The Greatest Spectacle in Racing doesn’t just refer to the race cars at the Indianapolis 500. The annual Memorial Day Weekend extravaganza also makes for some elite people watching.
From the Snake Pit to pit road, there’s really no shortage of sites and that typically includes more than a few celebrities.
The 2023 Indy 500 was no different as Adam Driver, Tyrese Haliburton and Jewel were among those taking part in the festivities.
Here’s a look at the some of the more notable faces who made their way to Indiana.
These are the announcers that NBC has tapped to call the Indianapolis 500.
The Indianapolis 500 is finally here!
Sunday, May 28 marks the 107th running of the Indy 500, with the race itself set to begin at 12:45 p.m. ET. Actor Adam Driver will begin the proceedings as the green flag waver to kick off the 500-mile race around Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s famous 2.5-mile track.
Once again, NBC will be handling race day coverage, with streaming available on Peacock as well. Some familiar faces will be along for the ride guiding fans through the marquee event, including Mike Tirico, Danica Patrick, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and James Hinchcliffe.
Brush up on your Indy 500 history with these odd and fun facts.
This story was originally published in 2019 and has been updated.
The Indianapolis 500 is one of the oldest and greatest motor sports events in the entire world, capturing the attention of diehard racing fans and once-a-year viewers a like.
The first Indy 500 was back in 1911, so with more than a century of history, it’s hard to keep track of every detail and quirk related to the race and the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway where it’s held. So here are 10 peculiar lesser-known facts about the race.
A reminder that Indianapolis Motor Speedway is enormous.
This story was originally published in 2020 and has been updated.
As the host to the Indianapolis 500, one of the biggest motor sports events in the world, Indianapolis Motor Speedway is absolutely massive with a capacity that can hold at least 350,000 people between the grandstands and the infield.
In fact, the infield of the iconic 2.5-mile track is so ridiculously gigantic that, at 253 acres, it’s large enough to simultaneously hold several other sports venues and international landmarks — if that were an actual thing that could happen, of course.
So, with the 107th Indy 500 on Sunday, we thought this would be a good time to remind everyone just how enormous Indianapolis Motor Speedway is. The IMS infield could hold eight major landmarks inside of it simultaneously: Churchill Downs, Yankee Stadium, Rose Bowl Stadium, Vatican City, the Taj Mahal, the White House, Liberty Island and the Roman Colosseum.
In the image below, Yankee Stadium, Liberty Island, the White House and the Colosseum are on top of the golf course inside the track.
As Snopes previously noted about this astounding fact, we’re only talking about the Indy track’s infield and not the total property acreage, so that is the standard applied here to exclude the landmarks’ surrounding areas. More via Snopes:
Adding up the footprints of Churchill Downs (80 acres), Yankee Stadium (15 acres), the Rose Bowl (10 acres), the Roman Colosseum (6 acres), Vatican City (110 acres), the White House (18 acres), Taj Mahal (less than 1 acre), and Liberty Island (12 acres), produces an overall area (252 acres) that is smaller than the size of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (253 acres). (We’re ignoring the issue of whether the shapes of these landmarks would allow them to be placed within the IMS without any overlap or stacking.)
So yeah, Indianapolis Motor Speedway is a monster sports venue that could hold several major attractions if that were actually possible.
The 107th running of the Indy 500 is Sunday, May 29 with coverage beginning at 11 a.m. ET on NBC. The green flag is set for 12:45 p.m. ET.
Danica Patrick offered some tips on how Kyle Larson should approach his 2024 “Memorial Day Double” attempt.
Next year around this time, Kyle Larson will attempt a daunting 1,100-mile challenge between two different race tracks in cities nearly 600 miles apart. All on the same Sunday.
The soon-to-be 31-year-old NASCAR driver will attempt the “Memorial Day Double” by competing in the 2024 Indianapolis 500 for Arrow McLaren at Indianapolis Motor Speedway before jetting off to Charlotte Motor Speedway for NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 for Hendrick Motorsports that evening.
Larson’s friend and former competitor Danica Patrick said she has an abundance of confidence in his skillset translating to the IndyCar Series and open-wheeled cars and shared some tips on how she’d approach racing 1,100 miles in one day.
“With a guy like Kyle and a good team, there’s always a chance to win the Indy 500,” Patrick told For The Win on Thursday. “Especially because usually there’s a high chance of two strategies working: The fast strategy, the leader strategy, and then something off-strategy because there are so many pitstops and there’s so much that happens in the race.
“But it is hard, no doubt. It is a tall challenge to feel really good in the car when it’s not what you do because open-wheeled cars are very different than stock cars. And I know he drives open-wheeled cars, but most of the time when he’s driving an open-wheeled car, he’s on dirt and not going 240 [miles an hour] on pavement.”
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Kyle Larson and Jeff Gordon at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May 2023. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Larson will have the opportunity to get as comfortable as possible in an Indy car through practices and qualifying during the month of May. But Patrick emphasized it’s never quite the same as being in an open-wheeled car for a full season.
