The
Indianapolis Motor Speedway was built on 328 acres of
farmland five miles northwest of Indiana's capital city
in the spring of 1909. Financed by four local businessmen,
Carl Fisher, James Allison, Frank Wheeler and Arthur Newby,
it was planned as a year-round testing facility for the
fast-growing automobile industry in Indiana. Occasional
race meets would be presented at the track, featuring
those very same manufacturers racing their products against
each other. Spectators, it was reasoned, would be sufficiently
impressed as to want to head downtown quickly to the showrooms
for a closer look at one of these new-fangled contraptions.
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TRACK
SPECIFICATIONS
Length:
2.5 Miles
Shape:
"Rectangular" Oval
Banking:
9 degrees, 12 minutes
Frontstretch:
Length: 3,300 feet
Backstretch:
Length: 3,300 feet
Qualifying
Record:
Brett
Bodine 181.072
Set
August 4, 2000
Race
Record:
Bobby
Labonte 155.918
Set
August 5, 2000
www.Brickyard.com |
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Four turns, each banked at 9 degrees and 12 minutes
and measuring exactly 440 yards from entrance to exit,
were linked together by a pair of long straights and,
at the north and south ends of the property, by a pair
of short straights to form a rectangular-shaped 2 ½
mile track as dictated by the confines of the available
land.
With
the original surface of crushed rock and tar proving
to be disastrous at the opening motorcycle and automobile
racing events in August of 1909, 3,200,000 paving bricks
were imported by rail from the western part of the state
in the fall, laid on their sides in a bed of sand and
fixed with mortar, this inspiring the nickname "The
Brickyard".
With
the exception of an additional program of racing on
a single day in September 1916, no race other than the
Indianapolis 500 was to be held at the Speedway until
a tremendously successful NASCAR stock car event, the
Brickyard 400, debuted in 1994. The 500 was suspended
during America's involvement in the two world wars,
1917-1918 and 1942-1945, but held in all other years.
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Track Info |
