and 1996 and placed in the top 10 a total of four times.
Over the course of his Indy 500 career, he led in four races for a total of 79 laps. He also recorded the fastest lap of the race, at 192.678 mph, in 1977 when he was still a rookie.
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Ongais was born May 21, 1942, in Kahului, Hawaii, and began his racing career as a teenager, earning a Hawaii state title in motorcycle racing in 1960.
Later on that decade, Ongais started drag racing, and by the early 1970s became one of the top straight-line racers in the country, according to the release.
He competed in four Formula One races in 1977 and 1978, including two starts with Interscope Racing. In 1977, he placed seventh at the Canadian Grand Prix.
Ongais was commonly referred to by nicknames such as "The Flyin' Hawaiian" and word plays on his last name including "On-Gas" and "On the Gas".
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In the 1960s, Ongais served in the U.S. Army and during that time he was exposed to sports car racing in Europe, according to the release.
He also garnered a reputation for surviving several violent crashes, one of which forced him to miss a portion of the 1981 season. In 1987, he suffered a concussion in practice and was forced to miss a race.
Ongais' final start at Indianapolis was in 1996 at the age of 54. He was hired as a replacement driver after Scott Brayton died in a post-qualifying practice crash. Ongais finished in seventh place that year.
Two years later he attempted but failed to qualify for the Indy 500, according to the release.
Ongais was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2000, in the Drag Racing category.
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