Henry Ford, standing, and Barney Oldfield in 1902, with the
“999” racing automobile.

On January 12, 1904, Henry Ford set a land-speed record of 91.37
mph on the frozen surface of Michigan’s Lake St. Clair. He was
driving a four-wheel vehicle, dubbed the “999,” with a wooden
chassis but no body or hood. Ford’s record was broken within
a month at Ormond Beach, Florida, by a driver named William K. Vanderbilt; even so, the publicity surrounding Ford’s achievement
was valuable to the auto pioneer, who in June of the previous year
had incorporated the Ford Motor Company, which would eventually
go on to become one of America’s Big Three automakers.

 
Henry Ford (1863-1947)    Berna Eli "Barney" Oldfield |
                                            (1878-1946)

The 999 today at The Henry Ford Museum.

At 5:45 PM on September 30, 1955, 24-year-old actor James
Dean was killed in Cholame, California, when the Porsche
he is driving hits a Ford Tudor sedan at an intersection.

Only one of Dean’s movies, “East of Eden,” had been released
at the time of his death (“Rebel Without a Cause” and “Giant”
opened shortly afterward), but he was already on his way to superstardom—and the crash made him a legend.

James Dean loved racing cars, and in fact he and his brand-
new, $7000 Porsche Spyder convertible were on their way
to a race in Salinas, 90 miles south of San Francisco.

NASCAR star Kurt Busch announced his retirement on
Saturday. He stepped away from racing after he suffered
a concussion in a crash at Pocono in July 2022.

He announced at Las Vegas Motor Speedway he would
step away from full-time racing last fall.

Indianapolis businessman Carl G. Fisher first
envisioned building the speedway in 1905 and
construction began in March of 1909.

At one time the whole track used to be paved
with bricks. The bricks were replaced with
asphalt in the 1930’s.

In addition to the Indianapolis 500, the speedway
also hosts NASCAR‘s Verizon 200 and Pennzoil
150.

The  Speedway is currently owned by Roger
Penske‘s company Penske Corporation.

Carl Graham Fisher (1874–1938)

    
    
    
   
Roger Penske

The speedway is located in Speedway, Indiana.

One yard, of original bricks remain today 
exposed at the start-finish line.  

Jimmie Johnson was among the racing legends who were elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame on Wednesday along
with crew chief Chad Knaus and Donnie Allison.

Johnson won seven NASCAR Cup Championships during his
career, which is tied with Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt for
the most all time. Johnson’s first five came consecutively.

He is also the all-time winningest driver at five tracks. In
addition to that, he won Driver of the Year five times and
was the first racing driver to win The Associated Press
Male Athlete of the Year in the U.S. He had 83 total Cup
wins. Johnson will be 47 in September.