Racing folklore, mystique found in basement of Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum
SPEEDWAY, Ind. (WISH) — The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum is full of all kinds of history.
Race fans can come and find something they truly love and enjoy. Cars from all different generations cover the showroom floor, but, for a deeper look at history, you’ll have to go to the basement.
“The basement has always been a place of kind of folklore and mystique,” said Luke Edwards with the museum. “You were only allowed to come down here if you were an employee and needed to, or if you knew somebody and you had a connection.”
It was always a secret to the outside world as to what was in the basement, until now.
“There are over 100 different cars down here at one time, well over, and I think it’s important to keep that mystique. Now you can say, you can tell your friends, you can tell your dad, ‘I’ve been to the basement of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I’ve seen some of the most valuable cars in the world and they’ve been right under your feet all these years,’” Edwards said.
The folklore and mystery remains. Photos and video are not allowed in the basement. “We actually make people leave their cellphones at the door, and that’s another way that it maintains it’s mystique, is there aren’t any pictures coming out from down here,” Edwards said.
There are cars from literally every generation. Some of them are race cars, and some of them are not, but all of them are sights to see.
“Right when you walk in you are greeted by arguably two of the most valuable cars in the entire world that just sit beneath the basement and it’s their home, and we’ve created a special display for those vehicles as well,” Edwards said.
Being around all that history is an eerie feeling. It’s almost hard to believe the basement collection has been there the whole time.
“Walking through, you just get this sense of history. It almost feels like you’re walking amongst the ghosts of the Speedway,” Edwards said.
Seeing the cars up close and personally transports you to a time when those ghosts were alive. “You can swear you almost hear the cars running and what they sounded like back in the day on the track, so yeah, it’s a special place,” Edwards said.
You can actually see the basement collection. For $150, you get the VIP tour through all the archives to see every bit of history the museum has in the basement.