The three four-time Indy 500 winners A. J. Foyt, Al Unser Sr., and Rick Mears comprised the front row.
[1] The three most recent three-time winners Bobby Unser, Johnny Rutherford, and Hélio Castroneves, made up the second row.
Only four drivers (Castroneves, Franchitti, Dixon, and Montoya) on the list were considered active in professional-level motorsports at the time.
[1] There were several dissents early on among fans and media regarding drivers included on the original list of 100 finalists, such as Danica Patrick and Marco Andretti.
Along with four other top-4 career finishes, and three front row starts, considerable speculation afterwards suggested Wheldon would have made easily the list had the voting been conducted after the race.