In many cases, the grand marshal of the parade is also honored during pre-race festivities on race morning. The organizing committee boasts the parade as one of the largest in the nation. In 1997, a fire swept through the storage hangar housing the floats for that year's parade, threatening to cancel the event. Only four floats were spared, and Buddy Lazier's 1996 winning car escaped the fire only because the museum had decided to wait a few extra days before delivering it to the float staging area. The parade went on as scheduled, but in a slightly retooled format. The grand marshals for the annual parade have been as follows:     The atmosphere at the track during the month of May and on race day has long been a source of traditions. The nickname of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the "Brickyard." When the track opened in August 1909, the surface was composed of crushed stone and tar. This surface quickly was deemed unsuitable and dangerous after multiple accidents. In the fall of 1909, the track was paved in brick. In just over two months, 3.2 million bricks were hand laid on a bed of sand and the gaps were filled with mortar. Before the work was completed, locals nicknamed the track the "Brickyard". Beginning in the 1930s, portions of the track were paved over in asphalt, beginning with the turns. By the late 1950s, only a portion of the mainstretch remained brick. Following the 1961 race, the remaining part of the mainstretch was paved over, and the entire track was now covered in asphalt. One yard of bricks was left exposed at the start/finish line. The vast majority of the original 3.2 million bricks remain in place, several inches beneath multiple layers of asphalt. Some bricks have been unearthed from the track over the years, namely in the locations where the infield access tunnels have been constructed. Subsequent repavings of the track in 1976, 1988, 1995, and 2004, have preserved the bricks in place underneath. However, the yard of bricks exposed at the start/finish line has been dug up in those instances by milling operations. Different bricks - ostensibly bricks that were dug up at one point from other parts of the track - were cleanly re-laid in that place, both for safety and aesthetic reasons. In 2000 when the new Pagoda and Pagoda Plaza were built, the yard of bricks was extended from the track surface across the pit lane and then through to the spectator areas in the new Pagoda Plaza.