Indianapolis Motor Speedway

During the field study in October, I had the opportunity to tour and learn about the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Which, interestingly enough, is not technically located in the city of Indianapolis,. It is actually in the small town of Speedway about six miles from downtown Indianapolis.

While other races are held there, the track is best known for the Indianapolis 500 which has been held there every year since 1911, with a few exceptions in which the race was cancelled due to the world wars. I find it particularly striking how racing has changed between 1911 and today. The first Indy 500 winner was Ray Harroun in 1911 who won with an average speed of 74.6 mph. The 2014 winner was Ryan Hunter-Reay with an average speed of 186.5 mph.


The track has been resurfaced several times over the years, with one surface being piled on top of the last. When the 3.2 million bricks used to pave the track in 1909 were covered with asphalt in 1939 and 1961, part of the original track was left deliberately unpaved. Today, the only portion of the original track still visible is a small strip of bricks at the start/finish line on the track. The tradition here is for race fans to kiss the bricks, but that didn’t appeal to me during the tour, so I did something different. 

My hand on the bricks

 

One tradition about the 500 that had always puzzled me before the trip was explained on the tour. Namely, the winning driver drinking milk after the race. This began in 1936 with Louis Meyer who happened to enjoy a glass of milk in Victory Lane after winning the race that year. A Milk Foundation executive saw a photo of Meyer drinking the milk and wanted to make this a lasting tradition. Between 1947 and 1955, it fell out of favor but the milk in Victory Lane has been a fixture of the Indy 500 since 1956.  

Source: booklet received during the tour, Indianapolis Motor Speedway: A History by track historian Donald Davidson