Indianapolis Motor Speedway Facts

compiled by Mike Forde - NASCAR Media Services

History
Indianapolis Motor Speedway has existed since 1909, and is the original "Speedway," the first racing facility to incorporate the word into its name.
With a permanent seating capacity for more than 250,000-plus people and infield seating that raises capacity to an approximate 400,000, it is the largest and highest-capacity sporting facility in history.

Notebook
There have been 15 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway since the first race was held there in 1994.
Five drivers have competed in all 14 races at IMS: Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, Bobby Labonte and Mark Martin.
Rick Mast won the first pole in 1994.
Jeff Gordon won the 1994 inaugural race.
There have been nine different pole winners.
Jeff Gordon leads all pole winners with three.
Nine drivers have won, led by Jeff Gordon with four.
Jimmie Johnson, Dale Jarrett and Tony Stewart (two apiece) are the other multiple winners.
Hendrick Motorsports has won six races, more than any other organization.
Eight races have been won from a top-five starting position.
The furthest back a race winner has started at Indianapolis was 27th, by Jeff Gordon in 2001.
Two drivers have won from the pole: Kevin Harvick in 2003 and Jimmie Johnson in 2008.
The only time in the modern era that three brothers led at least one lap in the same race occurred in the inaugural race at Indianapolis (1994): Geoffrey, Brett and Todd Bodine.
Dale Jarrett (1996) and Jimmie Johnson (2006) are the only drivers to win both the Daytona 500 and the Allstate 400 at The Brickyard in the same season.
Jeff Gordon has an average finish of 8.6 in 15 Indianapolis races, the best of any driver with more than one race.

The winner of the Indianapolis race has won the championship in the same year seven times in the 15 years the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series has raced there:
2008: Jimmie Johnson 2006: Jimmie Johnson 2005: Tony Stewart

2001: Jeff Gordon 2000: Bobby Labonte 1999: Dale Jarrett 1998: Jeff Gordon

NASCAR in Indiana
There have been 17 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races in Indiana.
76 NASCAR national series drivers (all-time) have their home state recorded as Indiana.
There have been 10 race winners from Indiana in NASCAR’s three national series.