10-4 Magazine May 2023

10-4 Magazine / May 2023 37 HERE ARE 10 FUN FACTS ABOUT INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAYAND THE INDY 500 RACE 1) The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is 2.5 miles in length. The front and back stretch are each 5/8th miles in length and the turns are banked at 9 degrees 12 minutes. 2) Just counting the interior track oval, the massive speedway sits on 253 acres of land. To put that in perspective, you could place the World’s Largest Truckstop, Walcott’s Iowa 80 (220 acres) inside the track, along with Yankee Stadium (24 acres), and still have 8 acres to spare. 3) In 1909 the track was paved using 3.2 million paving bricks, earning the Speedway its “Brickyard” nickname. A 36-inch strip of bricks at the start/finish line, known as the fabled Yard of Bricks, is all that remains exposed of all the paving bricks buried beneath the asphalt. 4) After winning the Indy 500 for the third time in 1936, Louis Meyer asked for a bottle of his favorite beverage, buttermilk, while in Victory Lane to quench his thirst. Thus began the tradition of the Indy 500 winner drinking milk. 5) The Borg-Warner Trophy displays the faces of every Indy 500 winner, along with former IMS owner Tony Hulman (1945-1977), whose face is in gold, not Sterling Silver, and is one of the most valuable trophies in the world. Made of Sterling Silver, the trophy stands just under 5’-4” tall and weighs nearly 153 pounds. Each one has an estimated value of around 3.5 million dollars. 6) The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the largest sporting venue in the world, and the Indy 500 is the largest single-day sporting event in the world. While race-day attendance is never revealed, the track has more than 250,000 seats, and in a typical year, full venue capacity on race day is about 400,000 people, including workers. 7) Arie Luyendyk holds the four-lap qualifying track record at 236.986 MPH driving a Cosworth XB powered Reynard, set in 1996. While Arie was the fastest qualifier that year, through a series of circumstances, he did not start in the pole position. 8) Only four drivers have won the Indy 500 four times – A.J. Foyt, Al Unser, Rick Mears and Helio Castroneves. 9) Mario Andretti is the only Andretti to win the Indy 500, which he did in 1969. His son, Michael Andretti, holds the record for the most laps led by a non-winning driver at 431. His best finish was 2nd in the 1991 Indy 500. 10) Since the first race in 1911, no driver with the last name of “Smith” has ever qualified or competed in the Indy 500.