“Many new technologies were tested under race conditions at INDY. Kriech, who made one of the presentations. “The Indianapolis Motor Speedway was built in 1909 to develop and test the latest technologies in automobiles,” noted Anthony J. The meeting, which features almost 7,000 reports on new discoveries in science and other topics, continues here through Thursday. In reports at the 246 th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society, they focused on IMS’ heritage and future potential in testing new automotive technology suitable for general transportation use. 9, 2013 - The pavement recipe for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS), home of the Indianapolis 500, could be used to improve the smoothness, durability and safety of some of the 2 million miles of paved roads and streets where people move at ordinary speeds, scientists said here today. Reporters can attend in person or access live audio and video of the event and ask questions at. in the ACS Press Center, Room 211, in the Indiana Convention Center. While the combined area of these landmarks may change depending upon the criteria used, the gist of this image remains true: The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is one of the largest sport venues in the world, and it’s a whole lot bigger than many well-known landmarks.Note to journalists: Please report that this research was presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society.Ī press conference on this topic will be held Monday, Sept. Similarly, the Churchill Downs grounds cover nearly 150 acres, but the main racetrack is much smaller.) (For instance, the Taj Mahal complex covers over 40 acres, but the main building sits on less than one acre of land.

As such, we represented the size of the landmarks based on their central features and not their surrounding areas. It should be noted that the Indianapolis Motor Speedway uses the acreage of only the interior race track oval as the basis for its size, not the overall acreage of the IMS (which is over 1000 acres). (We’re ignoring the issue of whether the shapes of these landmarks would allow them to be placed within the IMS without any overlap or stacking.) An examination of the sizes of these landmarks, however, shows the image to be largely accurate.Īdding up the footprints of Churchill Downs ( 80 acres), Yankee Stadium ( 15 acres), the Rose Bowl ( 10 acres), the Roman Colosseum ( 6 acres), Vatican City ( 110 acres), the White House ( 18 acres), Taj Mahal ( less than 1 acre), and Liberty Island ( 12 acres), produces an overall area (252 acres) that is smaller than the size of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (253 acres). That version, however, referenced only five landmarks:Ĭhurchill Downs, Yankee Stadium, the Rose Bowl, the Roman Colosseum and Vatican City all can fit inside the IMS oval, which covers 253 acres.Īlthough this image seemingly originated with a credible source, some viewers who encountered it on social media, where it was presented without citations, were skeptical of its primary claim. This tidbit of trivia has been circulating online since at least 2010, when it was published on a “ fun fact” page of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s web site. According to the image shown above, the famous race track is so large that it could comfortably house eight famous landmarks from around the world (including the White House, Vatican City, the Taj Mahal, the Roman Colosseum, Yankee Stadium, Rose Bowl Stadium, Liberty Island, and Churchill Downs) with room to spare.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS), site of the annual Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard 400 auto racing events (among others), is one of the largest sports venues in the world.

Indy 500 trackmap