Indianapolis Motor Speedway

About this property

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is a motor racing circuit located in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indianapolis, Indiana. It is the home of the Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard 400, and formerly the home of the United States Grand Prix and the Indianapolis motorcycle Grand Prix. It is located six miles (9.7 km) west of Downtown Indianapolis. Constructed in 1909, it is the second purpose-built, banked oval racing circuit after Brooklands and the first to be called a 'speedway'. It was the brainchild of entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, who envisioned a proving ground for the budding automobile industry. It is the third-oldest permanent automobile race track in the world, behind Brooklands and the Milwaukee Mile. With a permanent seating capacity of 257,325, it is the highest-capacity sports venue in the world. The track is a 2.500 mi (4.023 km) rectangular oval with dimensions that have remained essentially unchanged since its construction. It has two 0.625 mi (1.006 km) straightaways, four geometrically identical 0.250 mi (0.402 km) turns, connected by two 0.125 mi (0.201 km) short straightaways, termed "short chutes", between turns 1 and 2, and between turns 3 and 4. The turns have 9°12' banking, considered relatively flat by American standards. A modern, FIA Grade One infield road course was completed in 2000, incorporating part of the oval, including the main stretch and the southwest turn, measuring 2.605 mi (4.192 km). In 2008, and again in 2014, the road course layout was modified to accommodate motorcycle racing, as well as to improve competition. Altogether, the current grounds have expanded from an original 320 acres (1.3 km2) on which the speedway was first built to cover an area of over 559 acres (2.3 km2). Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987, it is the only such site to be affiliated with automotive racing history. In addition to the Indianapolis 500, the speedway also hosts NASCAR's Brickyard 400 and Pennzoil 250. From 2000 to 2007, the speedway hosted the Formula One United States Grand Prix, and from 2008 to 2015 the Moto GP. The speedway served as the venue for the opening ceremonies for the 1987 Pan American Games. On the grounds of the speedway is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, which opened in 1956, and houses the Hall of Fame. The museum moved into its current building located in the infield in 1976. Also on the grounds is the Brickyard Crossing Golf Resort, which originally opened as the Speedway Golf Course in 1929. The golf course has 14 holes outside the track, along the backstretch, and four holes in the infield. The site is among the most visited attractions in the Indianapolis metropolitan area, with 1 million guests annually. The track is nicknamed "The Brickyard", and the venue self-describes as the "Racing Capital of the World". The garage area is known as Gasoline Alley, though Indy 500 racecars have used methanol and currently ethanol.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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