INDY 500 SWEEP 2016

7 FUN FACTS ABOUT THE INDY 500

1 The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the world’s largest spectator sporting facility, with more than 250,000 permanent seats.

2 The “Brickyard” gets its name from the 1909 surfacing project when 3.2 million street paving bricks were laid. On the current asphalt track, one yard of the historic brickwork is exposed at the start-finish line.

3 It’s been said that Yankee Stadium, the Rose Bowl, Churchill Downs, the Colosseum in Rome and Vatican City all can fit inside the Indy oval (253 acres).

4 The winner is awarded the sterling silver Borg-Warner Trophy, commissioned in 1935 at a cost of $10,000. The trophy today is valued at more than $1 million.

5  A pre-race tradition (since 1946) is the singing of “Back Home Again in Indiana.’’

6  If all of the Indy hot dogs and bratwurst sold on race day were laid end-to-end, they would circle the oval more than three times.

7  The tradition of drinking milk after the race began in 1936 with winner Louis Meyer. He drank buttermilk because his mother advised him it was a good drink for a hot day. In 1993, Emerson Fitipaldi went rogue and drank orange juice to promote citrus groves owned by his family. He then took a sip of milk, but it didn't stop fans in Wisconsin (America's Dairyland) from booing him the following week.