Indianapolis Motor Speedway hosts this most famous of races, featuring open wheeled cars running more than 200 miles per hour, each Memorial Day Weekend along with several weeks of time trials leading up to the event. A NASCAR race called the Brickyard 400 is also run here annually.
The track has a permanent seating capacity of more than 257,000 with an additional 150,000 spectators watching from the infield.
An Indy 500 tradition since the mid 1940s has been the singing of the Hoosier anthem Back Home Again In Indiana before the race. Since 1972 that honor has mostly been bestowed upon actor/singer Jim Nabors, who is a much beloved part of the pre-race pageantry. Nabors was Gomer Pyle in the TV show by the same name and got his start on the Andy Griffith Show (see April 24th blog entry for a look at Nabors on the show). Back to 2014, Nabor recently announced that his last performance of the song would be at this year's race. See below Nabors' farewell performance at Indy.
http://youtu.be/nx-bzcq-Zp4