{"id":58893,"date":"2026-06-03T20:15:41","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T01:15:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=58893"},"modified":"2026-06-03T20:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T01:20:10","slug":"obituary-indianapolis-500-veteran-treadway-dies-at-56","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/03\/obituary-indianapolis-500-veteran-treadway-dies-at-56\/","title":{"rendered":"Indianapolis 500 veteran Treadway dies at 56"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Rick Treadway, who started the 2002 Indianapolis 500, died May 30 in a motorcycle accident. He was 56. (Photo courtesy of the NTT IndyCar Series)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Courtesy of the NTT IndyCar Series<\/em><\/p>\n

INDIANAPOLIS \u2013 Indiana native Rick Treadway, who raced in the 2002 Indianapolis 500, died on Saturday, May 30, 2026 in a motorcycle accident. Mr. Treadway was 56.<\/p>\n

The son of 1997 Indianapolis 500-winning team-owner Fred Treadway, Rick started 17th and placed 29th as a rookie in the No. 5 Sprint\/Kyocera Wireless\/Airlink Enterprises G Force\/Chevrolet fielded by his father\u2019s team. Rick Treadway competed at the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway as teammate to two-time Indy 500 champion Arie Luyendyk.<\/p>\n

A native of Holland, pole-sitter Luyendyk drove Fred Treadway\u2019s No. 5 Wavephore\/Sprint PCS\/Miller Lite\/Provimi G Force\/Oldsmobile Aurora to victory by 0.570-seconds over native Canadian Scott Goodyear in the race\u2019s 81st<\/sup> edition under sanction of the Indy Racing League on May 27, 1997.<\/p>\n

Rick Treadway and fellow-rookie Tony Kanaan, driver of the No. 17 Hollywood Mo Nunn Racing G Force\/Chevrolet, were eliminated from \u201cThe Greatest Spectacle in Racing\u201d in a Turn 3 accident on Lap 90 of the scheduled 200.<\/p>\n

Native Brazilian Helio Castroneves of Team Penske scored his second consecutive Indy 500 victory in the race\u2019s 86th<\/sup> edition on May 26, 2002. Treadway was among nine rookies competing that day in a class that included future event champions Kanaan, of Brazil, and Dario Franchitti of Scotland.<\/p>\n

His Indy 500 start was the highlight of Rick Treadway\u2019s INDYCAR career, which consisted of 11 races in the 2001 and 2002 seasons for his father\u2019s teams \u2013 Treadway-Hubbard Racing and Treadway Racing.<\/p>\n

Rick Treadway made his INDYCAR debut in 2001 at the 1.5-mile Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, Ky., and his last start in 2002 during the season-finale at the 1.5-mileTexas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. His best finish was fifth in the 2001 season-finale at TMS.<\/p>\n

Before competing in INDYCAR, Treadway drove in Formula 2000 junior formula racing and various short-track open-wheel series, including the U.S. Auto Club\u2019s Silver Crown and National Midget ranks. He also raced in Sports Car Club of America events.<\/p>\n

A graduate of Indiana State University, Treadway worked in business development and as a commercial pilot for his charter air service. He also served as a Federal Aviation Administration-certified flight instructor.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Courtesy of the NTT IndyCar Series INDIANAPOLIS \u2013 Indiana native Rick Treadway, who raced in the 2002 Indianapolis 500, died on Saturday, May 30, 2026 in a motorcycle accident. Mr. Treadway was 56. The son of 1997 Indianapolis 500-winning team-owner Fred Treadway, Rick started 17th and placed 29th as a rookie in the No. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":58895,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12],"tags":[230,421,125,22,672,1176],"class_list":["post-58893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indycar","tag-indianapolis-500","tag-indianapolis-motor-speedway","tag-indy-500","tag-indycar","tag-ntt-indycar-series","tag-rick-treadway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/mail-26.jpg?fit=640%2C320","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-fjT","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58893"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58899,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58893\/revisions\/58899"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}