On the Road--The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum was started by Tony Hulman in 1956 with a handful of cars. Originally, the museum was to honor Wilbur Shaw, who died in a 1954 plane crash. Shaw was the man whose passion for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was behind Hulman’s 1945 decision to buy it. Included in the original collection of twelve cars was the Boyle Special Maserati that Shaw drove to victory in 1939 and 1940.
When the collection outgrew its original home, an 80,000 square foot building was opened in the infield of the Speedway in April 1976. After a 17-month renovation costing $60 million, the Museum reopened in April 2025. In the year since the reopening, the Museum had over 230,000 visitors.
What a difference it has made. The Starting Line Experience greets you when you enter the Museum. For those who have never been to the Indy 500, The Starting Line Experience wraps you in the experience. Taps are played and Jim Cornelison sings “Back Home Again in Indiana.” Then, there is the military flyover at the very end of the National Anthem. The command “Drivers, start your engines” is given, and you are surrounded by the power of the thirty-three cars.
Gasoline Alley has several different garages from different eras of the Indianapolis 500.
The last time I was at the Museum, the cars were arranged in a row, as they are at numerous car museums. Since the Museum is now using the lower level, which was previously primarily used for storage, they have spread the cars out. They also culled the cars lacking racing significance, with one exception, a 1915 Packard Six owned by Carl Fisher, which served as the pace car.
The Winners’ Gallery has on display the Marmon Wasp, winner of the inaugural Indianapolis 500 in 1911. I was disappointed that the winner of the 1912 race, a National, wasn’t on display. Arthur Newby, one of the Speedway's founders, was an owner of National Motor Car. Both the Marmon Wasp and the National were in the parade of race cars as part of the pre-race festivities, and the National was in the maintenance area. It also features other winning cars that are rotated.
When Team Penske celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2016, the Museum featured a special display of Team Penske cars and helmets. Today, the Museum has a permanent display of both, including the 1972 car driven by Mark Donohue, the first of Team Penske’s twenty Indianapolis 500 victories. Team Penske is part of Roger Penske’s empire, which also owns the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. While the Museum is not part of the Penske empire, he contributed to its renovation.
The Museum has a space dedicated to children. They can pretend to be part of the pit crew, filling up a car with fuel and changing a racing tire, and can practice their driving skills in racing simulators. There is also an area to build a miniature race car with a special building set. The Allen Whitehill Clowes Charitable Foundation has funded an area dedicated to STEAM.
The Museum offers track tours on days when race cars are not on the track. The 30-minute tour provides an overview of the Speedway’s history from its founding in 1909. I have been on track tours before, both in a bus and in a two-seater race car driven by a professional. I took this tour specifically to “kiss the bricks,” which has become a tradition for the winning driver and the crew at all races run at IMS. I couldn’t help but think about my great-great uncle, Jim Allison, and how amazed he would be by the Speedway’s success.
There is a space on the lower floor for rotating exhibits. When I visited, “Now Stay Tuned,” told the story of the Indianapolis 500 by radio and television broadcasters. That exhibit has been replaced until February 2027 by one on Jeff Gordon, famed NASCAR driver with strong Indiana and Indianapolis Motor Speedway roots. Gordon grew up in Pittsboro, Indiana, about 30 miles northwest of the Speedway. He won a record five Brickyard 400 races. Gordon said, “It is the largest collection of my personal memorabilia ever displayed to the public, and I couldn’t think of a better place for it than here at Indy, which had such a significant impact on my career.”
The Museum is ranked as one of the top motorsport museums in the world. In November 2025, it won the “Museum or Collection of the Year” award sponsored by the International Historic Motoring Award.[3] In March 2026, the Museum was included in TIME’s annual list of the World’s Greatest Places, a listing of 100 destinations. TIME said about the Museum, “Following a 17-month renovation, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum reopened in April as a modern counterpart to the hallowed track it calls home. Tucked inside the famed Speedway, the Museum added 40,000 sq. ft., transforming what was once a static collection into an immersive deep dive into American racing culture.”