Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Opened: August 12, 1909
Owner: Hulman and Co.
Operator: Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corporation
Construction cost: $3 million USD
Architect: Carl G. Fisher, James Allison, Frank Wheeler and Arthur Newby
Capacity: 257,325

Indianapolis Motor Speedway, located in Speedway, Indiana (a separate town completely surrounded by Indianapolis) in the United States, is the second-oldest surviving automobile racing track in the world (after Milwaukee), and the home of the most famous open wheel race in the United States, the Indianapolis 500.

It has existed since 1909, and is the original “Speedway,” the first racing facility historically to incorporate the word. With a permanent seating capacity for more than 257,000 people and infield seating that raises capacity to an approximate 400,000, it is the largest and highest-capacity sporting facility in history (by comparison, the world’s largest stadium seats 150,000 spectators).

Considered relatively flat by American standards but high-banked by Europeans, the Motor Speedway is a two and a half mile, nearly rectangular oval with dimensions that have remained essentially unchanged since its inception: four 1/4 mile turns, two 5/8 mile long straightaways between the fourth and first and second and third turns, and two 1/8 mile short straightaways, termed “short chutes,” between the first and second, and third and fourth turns.

A modern infield road course, constructed between 1998 and 2000, includes the southern parts of the oval to create a 2.6-mile (4.2 km) track. Altogether, the current grounds have expanded from an original 320 acres (1.3 km²) on which the Speedway was first built to cover over an area of over 559. Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987, it currently remains the only such landmark to be affiliated with automotive racing history since its inception.

Besides the Indianapolis 500, NASCAR’s Allstate 400 at the Brickyard (formerly Brickyard 400) also takes place there. The Speedway also hosted the United States Grand Prix for Formula One from 2000-07, the inaugural race drew an estimated 225,000 which set an Formula One attendance record. It was also the venue of the opening ceremonies for the 1987 Pan American Games.

Between August 19, 1909 and July 29, 2007, 226 automobile races took place, with 125 separate drivers winning. After winning the Grand Prix in 2006, Formula One driver Michael Schumacher holds the record for most victories between the 500, 400, and Grand Prix with five, though all having come on the infield road course. A.J. Foyt, Al Unser and Rick Mears each won four times in the Indianapolis 500 on the rectangular shaped oval track, and Jeff Gordon has also won four times on the oval in the Brickyard 400. No driver to date has won any combination between the three events, with only one driver (Juan Pablo Montoya) having competed in all three.

On the grounds of the Speedway is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum, which opened in 1956.

(source .. wikipedia) reproduced under GFDL

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Indianapolis Motor Speedway website
Indianapolis Motor Speedway wikipedia entry
NASCAR website
IndyCar website
Formula 1 website

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