During the past week, SPEED SPORT.com has profiled several of the significant traditions of the Indianapolis 500.
Today, we break down the best of the rest.
THE BRICKYARD
Originally the Indianapolis Motor Speedway surface was gravel, limestone, tar and 220,000 gallons of asphaltum oil, applied by about 500 workers aided by 300 mules. When that proved to be too unstable during the first summer of racing in 1909, track co-founders Carl G. Fisher and James Allison decided that paving bricks would be used, even though they were more expensive than concrete. In the span of 63 days in the fall of 1909, 3.2 million paving bricks were laid on top of the original surface.
IMS kept its brick surface for nearly 50 years and the name “The Brickyard” stuck. Asphalt patches were added to various sections of the turns in 1936 and all four turns were completely paved with asphalt in 1937. The following year the entire track was paved with asphalt except for the middle portion of the front straightaway.
In October 1961 the remaining bricks on the front straightaway were covered with asphalt. A 36-inch strip of the original bricks was kept intact at the start/finish line, where it remains as the fabled Yard of Bricks.
CARB DAY
This refers to the day when the final practice session is held before the start of the Indy 500. It is a chance for teams to practice with their cars in race-day trim, focusing on endurance rather than the outright speed that is required for qualifying.
A major portion of these adjustments used to involve tinkering with the cars’ carburetors. Even after the introduction of fuel injection during the late 1940s, the name remained.
The last cars to use carburetors on Carb Day were the Lotuses of Jim Clark and Dan Gurney in 1963, which were powered by stock-block Fords.
In recent years, a concert has become the headline event on Carb Day. This year will feature George Thorogood and the Destroyers.
GASOLINE ALLEY
Originally “Gasoline Alley” only referred to the one corner of the garage area where the fuel depot was located, but eventually it became the nickname for the entire garage area where the race cars are housed from the day they arrive for the month’s activities.
Historians suggest that it first came into use sometime in the 1920s, and may have been the result of a newspaper comic strip of the same name that debuted in August 1919.
PACE CAR
The concept of a pace car is one of many things first developed at the Indy 500 and it was created for the inaugural running of the race in 1911.
When 40 cars qualified for the first Indy 500, track founder Carl Fisher created the rolling start as a safety measure.
Fisher decided, correctly, that it would be safer to lead the field around on one unscored lap at approximately 40 to 45 mph and then release the field to the flagman as he pulled into the pits.
It is believed to have been the very first rolling start for any auto race anywhere.
SCORING PYLON
The original IMS scoring pylon was erected in the spring of 1959 and was replaced by the second-generation version in 1994.
The third-generation Indianapolis Motor Speedway scoring pylon, which features abilities far beyond its two predecessors, was unveiled on July 22, 2014.
The new, full-LED-paneled pylon can completely flash with green or yellow lights or with an American flag look for pre-race. Built by Panasonic, the new pylon can fully light up with “Indianapolis Motor Speedway,” race logos or other digital artwork, and also has the ability to display video and animation.
THE WREATH
Long used in Grand Prix racing, the winner’s wreath at Indianapolis appears to have debuted in 1960, when a wreath featuring several dark yellow and brown flowers was placed on the shoulders of Jim Rathmann.
A garland of white and red carnations of the type normally associated with horse racing was placed around the shoulders of A.J. Foyt in 1961, and in 1962 Rodger Ward wore a wreath similar to those seen today.
Underwritten by BorgWarner, the wreaths were the creation of William J. “Bill” Cronin, a longtime Indianapolis florist who was at one time a floral consultant for the parades of the Rose Bowl, Cotton Bowl and the 500 Festival. He died in 1989.
For most of the last 40 years the wreath has featured 33 ivory-colored Cymbidium orchids with burgundy tips, plus 33 miniature checkered flags intertwined with red, white and blue ribbons.
FIELD OF 33
This is a tradition that has changed as circumstances warranted.
Forty cars started the inaugural race in 1911, but the Contest Board of the American Automobile Ass’n, the sanctioning body at the time, then mandated a formula for limiting the size of a starting field according to the size of the track. They ruled that the safe distance between each car spread equally around a course would be 400 feet, thereby limiting the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway to 33 cars.
Speedway President Carl Fisher, however, placed a limit of only 30 cars for the 500 between 1912 and 1914, and did not adopt the AAA’s 33 maximum number of cars until 1915.
There were numerous occasions between 1912 and 1928 when the field was not filled. The number of cars allowed to start was increased during the Depression years to 40 cars between 1930 and 1932 (only 38 made it in 1930), and further to 42 in 1933.
The maximum has been at 33 since 1934, although extenuating circumstances expanded the field to 35 starters in 1979 and 1997.
500 MILES
Carl Fisher and his partners decided to do away with several races on the program as was the norm in favor of one large race that they hoped would be too big to be ignored. They wanted their race to last about seven hours, from about mid-morning to late afternoon. They decided the cars of the day could run about 500 miles in that time frame, so that’s how they chose to stage a 500-mile race.
Their calculations were quite good, as they came within 18 minutes of their goal in their first attempt. Ray Harroun won the first Indianapolis 500 in 1911 in six hours, 42 minutes and eight seconds.