SPEEDWAY — The Indianapolis Motor Speedway experience is slightly different this May. The speedway's museum is closed for an $89 million renovation, but construction is making progress.
The old museum walls are gone and steel beams for the new layout are now in place, including a new second floor. The skylight is also covered up to protect the items inside of the museum.
"It's really surreal," said Roxie Dunbar, who manages the Indianapolis Motor Speeedway Museum's memorabilia collection. "We've seen everything in drawings, and now seeing everything life-size, it puts everything into perspective."
The original estimate of reopening the museum in April 2025 remains in place.
Dunbar said the museum will be more interactive than its prior version.
"We're going to have seven period-correct garages, all the way from 1909 to the current day," Dunbar said. "Each garage will have a car from that time period with period-correct artifacts such as tools and tires."
"There will also be a starting line experience," Dunbar continued. "There will be a large screen coming over you which will feature the pageantry of race day, as well as three show cars with that year's livery."
The renovations are exciting for speedway visitors such as Kevin Odrobniak.
"This will be my 43rd Indy 500," said Odrobniak, who drove from Northwest Indiana to watch the Sonsio Grand Prix practice at IMS on Friday. "The old museum had a lot of stagnant displays. They're nice, but kids today don't want to read what the little tags say, they want to play with something."
Odrobniak said he will be among the first to visit the museum when it reopens.
"I'll bring my father with me, my best friend, my daughter, and my wife," Odrobniak said. "This is part of our family."
