The Indianapolis 500 is America's most celebrated auto race. It has been held each May on or around Memorial Day, every year since 1911 (except during the world war years), at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The race consists of two hundred laps around the track's two-and-a-half-mile oval.

When the race started in 1911, it was called the International Sweepstakes, and it lasted most of the day. Ray Harroun (1879–1968) earned $10,000 for his first-place finish. His car, known as the "Marmon Wax," averaged a then-astounding 74.602 miles per hour. The car reportedly was the first single-seat race car and the first auto ever to employ a rearview mirror. Now contrast Harroun's statistics to those of drivers and cars racing in the 500 during the final quarter of the twentieth century. By then, the race generally was completed in less than three-and-a-half hours. In 1977, Tom Sneva (1948–) became the first driver to top 200 miles per hour during...