The Indianapolis Motor Speedway opened in 1909 as the largest sports arena in the world. It earned the named "the Brickyard" because the race track was paved with bricks. But it's asphalt now, and the road surface has been resurfaced and improved many times over the years. What you see here is a core sample taken at the track, two feet high and full of history. IMS president J. Douglas Boles posted this picture at Twitter. Speedway historians used the core to make a graphic explaining the various layers and the work that went into resurfacing the track over the years, which you can see at Jalopnik.
So, bricks last 52 years while asphalt deteriorates in less than 15.
Abusive comment hidden.
(Show it anyway.)