It is hard to consider Team Penske an underdog at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In their thirteenth year of participating in the Indianapolis 500, they had won four times and finished second four times. Still, 1987 was a year that Al Unser, Sr. became an unlikely winner of the race. ...
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Cummins Engine Company Returns to IMS
After a thirteen-year absence, Cummins Engine Co. returned to the Indianapolis 500 in 1950 with the “Green Hornet.” The racer was a modified Kurtis Kraft chassis powered by a supercharged 401 cubic inch diesel-powered engine based on the Cummins JBS 600 truck engine. The engine, which produced 320 horsepower, had ...
The Cummins Special
The Cummins Special holds a couple of Indianapolis 500 records even though it did not win the 1931 race. The car was entered by the Cummins Engine Company of Columbus, Indiana.
Eddie Rickenbacker, the Speedway president and the president of the AAA Contest Board, was concerned that there would be ...
Book Review: Castles in the Sand, the Life and Times of Carl Graham Fisher by Mark S. Foster
Carl Fisher, one of the founders of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, was a man who very much symbolized the Roaring Twenties. He had unending optimism about his projects and was a promoter who could rival P. T. Barnum. He was fascinated by new technology and anything that moved fast including ...
The Golden Brick at IMS
After multiple wrecks killed five on the opening weekend of auto racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the 300-mile featured Wheeler-Schebler Trophy race was stopped after 235 miles. Threatened with no more racing at the track by the American Automobile Association, the partners had to decide whether to abandon their ...