50 Fun Facts About Indianapolis Motor Speedway

What raced at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in June 1909, in the first event ever held there?

Gas balloons lifted off two months before the oval was finished, and the winner drifted for more than a day before landing 382 miles away in Alabama.

About how many bricks were hand-laid in 1909 to pave the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Brickyard?

3.2 million bricks, each weighing about 10 pounds, were set by hand over a bed of sand. All but a three-foot strip at the start-finish line now lie under asphalt.

Ray Harroun won the first Indianapolis 500 without a riding mechanic by fitting his car with which device?

A rear-view mirror did the job of the mechanic who normally watched for overtaking cars, though Harroun later said the rough track shook it so badly that it was largely useless.

What is the Indianapolis 500 winner handed to drink in Victory Lane, a custom Louis Meyer began in 1936?

A bottle of milk became the ritual after Meyer asked for buttermilk on a hot day. Drivers now say in advance whether they want whole, 2 percent or fat-free.

Which entire country could fit inside the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval with room to spare for Yankee Stadium?

Vatican City covers about 110 acres, less than half of the 253-acre oval. The track's own list of things that fit inside adds Churchill Downs and the Rose Bowl.

What do Indianapolis Motor Speedway winners do to the start-finish bricks, a custom Dale Jarrett began in 1996?

Winners kiss them, a ritual Jarrett and his crew began after the 1996 Brickyard 400. It crossed over to the Indianapolis 500 with Gil de Ferran in 2003.

Which food brand raced six hot-dog-shaped vehicles at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2025's Wienie 500?

Oscar Mayer brought all six of its Wienermobiles to the oval, each one representing a different region of the United States.

Which actor, TV's Gomer Pyle, sang "Back Home Again in Indiana" before most Indianapolis 500s from 1972 to 2014?

Jim Nabors made the song his own over four decades. For his farewell in 2014 he was also invited to help give the command to start engines.

Which award carries a sculpted likeness of the face of every Indianapolis 500 winner since 1911?

The Borg-Warner Trophy is never given away: it stays at the track's museum, so since 1988 each winner has taken home a small replica nicknamed the Baby Borg.

Which multi-sport event held its 1987 opening ceremony on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway's main straight?

The Pan American Games opened on the front straight with thousands of performers, and the track then hosted the speed roller skating events too.

Which Indianapolis businessman, later the developer of Miami Beach, dreamed up the Indianapolis Motor Speedway?

Carl Fisher wanted a proving ground for Indiana's carmakers. He went on to champion the Lincoln Highway, the first road for cars across the whole United States.

Which World War I flying ace, later head of Eastern Air Lines, owned the Indianapolis Motor Speedway from 1927 to 1945?

Eddie Rickenbacker had driven in the Indianapolis 500 four times before he bought the track, and as owner he added a golf course to the infield.

Which Terre Haute heir to Clabber Girl baking powder bought the run-down Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1945?

Tony Hulman paid a reported $750,000 for a track overgrown with weeds after four idle wartime years, and his family went on to own it for three generations.

Which racing team owner bought the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the IndyCar Series in a deal announced in 2019?

Roger Penske, the boss of Team Penske, took over from the Indiana family that had owned the track for three generations since 1945.

What nickname is given to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway garage area, part of which burned down in 1941?

Gasoline Alley keeps its name even though Indianapolis 500 cars gave up gasoline long ago, racing instead on alcohol fuels.

Which name is given to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway's control tower, first built in 1913?

The Pagoda began as a wooden tower. The present version, finished in 2000, houses race control and the media center.

Since the first race in 1911, the Indianapolis 500 has traditionally been tied to which national holiday?

Memorial Day was chosen partly because Indiana farmers had just finished haying and had a two-week break, which promised a bigger crowd.

What nickname has been given since the 1960s to the rowdy infield party zone at the Indianapolis 500?

The Snake Pit grew up in the turn one infield, where many revellers had little interest in the racing. It now hosts an electronic dance music concert on race day.

Which university's band, owner of a giant bass drum, has been the Indianapolis 500's official band since 1919?

Purdue brings its Big Bass Drum, built in Indianapolis in 1921 and billed as the world's largest, and the drum is driven around the track before the race.

Which name is given to the final Indianapolis 500 practice session, held on the Friday before the race?

Carb Day is short for Carburetion Day, a name that has stuck even though no car in the race has used a carburetor since 1963.

Which tire maker's safety fears left only six cars racing in the 2005 United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis?

Michelin found its tires could not cope with the banked final turn, so its teams pulled into the pits after the formation lap and only the six Bridgestone cars started.

Which driver won the first United States Grand Prix held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, in 2000?

Michael Schumacher won from pole in front of one of the largest crowds Formula One had ever drawn, on a new road course built inside the oval.

Which driver, raised partly in Pittsboro, Indiana, won NASCAR's first Brickyard 400 in 1994?

Jeff Gordon took the lead for good late in the race when Ernie Irvan blew a tire. It was only the second Cup win of the 23-year-old's career.

Which Texan became the first driver to win the Indianapolis 500 four times with his 1977 victory?

A. J. Foyt had also won the 1964 race, the last Indianapolis 500 victory for a car with its engine in front of the driver.

Which former aerospace engineer became the first woman to qualify for the Indianapolis 500, in 1977?

