Eldon Palmer

Eldon Palmer is the owner of automobile and truck dealerships in the Indianapolis, Indiana area.

He is perhaps best known as the pace car driver for the 1971 Indianapolis 500 race. Palmer was one of four Indianapolis Dodge automobile dealers to promote the Dodge Challenger as that year's pace car, so he was chosen to handle the driving duties.

In preparation for the race, Palmer set up a traffic cone to provide himself with a reference for where to begin slowing the car. This was a sound idea, but someone moved the cone without his knowledge, leading to perhaps the most spectacular Indy crash of the 1970s.

In the car with Palmer on race day were Speedway owner Tony Hulman, longtime ABC television sportscaster Chris Schenkel and astronaut John Glenn. When Palmer realized that the cone was gone, he attempted to stop quickly, but lost control of the car, which skidded into a temporary grandstand packed mainly with photographers.

Some 22 people were injured in the crash, yet no one was killed. The occupants of the car were shaken up but not seriously hurt.