List of fatalities at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Wikimedia list article

The following is a list of 74 individuals whose deaths have been related to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, located in Speedway, Indiana: 42 drivers, 1 motorcyclist, 13 riding mechanics, and 18 others including a pit crew member, track personnel, and spectators have sustained fatal injuries or have had fatal medical conditions. The fatalities are connected with Championship Car racing at the track unless otherwise noted.
Fifty-nine of the 74 fatalities have occurred as part of the Indianapolis 500 (including the race, qualifying, and practice). Fatalities have also occurred in conjunction with the precursors to the 500 (which took place in 1909 and 1910), the Brickyard 400, the Moto GP event, the Speedway's golf course, and during private testing.
During World War I, while the Speedway was being used as a landing strip and a maintenance and refueling station for the 821st Aero Repair Squadron, at least one test pilot was fatally injured in a plane crash at the track. In July 1926, the Speedway neighborhood of Indianapolis voted to incorporate itself as an independent town, Speedway, Indiana.
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This entry incorporates text from “List of fatalities at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.