The Ringling Brothers dub their show the greatest on earth. NASCAR promotes the Daytona 500 as The Great American Race. Football has the Superbowl, Hockey has the Stanley Cup and basketball has the finals. Not to leave out America’s pastime, baseball, which has the World Series. The Triple Crown starting with the highly anticipated Kentucky Derby is also another prized sporting event.

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 Yet there has been an  event that has drawn a crowd that it would almost take the combined attendance from all of the sports previously mentioned to match the attendance record just for this one event. I am talking about the Indy 500, which holds the record for the largest single day event in sports.

  Vacations and family reunions are all part of the summer that sometimes include rather lengthy trips as the one we took two weeks ago.

 My wife’s youngest sister lives in Mooresville, Ind. which is only 25 minutes from Indianapolis, which brought the hope of a possible glimpse of the historic Indianapolis Raceway. 

Well, 13 hours and three states later we were greeted by her three sisters and their families.

 The lure of getting all the men to come was the much overdue promise of a boys’ day out. Most of the time the men watch the children so the sisters can have time together.

Friday was the guys turn and yes you guessed it, all six of us voted for and headed to the speedway. 

All of our mouths dropped when we pulled into the place. However, the jaw dropping effect would not stop there.

 First, it was the $3 admission to get in the museum which blew us away. Once inside, the wealth of history was stored included the very first car that won the 500. 

We all traveled through time by seeing the evolution of how the cars use to look until the race car that is used today. Cars such as Mormon, Cole and Stutz. Pictures of the pioneers like A. J.. Foyt, Rick Mears,  Al and Bobby Unser and of course the Andretiis.

 Room after room was filled with cars including the first car of Janet Guthrie and the rookie car of Danica Patrick. There was an 18 minute feature which gave us a brief history of the track, then it was on to the track tour itself which once again caused jaws to drop with just a $3 price tag.

 After joking with the tour guide and a  bribery attempt to get him to run the tour bus at least 100 mph, the true amazement began. The track itself is 2 1/2 miles making it longer than any track in NASCAR — Daytona and Talledaga are only two miles each.

The cars approach speeds up to 240 miles per hour with an average of 237.98 mph. By going that fast the 2 1/2 mile oval is covered in just 38 seconds. To break it down the way it was done for us is the length of a football is covered in nine-tenths of a second.

 Another jaw dropping statistic is all of the two million bricks laid in yesteryear are still under all the layers of asphalt except for a three foot wide stripe at the start finish line where all the winning drivers do the traditional kissing the bricks.

 All of the VIP suits that where built in 1973 are still there. The driver went slow enough so we could see the famed gasoline alley, the winners circle and the new VIP suits and an astounding 60,000 plus bulbs to light up the score tower.

 If all that was not enough, here is just a few more statistics we were given. The track was started in 1909 and is on only it’s third owner in it’s 100 years.

An 18 hole golf course is on the premises with 14 holes outside and 4 inside the track.

On raceday, some 400,000 people fill the facility, the track is privately owned and up until about ten years ago only one race a year was ran on that track.

 The heavy stock cars of NASCAR came to town in 1994 in which I had the pleasure to watch in person. Last year the Grand Prix Superbikes had their inaugural run. 

 No matter  what kind of race fan you are the history, the atmosphere, the legend of Indianapolis Motor Speedway is breathtaking even with nothing going on. I highly suggest if you are a sports history buff the trip is worth every mile.

Daily Herald Sports Writer Anthony Gainey can be reached @ 537-2505 ext. 240 or by email anthonyg@rrdailyherald.com