Nearly the entire race unfolded as a three-way battle between polesitter Rick Mears, Bobby Rahal, and Kevin Cogan.

Rahal pulled away and won the race, with car owner Jim Trueman, stricken with cancer, cheering him on in the pit area.

Lastly, a refueling complex was constructed in the southeast corner, including two underground tanks, one each for methanol and gasoline fuels.

[12] The plain precast concrete walls resembled the cookie-cutter stadiums of the era that were largely criticized in baseball and football.

The design was a sharp and striking contrast to the previous garage complex, which led some to call them overtly plain or "antiseptic.

"[13] Changing the layout to north–south based was also a thinly-veiled attempt by the management to further scale back the oft-rowdy "Snakepit" area formerly located inside the turn one infield.

The interiors were spacious and without walls (except those adjacent to the middle corridors), allowing teams the flexibility to erect partitions as they saw fit, as well as layout their work area however they desired.

On August 19, 1985, after 15 years of being shown tape delayed, ABC Sports signed an initial three-year deal to cover the Indianapolis 500 live flag-to-flag starting in 1986.

Defending Indy 500 winner Danny Sullivan returned to Penske Racing, however, the rest of the team saw a shake-up from the previous year.

Marlboro, which had abruptly left the sport of Indy car racing in 1971,[18] returned and would become a major part of the series for 25 years.

For the month of May 1986, the Borg-Warner Trophy celebrated its 50th anniversary sporting a new look, featuring a brand new three-row base.

[19][21] Penske teammates Rick Mears and Danny Sullivan nudged the speeds up over 214 mph (344 km/h) by Wednesday, May 7, then the day ended early due to a rain shower.

[19] During the morning practice on Saturday, May 10, Rick Mears set an all-time unofficial track record, at 217.548 mph (350.110 km/h).

[20][21] With about ten minutes left in the session, A. J. Foyt lined up to make an attempt, but his car failed technical inspection, and he was sidelined for the day.

After qualifying was concluded for the day, the cars of Raul Boesel and Dick Simon, both of the same team, were disqualified for a faulty pop-off valve fitting.

Two-time winner Gordon Johncock planned to end a one-year retirement, and purchase a back-up car from Penske.

Newman/Haas Racing would spend the next several days trying to make repairs, and even sent the car's tub back to the Lola factory in England for reconstruction.

Rain kept the track closed until 3 p.m., with qualifying finally getting underway at 4 p.m. By late afternoon, however, several cars were pulled out of line and chose not to make an attempt.

The top three race qualifiers and their respective pit crews were automatically eligible: Rick Mears, Danny Sullivan, and Michael Andretti.

After Dennis Firestone withdrew his wrecked car, Dick Simon was added to field in the 33rd position as the first alternate The race was scheduled for Sunday, May 25.

Track officials were faced with the possibility of running the race on Tuesday in front of empty grandstands, and without live TV coverage.

Weather forecasts for Tuesday and Wednesday were not promising,[25] a substantial amount of the track staff was unavailable,[25] and the sloppy conditions made parts of the facility impassable.

For the weekend, the Rex Mays 200 at Milwaukee, originally scheduled for Sunday June 1, was pushed back one week to accommodate the Indy rain delay.

The Purdue band was absent, while Robert McFarland,[26][27] scheduled to sing "Back Home Again in Indiana", had departed and was replaced by John S. Davies, the artist-in-residence at the Indianapolis Opera.

Visibly frail and lacking strength, he managed to arrive in victory lane to celebrate with his driver Bobby Rahal.

He also was asked several times, during the month of May, about his accident in 1982 with Andretti and Foyt, leading Cogan to reportedly exit a press conference early.

Bobby Unser, Page's frequent booth partner on NBC Sports, joined the broadcast for the first and only time as "driver expert."

Baker has remained in that location until 2017 (except 2010 and 2013 when it was vacant) as he would depart the crew and join the public address crew for 2018 when it was decided that Turn 1 would not be used in 2018 but due to a new broadcast booth debuting in 2019 named after Sid Collins, Turn 1's broadcasting location would be reinstated.. Gary Gerould (one of Page's NBC colleagues), made his first appearance as a pit reporter, sharing duties in the south pits with Lou Palmer.

Luke Walton reprised his traditional duty of introducing the starting command during the pre-race, however, he did not have an active role during the race.

[35] Paul Page described the finish of IMS Radio Network: The final roar of the racing engines...Bobby Rahal accelerates...and Bobby Rahal has won his first Indianapolis 500.Kevin Cogan responding to Sam Posey for an in-race radio interview with only 3 laps to go: I'm kind of busy right now Sam, I'll talk to you afterwards.Sam Posey on ABC-TV after being snubbed by Kevin Cogan: I wouldn't want to talk to me either.28.