Driver
When the Tokyo native won the 2013 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach he became the first Japanese driver to win an IndyCar Series event. Four years later he became the first Japanese driver to win the Indianapolis 500 and three years after that repeated as 500 champion, becoming just the 20th pilot with multiple wins in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. Among multi-500 winners, all but Sato, Dan Wheldon and Juan Pablo Montoya (plus Josef Newgarden who is not yet eligible) have been inducted into the MSHFA. Sato began in karts, winning a national championship in Japan. He made international headlines in 2001 when he won the British Formula 3 title with 12 wins in 26 races and captured the prestigious Masters of Formula 3 and Macau Grand Prix events. He spent the next seven years in Formula 1, scoring one podium. He joined the IndyCar circuit in 2010. In 2014, he competed in the first-ever Formula E race, setting fastest lap. Four of his six IndyCar wins have come with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.