Brian Ingrassia has made an important contribution to the history of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) and its impact on the city of Indianapolis. Using the sophisticated tools of the cultural historian, Ingrassia provides a “thick description” of the development of the Speedway in the first half of the twentieth century as a site for speed and progress, a process that mirrored the development of the city itself. “Motor sport reflected transformations in spatial and temporal relations,” writes Ingrassia, “a primary site for this activity was Indianapolis, a city that seemed to be every place or no place.” (page 3) Throughout the book, Ingrassia weaves multiple narratives that demonstrate the growth of the city, the rise of the Indy 500, and the story of the Brickyard’s most influential founding father, Carl Fisher. The result is a magnificent tapestry that demonstrates how the Speedway evolved from a site to test modern technology, to a place of nostalgia and consumerism. In fact, the commodification of spectacle was a constant in the ever evolving Speedway with the “obliteration of space” serving as the site’s raison d’être.
Ingrassia’s book reveals how the IMS stands at the intersection of urban planning, technological progress, spectacle, and entertainment. The Speedway’s ability to navigate these various functions has accounted for why it has long outlasted the plethora of speedways constructed in the early twentieth century, and why it is the world’s largest single day sporting event. In the beginning, the IMS was conceived as part of a larger project to promote industrial progress and automobility in Indianapolis, the “crossroads of America.” As Indianapolis grew, so did its place in the world of “spatial annihilation” with leading figures like Fisher pushing for a move away from “City Beautiful” to “City Practical.” More “Barnum than Ford,” according to Ingrassia, Fisher was a man who always had his eye on the spectacle and entertainment value of motor sport, more than its value for advancing automotive progress. A key figure in the Good Roads Movement, Fisher planned his speedway as a corollary to his other schemes of building the Lincoln and Dixie Highways. Like IMS, these roads offered practical and technological advances, but they also led to vacation destinations like Miami Beach.
The success of the Indianapolis 500 in the 1910s mirrored the advances in urban planning in Indianapolis. It was in this decade that the city truly became modern with new transportation networks that helped grow the city and the IMS along with it. After the First World War, Indianapolis began losing its status as a center of automobile manufacturing to Detroit, and after a failed attempt to make the IMS an airport, the Indy 500 began its transformation into a site of spectacle of entertainment living off past glory. Ingrassia demonstrates effectively how the IMS began to “invent traditions” under its new owner, Eddie Rickenbacker, former race driver and aviator. Everything from the “Junk Formula,”, to the introduction of the Borg-Warner Trophy and its immortalizing of past winners, to the winner drinking milk, were all products of the 1930s. All of these played on nostalgia for past races and for the need to create traditions and rituals aimed at entertaining crowds during the Great Depression.
These traditions saved the IMS when it was left abandoned and in decrepit shape during the Second World War. They also helped to convince Tony Hulman, a local businessperson with no background in racing or the automotive industry to purchase the Speedway and launch it into the era of sport where selling nostalgia was just as important as selling the sporting event. As Hulman discovered, “nostalgia was good for business.” (page 198) It did not take him long to figure out the importance of “inventing traditions.” In the first Indy 500 held in the Hulman era, the song “(Back Home Again in) Indiana” was performed, making it a staple of the pre-race ceremonies to this day.
Ingrassia’s book is an excellent study of how a motorsport site played a role in shaping its local environment. It also effectively demonstrates how the IMS mirrored the shift from an industrial to a post-industrial region while maintaining its place as an American icon.
Throughout the book, Ingrassia expertly weaves the account of this shift with short summaries of the races, not always an easy accomplishment in sports books where competition histories often overshadow broader contextual factors. My only critique is the decision to end the story with the 1950s. It would be interesting to see how the commodification of nostalgia has carried on into the twenty-first century, and how it was used to navigate the political vicissitudes of American Indy Car Racing since the 1970s. The decision to bring NASCAR and Formula One to the IMS in the 1990s and early 2000s no doubt challenged the hallowed image of the Speedway as sacred ground for one event. Hopefully, Ingrassia will write a second volume that explores these issues.
Baxa, Paul (2024) “A Book Review of Speed Capital: Indianapolis Auto Racing and the Making of Modern America. By Brian M Ingrassia. Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2024.,” Journal of Motorsport Culture & History: Vol. 4: Iss. 1, Article 2. Available at: https://scholars.unh.edu/jmotorsportculturehistory/vol4/iss1/2
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About the Journal of Motorsports Culture & History
The Journal of Motorsport Culture & History aims to provide quality motorsport based academic research based on cultural or historical inquiries. Issues will be released once per year in the fall, starting in October of 2019. Manuscripts will be subject to a desk review for fit, and a double-blind peer review for quality and rigor. Student authors are encouraged to submit their research. The scope of JMCH includes, but is not limited to, motorsport research or interpretive essays within: sociology, cultural studies, communication studies, and history (books & newspapers, films, movies, radio & television, museum exhibits, resource guides).