For most of the twentieth century, the Borg-Warner trophy, awarded to the winner of the Indianapolis 500 Motor Speedway race, has been the most coveted prize in auto racing. Known as "the greatest spectacle in racing," the Memorial Day event—which since the late 1960s has actually been run on the Sunday before Memorial Day to permit the scheduling of a rain delay—has featured the best drivers and the fastest speeds in the sport.

The Indianapolis 500 consists of 200 laps around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway's two-and-a-half-mile oval. The first race, in 1911, lasted most of the day; the 1997 race was won by Arie Luyendyk in less than three-and-a-half hours. The first race averaged a then staggering 74.5 miles per hour but, by the end of the century, the course speed record was held by Rick Mears, who won the 1991 race with an average speed of over 176 miles per hour. One other...