On May 29th, 2016, we will all have the luxury of celebrating the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500. Over 400,000 spectators will attend the event and nearly 6.4 million will watch it on TV (Kiernan). This annual race is considered the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” and has grown to be the largest one-day sporting event in the entire world. Let’s take a look back at how the race came to fruition and what makes it so special. Back in the early twentieth century, Carl Fisher had a vision. The auto industry was starting to boom. Outside Indianapolis in the town of Speedway, auto manufacturers had a gravel track that was used to test their vehicles before sending them out to market. Fisher realizes an opportunity that others couldn’t see. He believed that people would pay to watch these vehicles compete against each other on the very track they used to test on. On May 30th, 1911, the first running of the Indianapolis 500 was completed (RTV6 Productions). There were a mere forty participants in the race and around 80,000 spectators in attendance. The winner was Ray Harroun completing the milestone in a time of six hours and forty-two minutes. Since then over sixty-six drivers have won the race including seventeen drivers who have multiple victories (RTV6 Productions).…show more content… The alternative decision was to bring in 3 million bricks as the new surface of the racetrack. As it stands today, only 558 bricks remain on the track surface in a narrow strip towards the finish line known as the “Yard of Bricks”(WactchMojo). It has become a tradition that the winner kneels down and kisses the bricks. One other main tradition winners of the race embrace is drinking some ice-cold milk. Louis Meyer started this ritual back in 1936 when he drank buttermilk upon being victorious (RTV6