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| Indianapolis Motor Speedway | |
| |
|---|---|
| Location | 4790 West 16th Street, Speedway, Indiana 46222 |
| Capacity | 400,000 |
| Owner | Penske Entertainment Group |
| Opened | 1909 |
| Major events | NASCAR Cup Series
Verizon 200 at the Brickyard |
| Road Course | |
| Length | 2.605 mi (4.192 km) |
| Surface | Asphalt and brick |
| Turns | 14 |
Indianapolis Motor Speedway, located in Speedway, Indiana (a separate city completely surrounded by Indianapolis) in the United States, is the second-oldest surviving automobile racing track in the world (after the Milwaukee Mile), around since 1909, and the original "Speedway," the first racing facility historically to incorporate the word. The track is a relatively flat (by American standards; considered high-banked by European) two and a half-mile oval, also including a 2.6 mile road course inside, almost rectangular in shape. Altogether, today the grounds have expanded to cover over a total current area of 559 acres from an original 320 from which the Speedway was first built. With a combined permanent seating and infield spectator capacity of over 400,000, it is the largest sporting facility in the world and generally recognized as among the most famous and prestigious in Motorsport history. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987, currently the only such landmark to be affiliated with automotive history since its inception. To date, a total of 222 automobile races between August 19, 1909, and May 26, 2006, have been held, with 122 separate drivers winning.
Early History: tragedy begets "The Brickyard"
Carl Graham Fisher (1874-1938) of Indiana, American automotive parts and highway entrepreneur, co-founder and first President of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. photo credit U.S. Library of Congress, May 1909
When the first race took place in August of 1909, the celebration quickly turned into a disaster due to the surface of crushed stone and tar. There were terrible injuries to the race car drivers and spectators. Cars caught fire, there were deaths, and the race was halted and canceled when only halfway completed (five miles). Louis Schwitzer was declared the winner in front of twelve thousand spectators.
Following an initiative by automotive parts and highway pioneer Carl G. Fisher, an Indiana native who was both a former race car driver and one of the principal investors, the safety concerns for race drivers and spectators eventually led to a substantial additional expenditure to pave the track surface with 3.2 million paving bricks, and gave the track its popular nickname, "The Brickyard".
Attracting an estimated 80,000 spectators to the first 500-mile (804.672 km) race on Memorial Day May 30, 1911, at $1 admission, the Speedway reopened and hosted the first in a long line of five hundred-mile (804.672 km) races, now known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race. Ray Harroun won at the brisk average speed of 74.602 mph (120.060 km/h). 'The Greatest Spectacle in Racing' was born.
NASCAR Began racing at the track in 1994, where Rick Mast won the pole and Jeff Gordon won the race.
The Verizon 200 at the Brickyard is the only NASCAR Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The NASCAR Xfinity Series runs the Pennzoil 150 using the same layout as the Cup Series.
2021 races
- 105th Indianapolis 500-Mile Race - May 30th - IRL
- Verizon 200 at the Brickyard August 15th - NASCAR Cup Series
- Pennzoil 150 at the Brickyard August 14th - NASCAR Xfinity Series
Records
- NASCAR
- Qualifying: Kevin Harvick, 188.888 mph, July 26, 2014.
- Race Average: Bobby Labonte, 155.912 mph, August 5, 2000.
Dimensions (Oval Layout)
- Long straightaways - 5/8 mile: 2 × 0.625 miles (1.006 km)
- Short straightaways - 1/8 mile: 2 × 0.125 miles (0.201 km)
- Turns - 1/4 mile: 4 × 0.25 miles (0.402 km)
- Banking: 9°12'
- Total distance: 2.5 miles (4.023 km)
- Track width: 50 feet / 15.240 metres (straightaways), 60 feet / 18.288 metres (turns)
Race Winners
Brickyard 400
External links
- Indianapolis Motor Speedway Official Site
- Unofficial Site Amateur site with lots of historical stats and photographs you won't find anywhere else including the fatalities over the years.
- Johnson's Indy 500 Indy Statistics and Nostalgia
- Indianapolis History and Statistics
- Indianapolis Motor Speedway Page on NASCAR.com
- Super High-Resolution image from Windows Live Local
- High-Resolution image from Google Maps