There is limited parking within the infield of the speedway.

The largest general parking area is in the TURN 3 lawn and the 1st turn gravel.

There is also a large square parking lot behind northern tower terrace, however its reserved for suite ticketholders, media and those with yellow passes.

It is free to park inside the speedway, assuming there is room.

You cannot drive RV's into the infield, nor can you camp out overnight.

THERE ARE 3 AUTO ENTRANCES INTO THE INFIELD:

• SOUTH off of 16th street. Always open on race day. Can approach from either direction during practice days, but must approach from the east (heading west) to enter on race day. BOTH RIGHT LANES can enter. Must have parking pass to enter here for USGP.
• WEST off of Georgetown Road. Restricted to those with reserved parking on race day. Sometimes closed off to general traffic on some days (like Carb Day.)
• NORTH Enter off of 30th Street. Requires driving up a 1/2 mile 8-lane driveway. They will close this gate earlier than they will the one on 16th Street on race day. This is because there is tons of parking just outside the track all along this driveway and they start diverting people off and making them park in these fields. Note: You cannot exit the track to come back to your car if your car is in this area (often called 'The North 40')

There is parking literally everywhere miles around the outside of the track.

Most every house in every neighborhood will let you park in their yard for a price. If they are a mile or more away, they may only charge $5-10. Get close to the speedway and price jumps to $20 or $30.

There are some large parking lots around. The police are going to make sure traffic moves out of these lots, where as you can get stuck in a neighborhood. The Speedway will let you buy a reserved parking spot in their lots. For a map and more information, see OFFICIAL RESERVED PARKING.

The Speedway owns a huge grassy lot just north of the track that you can reach on 30th street. We often refer to this lot as "The North 40". You can park here for free.

The largest lot of all is called the Coke Lot. It is a huge grassy field off of Georgetown Road and 30th Street. The speedway actually owns most of it. At one time someone wanted to build a horse track there. This is probably the easiest lot to get in and out of, so I recommend using it. Sometimes they charge you $10-20, sometimes you get to park here free. I parked here free in 2005.

The first thing to decide is if you want to park inside the speedway, in the infield of the oval. If so, you need to get there real early on race day. Sometimes after they've closed off traffic into the infield, they may find some additional parking spots and open it back up. Once I arrived a half-hour before race time and was able to drive right in and park near the control tower. That is getting lucky though.

You may drive your CAR, PICKUP, SUV, VAN, or BIKE into the track, if they allow infield parking when you go, which is almost always. NO RV's. You must drive through a tunnel under the track to get in.

I do not like to get up early! I hate to sit in traffic! If you are like me, then you need to head for the Speedway either before or after the majority of people go, say 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. If your seats are along the front straight, you may enjoy being there watching the hours of preliminary and traditional things going on - music, parades, etc.

If you are an early bird who doesn't like traffic, getting an early start may be the thing for you. The track opens at 5 a.m. Arrive sometime between that and 7 and you shouldn't have much problem.

The police say if you leave by 10 a.m. you should be able to get parked somewhere and to your seat in plenty of time

If you are caught in standstill traffic and are several miles away from Speedway, I recommend turning around and try alternate routes.

Make sure you have plenty of gas and a drink for yourself incase you get caught in bad traffic. Go to the restroom before you leave too!

You will not want to miss the start of the race! It is awesome! After the show of patriotism, you'll see the 33-car field driving by in formation. I guarantee that when they roar away on that 1st lap, you will get goose bumps. Some people cry. Besides the parades and the anthems before the start, there will be some kind of air show too, depending upon the weather.

One year I had someone chauffuer me over at the last moment. We drove right up to the corner of the speedway and I hopped out and went in the track. However, person could never make it back to pick me up afterwards because all lanes had become outgoing traffic.

Some people park so far away, I can't believe it! I usually go until I can see Speedway property before I think of parking. Those extra miles of walking carrying heavy coolers will wear you out. And remember, you've got to walk back there at the end of the day.

and last, but not least...

DON'T FORGET WHERE YOU PARKED!!!
Make sure everyone in your party remembers incase you get separated.

Note: Traffic leaving is usually worse than arriving, simply because everyone tries to leave at once, while everyone entered scattered from 5 a.m. until noon. Fortunately, the police turn many roads into ONE-WAY streets to help get everyone out of Speedway and onto the interstates as fast as possible. Unfortunately, sometimes they may make you go in a direction you did not want to go. For instance, in 2006 I came out of Lot 2 and headed south on Georgetown Rd toward 16th Street. I wanted to go right. They made me go the opposite. They controlled the traffic quite a distance away, and by the time I was allowed to go west and catch the interstate, it wasn't worth it anymore, and I just caught the interstate further south.

If you don't mind missing the end of the race, you can probably avoid traffic troubles by leaving a little early.

I usually hang out in the stands and wait for everyone to leave. Eventually the yellow shirts come along and tell you to go. Once outside, you can walk around looking at the vendor's stuff, have a cookout back at your car, play frisbee in a field, or whatever, to kill a little time. If you were to wait around for about 3 hours, you can probably cruise right out with just light traffic. If you were to get in line, you might be sitting there burning gas for several hours.

I used to find I could exit out on 30th and head east pretty easily. I tried parking over in the neighborhood across Georgetown and its been murder trying to get out of those neighborhoods even after I took my time leaving. Its best to head immediately for a main street when pulling out of your parking spot.