Janet Guthrie retired after 27 laps that day, but a year later she finished ninth while hiding a fractured wrist from race officials.

Which driver became the first woman to lead the Indianapolis 500 in 2005 and later finished third in 2009?

Danica Patrick led as a rookie while rivals cycled through pit stops, and her third place four years later was the best finish by a woman in the race's history.

Which driver won the 1966 Indianapolis 500 at his first attempt and later completed motorsport's Triple Crown?

Graham Hill added a Le Mans victory in 1972 to his Indianapolis and Monaco wins, becoming the first driver to complete the set.

Which Scottish driver's 1965 win in a Lotus was the first Indianapolis 500 victory for a rear-engine car?

Jim Clark's win ended the era of front-engine roadsters for good: every Indianapolis 500 winner since has had the engine behind the driver.

Which driver, later a Formula One world champion, won the Indianapolis 500 only once, in 1969?

Mario Andretti made 29 attempts at the race and finished the full distance just five times, a run of near misses that fans call the Andretti Curse.

Which four-time Indianapolis 500 winner is nicknamed Spider-Man for climbing the catch fence after victories?

Hélio Castroneves won the race as a rookie in 2001 and joined the four-time winners in 2021, twenty years after that first victory.

What did Emerson Fittipaldi drink in Victory Lane in 1993, angering Indianapolis 500 fans who expected tradition?

Orange juice was his own product: Fittipaldi owned citrus groves in Brazil and wanted to promote them. He was booed at the next race, in Milwaukee.

Which three-time Indianapolis 500 winner found the track in ruins in 1944 and recruited a buyer to save it?

Wilbur Shaw was told the site would become a housing subdivision, so he found a buyer himself and was rewarded with the job of track president.

Which English track, opened in 1907, was the only purpose-built banked oval before the Indianapolis Motor Speedway?

Brooklands so impressed the Indianapolis track's founder on a 1907 visit that it settled his plan to build a banked speedway of his own.

Which car, driven solo by Ray Harroun, won the first Indianapolis 500 and is kept at the Speedway's museum?

The Marmon Wasp got its name from its yellow paint and pointed tail. Harroun, a Marmon engineer, helped design the six-cylinder car.

What did the Indianapolis Motor Speedway become during World War I, when racing stopped for 1917 and 1918?

An aviation repair depot took over the grounds, where the military fixed and refueled aircraft until racing resumed in 1919.

What was the Indianapolis Motor Speedway's original 1909 racing surface, which broke up and led to fatal crashes?

Crushed stone and tar rutted so badly during the first car races that five people were killed, and the owners repaved with brick within months.

Which fuel powered the car Dave Evans drove through the entire 1931 Indianapolis 500 without a single pit stop?

Diesel made the Cummins-engined car thrifty enough to run all 500 miles non-stop, and it was the first entry of its kind in the race.

Which energy-absorbing wall, now common on ovals, was first installed at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2002?

The SAFER barrier, a steel-and-foam wall designed by engineers at the University of Nebraska, was on nearly every big-league oval within three years.

Which motorcycle world championship raced on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course from 2008 to 2015?

MotoGP ran its laps counter-clockwise, the same direction as the oval races, in the track's first motorcycle event since 1909.

University teams met at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2021 for the first race between which vehicles?

Autonomous cars with no one aboard lapped the oval on software alone, and a team from the Technical University of Munich took the prize.

Which golf architect designed Brickyard Crossing, which has four holes inside the Indianapolis Motor Speedway?

Pete Dye worked the dismantled outer retaining wall of the race track into his design, which replaced an older 27-hole layout in 1993.

Which Colombian won the Indianapolis 500 as a rookie in 2000 and then won it again fifteen years later?

Juan Pablo Montoya led 167 of the 200 laps on his first visit, then left for other series before returning to IndyCar and winning again.

Which pioneers of powered flight took part in a 1910 air meet held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway?

The Wright brothers headlined the week, and their pilot Walter Brookins broke the world altitude record above the track.

Which former Formula One driver became the first Japanese winner of the Indianapolis 500 in 2017?

Takuma Sato won again in 2020, the year the pandemic pushed the race from its usual May date to August.

Which driver completed all 1,100 miles of the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day in 2001?

Tony Stewart finished sixth at Indianapolis, flew to Charlotte and came third that night, the first driver to complete every mile of the double.

Which Indiana governor, later Woodrow Wilson's vice president, laid the Indianapolis Motor Speedway's last brick?

Thomas Marshall set a ceremonial "gold" brick that was really gold-plated brass, finishing a repaving job begun less than a month after the first car races.

Which Indianapolis Motor Speedway co-founder's race shop grew into a maker of aircraft engines and transmissions?

James Allison set up the shop across the street from the track to build race cars. General Motors bought it after his death, and the name lives on in Allison Transmission.

Which Dutch two-time Indianapolis 500 winner set a qualifying lap record of 237.498 mph at the track in 1996?

Arie Luyendyk still did not start from pole that year, because he set the time on the second day of qualifying.

How long is one lap of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval, a distance essentially unchanged since 1909?

2.5 miles is why the Indianapolis 500 lasts exactly 200 laps. The plan was first for a three-mile oval, shrunk to leave room for grandstands.

About how many permanent seats did a 2004 count find at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a world record?

The round figure is 250,000: a journalist's count came to 257,325 seats, which made the track the highest-capacity sports venue in the world.