Carla Clark | For The Republic Mark Eutsler, co-founder IRMA, Lori Lindberg, Cummins Heritage Center leader, Dave Bozell, IRMA, pose for a photograph in front of the 1952 #28 Cummins Diesel Special, Indianapolis 500 race car, on display during the event honoring Cummins with an Indiana Racing Memorial Association (IRMA) historic marker at the Cummins Engine Plant located at 5th and California streets, Columbus, Ind, Friday, July 19, 2024.
A historic marker commemorating the shared history of Cummins Inc. and the site of the greatest spectacle in racing was once lost, only to be found again.
Cummins employees, city officials, representatives from the Indiana Racing Memorial Association (IRMA) and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, along with NASCAR Cup series driver Chase Briscoe celebrated the rediscovery during a ceremony at the Columbus Engine Plant (CEP) on Friday.
“My family goes back in this community since 1916, and I can still remember my grandparents telling me that that crazy Clessie Cummins is running those cars up and down the street — and they’re really loud,” council member Tom Dell, D-at-large, said near the corner of Fifth and California streets.
The marker makes mention of Cummins founder Clessie Cummins and his experience as a pit crew member of the Marmon Wasp team that won the inaugural Indianapolis 500 in 1911, going on to describe the company’s storied ties with the Speedway.
Also on site was the #28 Cummins Diesel Special, the only car with a diesel engine to capture the pole at the Indianapolis 500, which it did in 1952. Employees gathered around the mustard yellow and red car for photos and took a moment to get to know Briscoe during a meet-and-greet.
IRMA, a non-profit whose mission is to recognize historically significant contributions that have made Indiana the “Racing Capitol of the World,” began commissioning markers for that purpose 10 years ago. The one now located outside CEP is number 57.
Cummins had purchased one to recognize the company’s long-standing partnership with the Speedway in 2019. A manufacturer had the marker made, but somewhere along the way it disappeared, beginning an odyssey that came to an end in part with the help of Cummins Facilities Maintenance Manager Brian Duncan.
“This marker was lost for awhile, but thanks to Brian and some others who worked diligently, we discovered where it was,” IRMA Co-founder Mark Eutsler said.
Duncan began at Cummins in November of 2022 and received a phone call from a city employee a couple months later inquiring about the sign.
“They thought it had been shipped, the manufacturer didn’t have it, (IRMA) didn’t have it, so basically they put out an APB on southern Indiana,” Duncan said.
Cummins employees scoured every nook and cranny of the 1.42 million square-foot CEP facility but no luck.
“At this point, I’m ready to just buy another sign,” Duncan said of how he felt at the time.
As quotes were being drawn up for a new one, IRMA was in discussion with a sign manufacturer when the Eureka moment arrived in early 2023.
“When they were ordering another sign for someone else, the guy said, ‘Hey, what about this sign?’ and they’re like, ‘What sign?’ — it was that sign, they found it at a manufacturer.”
They still aren’t quite sure how it ended up there — it had seemingly been shipped to someone in Columbus who had since passed away — but Duncan was relieved it had finally been found.
“Really, I didn’t find it, I just did a lot of work in trying to find it.”
