Indianapolis 500

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Indianapolis 500

For most of the twentieth century, the Borg-Warner trophy, awarded to the winner of the Indianapolis 500 Motor Speedway race, has been the most coveted prize in auto racing. Known as "the greatest spectacle in racing," the Memorial Day event—which since the late 1960s has actually been run on the Sunday before Memorial Day to permit the scheduling of a rain delay—has featured the best drivers and the fastest speeds in the sport.

The Indianapolis 500 consists of 200 laps around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway's two-and-a-half-mile oval. The first race, in 1911, lasted most of the day; the 1997 race was won by Arie Luyendyk in less than three-and-a-half hours. The first race averaged a then staggering 74.5 miles per hour but, by the end of the century, the course speed record was held by Rick Mears, who won the 1991 race with an average speed of over 176 miles per hour. One other difference is notable: Ray Haroun took home a hefty $10,000 for winning the first Indianapolis 500, while 1998 winner Eddie Cheever pocketed over $1.4 million.

Like most non-team sports, the history of auto racing is chronicled in the personalities who defined its various eras. Other than one notable exception, NASCAR's Richard Petty, racing's dominant personalities gravitated to Indianapolis. In the early years, when the Speedway was paved with over three million bricks (a 36-inch strip of which is still visible at the finish line), it was the home of barnstormers like Haroun, Ralph DePalma, and Howdy Wilcox. In those days, drivers would carry mechanics in the car with them, and repairs would be undertaken on the track.

The next great Indianapolis legend was Wilbur Shaw, who won the race three times in four years (1937 to 1940). In 1946, Shaw convinced Anton "Tony" Hulman to buy the Speedway from an ownership group that included the legendary Captain Eddie Rickenbacker; Shaw became its president. It was under the guidance of Shaw (who died in a plane crash in 1954) and Hulman that the Indianapolis 500 became the premier auto-racing event in the world. The 1950s and 1960s saw Indianapolis become the unofficial home of racing greats such as Maury Rose, Bill Vukovich, Johnnie Parsons, and Parnelli Jones, who drove the first turbine-powered race car to within six laps of a win before gearbox failure cost him the race.

The personality that most defines the Indianapolis 500, though, is A.J. Foyt, Jr. Foyt first raced in Indianapolis in 1958 and continued to be an integral part of the facility's lore for the next 40 years. His records include most career starts (35), most consecutive starts (35), most competitive miles during a career (12,273), and most races led (13). Foyt's record of four wins is matched only by his contemporary Al Unser. Another reason why Foyt has cast such a long shadow over Indy racing is that he stands as a nostalgic contrast to the reality that championship racing has now become the province of only the best-financed teams. The names of drivers like Rutherford, Andretti, and Clark have been overshadowed by the names of owners like Penske and Newman/Haas. Because so much money is now at stake in championship Indy-car racing, the complexion of the sport is changing, and the pre-eminence of the Indianapolis 500 is in danger. In 1994, Speedway president Tony George inaugurated the Indianapolis Racing League, a circuit meant to compete with the Championship Auto Racing Teams League established by Roger Penske. The friction between the rivals has caused many of the sport's most popular drivers to skip the Indianapolis 500 in order to boost CART's leverage in the marketplace. The outcome of this controversy will go a long way toward determining for how long, or if, the Indianapolis 500 will remain "the greatest spectacle in racing."

—Barry Morris