Who was the first two-time winner of the Indianapolis 500?

Tommy Milton was the first two-time winner of the Indianapolis 500.

Milton won the race in 1921 and again in 1923, establishing a record that later champions such as Louis Meyer, Wilbur Shaw, and A. J. Foyt would join. His first victory came in a Frontenac-powered car, while his second came driving a Miller 122 for H.C.S. Motor Co.

Milton’s achievement is easy to confuse with the first three-time winner or the first back-to-back winner. Wilbur Shaw was the first driver to win consecutive 500s, taking the 1939 and 1940 races, but he had already won once in 1937. Milton’s two victories were separated by the 1922 race, which he did not finish because of fuel-tank trouble.

He also competed with only one functional eye, yet became one of the leading American racers of the 1910s and 1920s. Milton made eight Indianapolis 500 starts and won the event’s inaugural two-race milestone.