Indianapolis 500 Quiz

Question: What was raced in the first competitive event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, in 1909?

Answer: Carl Fisher, the founder of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and an enthusiastic balloonist, arranged for a national balloon championship race to begin at his track.

Question: Why is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway also known as the Brickyard?

Answer: Millions of bricks were laid in 1909 to create a strong racing surface. By 1961, all but a small strip of bricks had been covered with asphalt.

Question: Who was the first non-American-born driver to win the Indianapolis 500?

Answer: Jules Goux, a Frenchman, won the third Indianapolis 500, held in 1913. His engine was French too, and he reportedly drank wine during pit stops.

Question: Who was the first woman to compete in the Indianapolis 500?

Answer: Janet Guthrie competed in the Indianapolis 500 in 1977, 1978, and 1979. She finished the race only once, in 1978, in ninth place.

Question: The first Indianapolis 500 was held in 1911. It took until 2016 to reach the 100th running. Why?

Answer: No races were held in 1917–18 and 1942–45. During World War II, the track was all but abandoned, and there were plans to turn the land into housing.

Question: On which holiday weekend is the Indianapolis 500 held?

Answer: Since its beginning in 1911, the Indianapolis 500 has traditionally been held on Memorial Day (formerly called Decoration Day), which is the last Monday in May, or during the Memorial Day weekend. In 2020, however, the race was delayed until August as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Question: Who won the first Indianapolis 500?

Answer: Ray Harroun won the first Indianapolis 500 in 1911, after about 6 hours and 42 minutes of racing.

Question: What, by tradition, do winners of the Indianapolis 500 drink after the race?

Answer: Louis Meyer, a three-time winner in the 1920s and ’30s who was fond of drinking buttermilk while racing, is credited with starting the milk-drinking tradition. By 2016 it had become an opportunity for a trade group in Indiana to march a cow around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Question: Where in Indiana is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway?

Answer: Speedway is a small town surrounded by the city of Indianapolis.

Question: In the first 99 runnings of the Indianapolis 500, the fastest race winner averaged more than 200 mph (322 kph).

Answer: Between 1911 and 2015, the fastest average speed for an Indianapolis 500 winner was 187.433 mph (301.644 kph), set by Tony Kanaan in 2013. In 2021 Hélio Castroneves set a new record for fastest average speed: 190.690 mph (306.886 kph).