Indianapolis 500
The Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil is an automobile race held annually at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana, an enclave suburb of Indianapolis, Indiana. The event is held over Memorial Day weekend, which is typically the last weekend in May. It is contested as part of the Verizon IndyCar Series, the top level of American Championship Car racing, an open-wheel formula colloquially known as "Indy Car Racing".
The event, billed as The Greatest Spectacle in Racing, is considered part of the Triple Crown of Motorsport, which comprises three of the most prestigious motorsports events in the world. The official attendance is not disclosed by Speedway management, but the permanent seating capacity is upwards of 250,000, and infield patrons raise the race-day attendance to approximately 300,000.
The inaugural running was won by Ray Harroun in 1911. The race celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2011, and the 100th running will be held in 2016. Juan Pablo Montoya is the defending champion. The most successful drivers are A. J. Foyt, Al Unser, and Rick Mears, each of whom have won the race four times. Rick Mears holds the record for most career pole positions with six. The most successful car owner is Roger Penske, owner of Team Penske, which has 16 total wins and 17 poles.
Indianapolis 500 (pinball)
Indianapolis 500 is a pinball machine produced by Midway (under the Bally brand name) released in June 1995. It is based on the sporting event of the same name.
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1940 Indianapolis 500
The 28th International 500-Mile Sweepstakes Race was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 30, 1940. The winner was Wilbur Shaw in the same Maserati 8CTF he had driven to victory in 1939. Shaw became the first driver in the history of the race to win in consecutive years. It also marked Shaw's third win in four years, making him the second three-time winner of the race. Shaw's average speed was 114.277 miles per hour, slowed by rain which caused the last 50 laps to be run under caution. Shaw took home $31,875 in prize winnings, plus additional prizes that included a car and a refrigerator.
Fourth place finisher Ted Horn was flagged due to the rain shower after completing only 199 laps - one lap short of the full distance. This marked the only blemish on his noteworthy record of nine consecutive races completing every lap. He would eventually complete 1,799 out of a possible 1,800 laps from 1936 to 1948.
The top 4 starting positions finished in the top four places, albeit in shuffled order.
Indianapolis
Indianapolis (/ˌɪndiəˈnæpəlɪs/) is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County. With an estimated population of 848,788 in 2014, Indianapolis is the largest city in Indiana, second largest in the American Midwest, and 14th largest in the U.S.Indianapolis–Carmel–Anderson is the 33rd largest metropolitan area in the U.S., with nearly 2 million inhabitants. Residents of the city are occasionally referred to as "Indianapolitans," although this archaic term is rarely used.
Indianapolis was founded in 1821 near the confluence of the White River and Fall Creek as a planned city for the new seat of Indiana's state government. The city's economy is diverse, including health care, life sciences, manufacturing, motorsports, and transportation and logistics, contributing to a gross domestic product (GDP) of $125.8 billion in 2014. Three Fortune 500 companies are based in the city: Anthem Inc., Eli Lilly and Company, and Calumet Specialty Products Partners. Nicknamed the Crossroads of America, Indianapolis is the junction for four Interstate highways and six U.S. highways. Indianapolis International Airport is a major international cargo hub, ranking as the 23rd busiest airport in the world by cargo traffic in 2014. Indianapolis is considered a "high sufficiency" global city.
Indianapolis (horse)
Indianapolis was a New Zealand bred Standardbred racehorse. He is notable in that he won three New Zealand Trotting Cup races, the richest harness race, and sometimes the richest horse race in New Zealand. Indianapolis was one of two horses to win the NZ Trotting Cup three times, the other being False Step. He held the world record for a three-year-old, a record which stood for 14 years.
He was a brother to Tondeleyo (a notable taproot dam) and Miraculous (contested two Inter Dominion heats, sire) and was a half-brother to the sire, Red Raider.
He won the following major races:
