(Photo) Lucas Oil Stadium.

Piece 1: Lucas Oil Stadium. Located in downtown Indianapolis IN just north of Interstate 70 near the eastern bank of the White River is Lucas Oil Stadium, a multi-purpose facility that serves as home field of the National Football League’s (NFL) Indianapolis Colts.

Designed by HKS, Inc., the architecture firm behind two other distinctive NFL venues, AT&T Stadium (Arlington TX) and U.S. Bank Stadium (Minneapolis MN), Lucas Oil Stadium is a creative composition of brick, steel, and glass that has a kind of an early 20th century appearance.

Its core seating capacity of 67,000 can be expanded to 70,000 for basketball games and other events.

The venue has been host to a Super Bowl, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four, and for years has served as the site of the NFL Scouting Combine (where selected college players committed to the NFL draft are evaluated).

The roof of the stadium is retractable and can be fully opened in 11 minutes, and its large northeast window can be opened to provide a clear view of downtown Indianapolis.

Often referred to as “The House Manning Built”, Lucas Oil Stadium opened in 2008 following a dominating run of success for the hometown Colts that culminated in a 2006 Championship, led by record-setting quarterback Peyton Manning.

It’s a unique part of the Indianapolis cityscape; one I would encourage any visitor to experience for an event or just a facility tour.

The Borg-Warner Trophy

Piece 2: Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Located in the western part of Indianapolis in the 4700 block of 16th Street is the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS).

Built in 1909, the 2.5-mile oval track is relatively flat compared to some other notable racing venues, with only 9 degrees of banking at its turns.

Originally paved with bricks (over 3 million of them), IMS became known as “The Brickyard”. As the speed of race cars increased, however, the brick track became hazardous and asphalt was applied beginning in the mid-1930’s.

By 1961, the entire track surface had been re-paved with asphalt, save a 3-foot wide strip of original bricks representing the start/finish line.

The venue can currently seat over 250,000 fans and its large infield includes four holes of the adjacent championship golf course, “Brickyard Crossing”.

During our visit, we were able to tour the IMS Museum, which features winning cars from various periods of the Indy 500 race (held on Memorial Day weekend each year since 1911).

Perhaps the most interesting exhibit there is the perpetual Borg-Warner Trophy, introduced in 1936 and presented annually to the Indy 500 winner (although a smaller replica called the “Baby Borg” is actually given to the driver to keep). The permanent trophy has “bas-relief likenesses” of each winner’s face, and they have had to add bases (beginning in 1986) to the original award piece to accommodate all of the winners.

The final part of our IMS experience was to take a lap around the track in a bus that includes a stop at the “preserved brick” start/finish line. Indy 500 race winners “kiss the bricks” as a celebratory tradition, and tourists are invited to “kiss the bricks” as well. We settled for a picture.

White Castle #3 (est. 1927) in Indianapolis IN

Piece 3: White Castle. Established in Wichita KS in 1921, White Castle Restaurants are now scattered across 14 states (Illinois and Indiana have the most).

The company sells its small hamburgers, known as “sliders”, from the freezer cases of grocery stores and big box retailers nationwide.

However, in Indianapolis, we were in the midst of several While Castle Restaurants and had to try some freshly made sliders.

So glad we did!

NOW…READY TO START PLANNING YOUR NEXT ADVENTURE?

3 Piece Trips recommends TripAdvisor as an excellent travel planning tool. Also, TripAdvisor offers great deals on highly rated and positively reviewed hotels. Just CLICK HERE to access and explore the TripAdvisor site.