Images courtesy Tom Kimmel. Bill Lear gestured confidently off toward the horizon outside of Reno while bulldozers pushed dirt behind him. Here, he told reporters, would rise an Indianapolis Motor Sp...
Hemmings archive photos. These days, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway looks pristine, polished, and ready for the world stage pretty much any day of the year, and that condition certainly played no sm...
Larry Bisceglia’s panel van. Photos courtesy IMS Museum. In May 1986, the Indianapolis media put out an all-points bulletin. Not for any elected official or public persona. Not for any bank robber or...
A.J. Foyt (R) and Hulman and Company CEO Mark Miles unveiling the commemorative bricks. Photos by Joe Skibinski, courtesy IMS. In 1977, A.J. Foyt became the first driver to win the Indianapolis 500 f...
The 2019 Corvette Grand Sport, the Official Pace Car for the 2019 Indianapolis 500. Photo courtesy General Motors. Introduced in 1953, the Chevrolet Corvette was into its third-generation before bein...
Dan Wheldon in 2011. Photo courtesy Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Each year, a panel of more than 140 journalists, racing historians, and participants in the sport vote to induct two new members into ...
Photos courtesy Cummins. As a 23-year-old test inspector for Marmon in 1911, Clessie Cummins jumped at the chance to crew for Ray Harroun’s Marmon Wasp at the inaugural Indianapolis 500, an experienc...
Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Dale Jarrett in 2000. Photo credit MSI / Brian Czobat, courtesy of Ford Motor Company. Each year, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame sends a ballot to its nearly 150 ...
Mario Andretti at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in January 2019. Photo by James Black, courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Editor’s Note: This year marks the 50th anniversary of Mario Andr...
Mario Andretti waves from the cockpit at the 1969 Indianapolis 500. Photos courtesy Indianapolis Motor Speedway. When Mario Andretti arrived in Indianapolis in early May 1969, the two-time USAC Champ...
Photo courtesy Indianapolis Motor Speedway. For nearly 20 years, Mari Hulman George was the voice that started the Indianapolis 500 with the command, “Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines,” but h...
Joe Leonard leads Johnny Rutherford in the 1968 Indianapolis 500. All images courtesy of and copyright IMS. Some parent one day once said, “If at first you don’t succeed, then try, try again.” Andy G...
1969 Chevrolet Corvette L88, raced at Le Mans, Sebring, and Daytona. Photo by Mike McNessor. Built for three years, from 1967-’69, Chevy’s L-88 Corvette was a race car that, coincidentally, could als...
Indy Roadsters on display at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in 2013. Photos by author, unless otherwise noted. There’s no precise definition of an “Indy Roadster,” and there are differing opini...
Jeff Gordon celebrates Brickyard 400 win number five in 2014. Photo copyright and courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Founded in 1952 as the Auto Racing Hall of Fame, the institution created to ...
Jerry Sneva at Indy, 1977. Photos courtesy IMS. Born into a racing family, Jerry Sneva climbed the ladder from Spokane, Washington’s dirt tracks all the way to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In 197...
Rolla Vollstedt, in yellow cap, with Jim Clark’s 1967 Rex Mays 300 car. Photo courtesy Michael McKinney. If a career spent designing and building racing cars and serving as a team owner is measured s...
1916 Baby Inter-State. Photos by Walt Kuhn, LAT Photo USA, courtesy of IMS Museum. The great Hoosier state of Indiana was admitted to the Union on December 16, 1816, and thus marks its bicentennial b...
Open-wheel Formula Continental cars run at the 2016 SVRA Brickyard Invitational. Photo by Mike Young, courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. You’ve heard it and so have we: Real race cars don’t hav...
Mustang Club of America members at an earlier Indianapolis event. Photo courtesy MCA. In 1976, the newly founded Mustang Club of America (MCA) ran an ad in an Atlanta, Georgia, newspaper, announcing ...
We probably should’ve run these closer to this year’s 100th running of the Indy 500, but today’s close enough. From Jim and Chester’s Garage come these two photos of a parking lot at the 1965 Indiana...
Roger Penske with the 50th Anniversary 2017 Camaro SS Pace Car. Photo courtesy Chevrolet. For a guy who all but holds the deed to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, given that his teams have won its si...