Don’t Forget The Museum.

There’s a reason The Indianapolis Speedway copyrighted the slogan ‘The Greatest Spectacle in Racing’, it’s an accurate description of the event. For many fans, attending an Indy 500 race is a once in a lifetime experience. I feel fortunate that I have had tickets to several races. The ‘Author’ images on this page are from my 2011 visit to the track.

On the Saturday before the race I paid a visit to Gasoline Alley, the Legends Day meeting, and the onsite Speedway Museum. It was quite a day. I highly recommend every race fan visit the track on Saturday, as they allow you to tour areas that are normally off-limits on race day. Since there have been many articles written about the race day experience, I would like to focus on the day before the race instead.

On Saturday you can walk through Gasoline Alley where many of the ‘garages’ will be open and active. If you have tickets to the Legends Day event you’ll have the opportunity to meet and get autographs from your favorite drivers. Later you can attend the driver’s meeting as drivers receive their final instructions before Race Day. Don’t forget to give yourself an hour or two to visit the Speedway Museum, there’s a lot to see.

There is so much to do on the Saturday before the race you will need most of the day to check it all out, so start early.

A visit to the Indy 500 Speedway Museum is a walk through time. The exhibits reveal not only the history of the track from day one, but you’ll also see the progression of car designs over the years, including the actual cars of many race winners you’ve probably heard of and perhaps admire.

The first race had 80,000 in attendance while the 100th anniversary race had around 350,000. When it comes to attendance, the Indy 500 is the largest single-day sporting event in the world.

How cool is that first trophy, did you know it was that big? Below are just a few of the many cars you’ll see that were driven by winners of the Indy 500.

Over the decades you can see the changes in body style that helped improve the aerodynamics, which along with improved engine horsepower, helped increase the speed of the cars and decrease the overall time of the race.

The first official Indy 500 race had an average speed of 74mph and took almost 7 hours to complete. Compare that to current average speeds of well over 220mph with a race time closer to three hours.

In 2011 the main exhibit was called the ‘The Ultimate Indianapolis 500 Winning Car Collection’. I believe they had about 50 of the winning cars on display at the time. For lack of display space, most ( about 300) of the museum owned cars are stored in the basement.

Every year the car manufacturers attempt to improve the safety and efficiency of their race cars. Some of these changes are necessary to meet the demands of the ever changing regulations designed to protect the drivers and fans in the stands.

If you ever have the chance to attend an Indy 500 race make sure you plan to visit the track the day before the race and stop by the Speedway Museum… you’ll be glad you did.

---

I’d like to add one little note about my experience at the 2011 race.

As an added bonus to the race on that Sunday we were treated to a special event involving the Hot Wheels company. They set up a giant Hot Wheels track inside the speedway oval in order to break a world record long distance jump.

Watch the video below as Tanner Foust breaks the world record for a long distance jump in a four-wheeled vehicle. He soared 332 feet through the air after dropping 10 stories down the 90 feet of orange track. To say the least, the crowd went wild.

If you love open wheel racing, nothing beats attending an Indy 500 Race. After all, it is ‘ The Greatest Spectacle in Racing’.

---

Footnote: The museum is currently closed for renovations. Construction began in October 2023, with the closing of the basement area. The Museum closed completely in November 2023 and will remain closed until the renovation is complete, the target date April 2025.

---

Thanks for reading my article

Info Sources: In addition to my personal information, most ‘researched’ information was gathered from the websites noted below and from various Google searches.

• To learn more about the renovation of the Indy 500 Museum visit the museum’s FAQ website page here.
• To visit the official Indianapolis Motor Speedway website go here.
• To learn more about the history of the Indianapolis Speedway visit their Wikipedia page here.

.