Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum

The Museum’s origin is generally attributed to an idea conceived by Anton Hulman Jr. (the Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner) as early as 1947, which likely was refined over the next eight years in discussions among Karl Kizer (owner of Century Tire Co. and the Museum’s first curator), Hulman, and Wilbur Shaw (three-time winning driver) on their various hunting trips in the late 1940s and early 1950s.  Reportedly, Kizer offered to donate Fred Frame’s 1932 winning car, which had come into his possession.  He also reported that the winning cars from 1911 and 1912, plus Shaw’s victorious Maserati of 1939 and 1940, were readily available.  Shaw’s death in October 1954 is often cited as the instigating factor in getting the plans for the museum under way.

Another reporting of the Museum’s origins recounts that an increase in the public stature of the Indianapolis 500 mile race and a series of major improvements made at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Speedway) in the late 1940s and early 1950s led the press and members of the racing fraternity to urge Hulman to create a museum for automobile racing.  While this industry pressure may have occurred, it is clear that the idea for a museum preceded such pressure by a number of years.

In 1955, Hulman started construction on a new office building at the main entrance of the Speedway grounds.  Located in the building’s east wing, the museum opened in 1956.

Initially, the Museum was referred to as the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, the Speedway Museum, or often simply as the Museum.  In the mid-1960s, it was renamed the Hall of Fame Museum and it is also referred to as the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum.