INDIANAPOLIS — As we prepare for the 108th running of the Indianapolis 500, we decided to dive back into our archives to give race fans a reminder of just how big the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is.
So just how big is IMS?
For starters, you could fit all 14 Big Ten Conference football stadiums (which include some of the highest-capacity limits in college football) inside the track, with room to spare to park a few cars.
Don't believe us? That info comes straight from IMS.
And you may think some of the biggest stadiums and attractions in the U.S. are large, but the IMS infield could hold eight major landmarks inside of it simultaneously: Churchill Downs, Yankee Stadium, Rose Bowl Stadium, Vatican City, the Taj Mahal, the White House, Liberty Island and the Roman Colosseum.
The image below was originally shared by IMS several years ago.
This tid-bit was even fact-checked in Snopes. Check out what they had to say below.
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. 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.
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.
