2010 Indy 500 filled with crashes, drama [SPOILERS]
Memorial Day weekend is always a great for racing fans. Formula 1 typically has its Grand Prix of Monaco on that Sunday, (although this year it was the Turkish GP taking the calendar slot), NASCAR has the annual Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” takes the IndyCar Series to its namesake venue, the Indianapolis Speedway for the eponymous Indianapolis 500.
The 2010 Indy 500 is billed as part of the Centennial Era races, celebrating the birth of the track in 1909 and the first 500 held in 1911. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway was built by Indiana businessmen Carl G. Fisher, James A. Allison, Arthur C. Newby, and Frank H. Wheeler as a testing grounds to help bolster Indiana’s burgeoning automotive industry. It wasn’t long before racing became the raison d’être for the facility. The original tar and gravel surface was quickly replaced by 3.2 million bricks when safety became a concern.
The first 500-mile race took place on May 30, 1911, when Ray Harroun shocked everyone, unprecedentedly going solo in his Marmon “Wasp,” the rest of the field using ride-along mechanics. Harroun’s car was actually considered a safety risk without that passenger, but it made up for it by introducing a major automotive safety device. The Wasp, you see, was fitted with the industry’s first rearview mirror. The average speed in that first Brickyard endurance race was a stupefying 74.602 miles per hour. This year’s polesitter, three-time and defending race-winner Helio Castroneves, won last year’s Indy 500 at more than twice that speed, 150.318 mph.
While speeds are way up, much at Indy has remained the same. The 500 is about tradition as much as anything, and so on this Memorial Day, 33 cars once again lined up, set to challenge each other, the track, and fate – crossing the bricks 200 times to complete 500 miles around the2.5-mile-long squared oval. Follow the jump to see how the 2010 Indianapolis 500 went down in the history books.
Gallery:
[Images: Tom Strattman, Mike Groll, Darron Cummings, Jeff Roberson, Steve Metz (AP), Chris Howell, Nick Laham, Jonathan Ferrey, Robert Laberge, Chris Graythen (Getty Images)]
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