Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indy 500: Track history and traditions

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the mecca of motorsports. Whether you prefer oval tracks, road courses, open-wheel racing or stock cars, you have to respect the tradition of Indianapolis. As race fans, all the history behind the Indianapolis 500 should give you goosebumps, or at least feverish excitement.

This Memorial Day weekend, Sunday, May 29, will be the day for the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500. Man, that's cool. Take note of the wording here, because it's important. It is the 100th race, not the 100th year. The first Indy 500 was in 1911, but there were some gaps with off years taken during the World Wars.

Race fans, and even those that just tune in for The Greatest Spectacle in Racing every year, love the tradition of the month of May at Indy.

Yard of bricks

How it all started: The Brickyard
The speedway is a 2.5-mile oval (or more like a rectangle with rounded quarters) in Speedway, Indiana. It started with a 320-acre land purchse in 1908 - for $72,000. The track's infield is so big that it can hold Churchill Downs, Wimbledon, the Roman Coliseum, Yankee Stadium and the Rose Bowl.

The track started out as a dirt surface, but before the first Indy 500 the track became a surface of 3.2 million paving bricks. These would last longer and provide better traction. With a track full of bricks, IMS became known as The Brickyard.

As the years went by and the sport advanced, higher speeds started pulling up the bricks. Parts of the track were paved over with asphalt in 1936. Most of the remaining bricks were taken out after the 1961 race. Just one exception: The start/finish line remained a yard of 588 bricks. Those bricks remain today, and it's become a tradition for the winning driver and team to kiss the bricks after the big win.

A new era
As I mentioned, the race didn't run during the World Wars. Until I did some reading in "Black Noon," I didn't realize how bad the track was after WWII. IMS was in a shambles. Without a new owner and lots of TLC to the course and grounds, the storied history of the Indy 500 could have been in serious jeopardy.

Tony Hulman, a wealthy businessman in Indiana, bought the track after WWII - for $750,000. (I still can't wrap my head around these prices.) He put a crew together, thousands of people and many volunteers, to make the track shine again. Weeds were growing everywhere, trees popped up through the grandstands. Bleachers were replaced, improvements were made and they got the track ready for the 1946 Indy 500. The race has been run every year since.

Indy 500 - 2011

Racing particulars
The first race in 1911 took 6 hours and 42 minutes with an average race speed of 74.59 mph. In the past few years, the race has finished in around three hours. The fastest average race speed was 187.433 in 2013, followed by 186.563 in 2014. The winner in 1911 took home $14,250 for the win. In 2015, the lucky driver in victory lane after 200 laps also had nearly 2.5 million reasons to smile.

What a difference a century makes.

Three drivers have won the race four times each: A.J. Foyt, Al Unser and Rick Mears. Helio Castroneves has been on a quest for his fourth Indy 500 win since he last won in 2009. In addition, seven drivers have also won three times, including Bobby Unser, Johnny Rutherford and Dario Franchitti. The race has had a back-to-back winner five times.

A.J. Foyt's last race at Indy was in 1992, though his record-setting fourth Indy 500 win came back in 1977.

There's the repeated success for many drivers. There are plenty of talented drivers who never made it to the milk celebration, despite getting close: Paul Tracy, Scott Goodyear and of course, Michael Andretti.

IMS Museum

Drink of champions 
Speaking of the milk, people often wonder: What's the deal is with Indy 500 winners drinking and splashing milk around in victory lane? The tradition doesn't go back 100 years; 80 is pretty decent though. In 1936, Louis Meyer became the first driver to win the 500 three times. When the race was over, he asked for some thirst-quenching buttermilk. Yummy.

Times are still the same in some ways, with advertising, because a dairy company executive saw the photographs of Meyer slugging the milk. The light bulb went off and milk became the drink of choice for the 500 winner. The tradition actually died off after WWII but the new track owner got it going again starting with the 1956 race.

The rest is history. The celebrations have gone from a simple drink of milk, to drivers like Dan Wheldon and Franchitti swinging the milk bottle around and dumping the white liquid over their heads. I heard it's fun at the time, but the smell on the racing suit a few hours later wasn't exactly pleasant.

Borg-Warner Trophy

Borg-Warner trophy
Winners of the Indy 500 earn their place in history. They also have their likeness scultped onto the Borg-Warner trophy. In victory lane, you'll find the winner with the team, a bottle of milk, a wreath of flowers and the large Borg-Warner trophy. It's stands 52 inches tall without the bases and weights about 110 pounds.

The Borg-Warner was first presented to the winner in 1936. It has a square with each winner's face and includes his name and year he won. New bases have been added to the trophy to make room for more winners. The current base won't be filled to capacity until 2034.

The trophy resides at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum on the track grounds. By the way, if you never make it to a race at Indy, I'd recommend a track tour or at least stopping in at the museum. It's well worth your time to see a bunch of the Indy 500 winning cars on display.

Fore!
Another cool fact about all the land at IMS? It has a golf course, the Brickyard Crossing. Four holes are located inside the track in the infield, with the other 14 holes bordering the track's backstretch, just to the east. The course originally opened in 1929.

It's one of those little known facts that many people don't know. So, you're welcome. Go impress your friends with this knowledge.

IMS has an abundance of history, tradition and stories to tell. Visiting the track or attending an Indy 500 is a great item for anyone's bucket list. There are plenty of good reasons it's dubbed the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. Sit back and enjoy the show.

(Blogger's note: Thanks to the book "Black Noon" by Art Garner for being an inspiration and pointing out some of the details when it comes to the history of IMS.)