A portion of the film's main theme ("500 Miles") from Dave Grusin's score was used in the 1970s and 1980s by Cleveland, OH station WEWS-TV (Channel 5) as the theme for their "Million Dollar Movie".
Additional footage needed after the 1968 Indy 500 was filmed at Indianapolis Raceway Park.
Said to have ignited Paul Newman's love for racing.
The crash sequence at the beginning of the Indianapolis 500 was from the 1966 race. In this sequence, A.J. Foyt can be seen climbing over the first turn fence to escape the crash site.
The winning car of Frank Capua (Paul Newman) is painted to resemble the #3 Rislone Special driven to victory in the 1968 Indy 500 by Bobby Unser. Unser makes a cameo appearance, congratulating Capua on his victory.
This was originally to have been a low-budget, made-for-TV movie. However, Paul Newman, who had just caught the "racing bug", heard about it, decided it was the kind of movie he wanted to do, and it was soon elevated to a big-budget "A"-list feature film.