When the first race took place in August, 1909, the celebration quickly turned into a disaster due to the surface of crushed stone and tar. There were terrible injuries to the race car drivers and spectators. Cars caught fire, there were deaths, and the race was halted and canceled when only halfway completed (five miles). Louis Schwitzer was declared the winner in front of twelve thousand spectators.

Following an initiative by automotive parts and highway pioneer Carl G. Fisher, an Indiana native who was both a former race car driver and one of the principal investors, the safety concerns for race drivers and spectators eventually led to a substantial additional expenditure to pave the track surface with 3.2 million paving bricks, thus giving the track its popular nickname, The Brickyard. Today, 3 feet of original bricks still remain at the start/finish line.

Attracting an estimated 80,000 spectators to the first 500 mile race on Memorial Day May 30, 1911, at $1 admission, the Speedway reopened and hosted the first in a long line of five hundred mile races now known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race. Ray Harroun won at the brisk average speed of 74.602 mph. 'The Greatest Spectacle in Racing' was born.

At the beginning of the 1940s, the track required further improvement. In 1941, half of "Gasoline Alley," the garage area, burned down before the race. With US involvement in World War II, the 1942 500-Mile race was cancelled in December of 1941. Late in 1942, a ban on all auto racing led to the canceling of the 500-Mile Race for the rest of the war for a total of four years (1942-1945). The track was more or less abandoned during the war and was in bad shape.

Many of the locals conceded that the Speedway would be sold after the war and become a housing development. With the end of the war in sight, on November 29, 1944, 3-time 500 winner Wilbur Shaw came back to do a 500-mile tire test approved by the government for Firestone. Shaw was shocked at the state of the Speedway and contacted owner Eddie Rickenbacker only to discover that it was for sale. Shaw then sent out letters to the automobile industry to try to find a buyer. All the responses indicated that the Speedway would be turned into a private facility for the buyer. Shaw then looked around for someone to buy the Speedway who understood what it was about. He found Terre Haute, Indiana businessman Tony Hulman. Meetings were set up and the purchase of the Speedway happened on November 14, 1945. Though not officially commented on, the purchase price for the Speedway was reported by the Indianapolis Star and News to be $750,000. Major renovations and repairs were made at a quick pace to the frail Speedway before the 1946 race. Since then and up to today, the Speedway continues to grow. Stands have been built and remodeled many times over, suites and museums were added, and many other additions helped bring back Indy's reputation as a great track.

Between August 19, 1909 and July 29, 2007, 226 automobile races took place, with 125 separate drivers winning. After winning the Grand Prix in 2006, Formula One driver Michael Schumacher holds the record for most victories between the 500, 400, and Grand Prix with five, though all having come on the infield road course. A.J. Foyt, Al Unser and Rick Mears each won four times in the Indianapolis 500 on the rectangular shaped oval track, and Jeff Gordon has also won four times on the oval in the Brickyard 400. No driver to date has won any combination between the three events, with only one driver (Juan Pablo Montoya) having competed in all three.