ESPN.com · May 24, 2024
2024 Indianapolis 500: Everything you need to know
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SPEEDWAY, Indiana -- The 108th running of the Indianapolis 500 is upon us. Yes, 108 times ... and they didn't run the event during the two World Wars ... and the track opened two years before the first 500.
That's old. Like, so long ago that when the first edition of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing took its inaugural green flag on May 30, 1911, a huge chunk of the 85,000 patrons in attendance arrived by way of horse-drawn vehicles, eager to see what the fuss was about with these newfangled automobiles. The winner was Ray Harroun, in his very yellow Marmon Wasp, a car that featured the first rearview mirror.
Told you it was old.