IMS president, Douglas Boles, shared a rare find from the track's 'real history'. He shared images of a preserved section of the track’s original 1909 stone-and-tar surface just a foot below Turn 2.Over the years, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has witnessed several motorsport events, including NASCAR, Formula 1, IndyCar, MotoGP, and IMSA. When the track was originally laid in 1909, it was a mix of creek gravel, crushed limestone, tar and stone chips.The surface didn’t hold up for long, and the decision was made to pave the track with 3.2 million bricks instead. The repave gave the track its famous nickname, 'The Brickyard'.In an X post by Boles, he shared images of the original tar and stone surface, writing,"Well, we found real history! A bit over 12 inches below today’s @IMS Turn 2 asphalt is the Original 1909 stone and tar surface!!! So so cool! This place never stops surprising us!"The track is famously known for the Indianapolis 500, but the way it was run in the early years was drastically different. In a 2017 interview, IMS historian Donald Davidson had this to say about the initial Indy 500s (via Indianapolis Motor Speedway's official website),"It was very rough. What was required of a driver is quite a bit different than it is now. It was a lot of physical punishment. It’s still extremely demanding now, but it was so physical back then. The drivers, some of them were big and brawny, and the event was an enduro. Now it’s a series of sprints."Apparently, the 500-mile race would go on for hours on end with fewer pitstops. It was normal for a driver to finish the race with just a single stop, and relief drivers were also common at the time."The Bricks are still under there": IMS president reflects on the history of Indy 500IMS and IndyCar president, Doug Boles, recently spoke about the brick surface beneath the 2.5-mile track. The famed oval was first repaved with asphalt back in the 1930s, while the most recent one was done in 2004."Most of the bricks are still under there. That’s the cool thing about it, when you run the Indy 500, you are racing on the same track, same layout, just a few inches above where they were in 1910 when they first started racing on the bricks,” Boles said via RoadandTrack.com“It's hard to believe this is the twenty-first season of this asphalt," he added.The asphalt was initially laid out only in the corners, until most of IMS was covered in it by 1961. A yard of the brick surface still remains on the frontstretch, and it's known for the famous tradition of winners kneeling down to ‘kiss the bricks'.