The 98th Indianapolis 500 was completed on Sunday May 25, 2014, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It is the premier event of the 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series season. Tony Kanaan entered the race as the defending champion. Ed Carpenter won the pole position, his second consecutive pole at Indy. The race was won by Ryan Hunter-Reay, the first American-born winner since Sam Hornish, Jr. in 2006. Hunter-Reay held off second place Hélio Castroneves by a margin of 0.0600 seconds, the second-closest finish in race history. At an average speed of , it was also the second-fastest 500 in history. Marco Andretti, Carlos Muñoz, and Juan Pablo Montoya rounded out the top five. Kurt Busch, in sixth position, claimed Rookie of the Year honors.