Indianapolis 500 Materials at The Henry Ford

25 artifacts in this set

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The Indianapolis 500 is the most important, and most celebrated, automobile race in the United States. This is a small sample of Indy 500-related items in our collection.

Detailed Description

Brick from Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Paving brick

When Carl Fisher and his partners opened Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1909, the crushed stone and tar track surface quickly proved too dangerous. Fisher had the entire track resurfaced with 3.2 million paving bricks. The track was fully paved with asphalt by 1961, but a three-foot brick strip -- at the start/finish line -- remains, as does the speedway's nickname: the Brickyard.