And she knows from experience. Patrick never attempted the “Memorial Day Double” — though she said she likely could have if she wanted — she ended her racing career after six full-time seasons in NASCAR by returning to her IndyCar roots and doing the Indy 500 one final time. Her retirement run with the 2018 Daytona 500 and Indy 500 was known as the “Danica Double.”
“Even when I came back after seven years, I was like, ‘Oh, God, that was harder than I thought it’d be,'” Patrick explained. “I would see drivers pop back in the car for just the 500 and have good days. And I was like, ‘Oh, must be must not be that hard. It must be, once you’ve done it, you’ve done it.’
“But there’s just something to be said for that week-in week-out [routine]. You’re familiar with not only your team but the fit of the car. You’re not dealing with that stuff: starts, restarts, fuel mixtures, all the stuff on the steering wheel — which I’m out of touch with at this point in time exactly — all the things that they have. But all of that stuff, you want that to be second nature because it’s so hard to have a good day anyway. And so I have no doubt [Larson will] have a good day.”
The Indy 500 is a long and physically taxing event by itself that can leave drivers exhausted and dehydrated after sometimes more than three hours of intense racing around Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s iconic 2.5-mile track. But when that’s over — assuming Larson qualifies for the 2024 Indy 500 field — he’ll have to head over to a NASCAR crown-jewel race with the Coca-Cola 600.
Having a plan for the physical side of this formidable 1,100-mile day is crucial, Patrick said. If she were attempting the Double, she said she’d drain an IV bag on the plane ride between Indianapolis and Charlotte.
As for mindset and mental preparation, Patrick said Larson just needs to stay in the moment he’s in as he’ll have to shift from high-adrenaline racing to rest and back to racing again. That could end up being the biggest challenge, she added.
“He’s a pretty cool customer; he doesn’t really get too up or too down,” Patrick said. “But I think still just being able to have the amount of relaxation in the morning that it takes to keep your energy conserved for the race itself at Indy, and then not feeling frantic after it’s over with to hurry up and get to the Coke 600.
“Just staying calm through all that while then going and driving 1,100 miles at 200 miles an hour — I mean, that is a lot. That is a very big shift between staying relaxed in the morning, turning it on for the race, relaxing in between that and the Coke 600 and then turning it back on. …
“His capabilities to be able to drive both cars and do all those miles is good. It’s just, how much energy can you conserve in the in-between during that day, so that you have the most amount of focus and energy for the job itself?”
This story was originally published in 2021 and has been updated.
Welcome to FTW Explains: a guide to catching up on and better understanding stuff going on in the world. You may have heard that the Indy 500 winner celebrates with a bottle of milk and want to know why. We’re here to help.
It’s a quirky but perfectly understandable question some people have about the Indianapolis 500: Why does the winner drink milk?
Simply, it’s tradition. And the Indy 500 is all about tradition.
After taking the checkered flag at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in one of the biggest motor sports races in the world, the winning driver is draped with a giant flowered wreath and handed a bottle of ice-cold milk. The winner typically takes a couple sips, poses for a few quick photos and then proceeds to dump the rest of the bottle on their head — sometimes pouring milk on others nearby.
The whole process makes for some truly spectacular photos, but how and when did this odd tradition start? It’s largely thanks to Louis Meyer back in the 1930s.
Three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Louis Meyer regularly drank buttermilk to refresh himself on a hot day and happened to drink some in Victory Lane as a matter of habit after winning the 1936 race. An executive with what was then the Milk Foundation was so elated when he saw the moment captured in a photograph in the sports section of his newspaper the following morning that he vowed to make sure it would be repeated in coming years. There was a period between 1947-55 when milk was apparently no longer offered, but the practice was revived in 1956 and has been a tradition ever since.
So if a big bottle of milk on a typically warm or hot Indiana day after several hours of intense racing sounds unappealing, blame Meyer.
But although he drank buttermilk, that’s not one of the options for drivers anymore.
The American Dairy Association Indiana is in charge of delivering the bottle of milk to the winner, and before every Indy 500, it polls the drivers to see what their preferred celebratory milk choice would be. But the options are simple: Whole, 2 percent or fat free.
28 drivers select WHOLE, 3 drivers select 2% and 2 drivers select SKIM in this year's #Indy500 Milk Preference Poll.
However, there’s usually a write-in or two on the survey with drivers sometimes hoping for chocolate, strawberry or even buttermilk.
When the race is over, the “milk people” — yes, that’s really what they’re called — consult the poll of drivers to see what bottle the winner wants. They then grab one of three bottles from a nearby cooler, and the milk tradition continues.
“It’s a tradition. Not everybody enjoys milk but just because it’s happening at that point and because it’s got that meaning, all of a sudden milk tastes very good, even if you’re lactose [intolerant].”
However, the American Dairy Association Indiana does have a secret lactose-free option, should a driver request that.
From Juan Pablo Montoya to Will Power, here’s a look back at all the Indy 500 winners this century.
The Indianapolis 500 is one of the most prestigious motor sports events in the world, and its checkered flag is coveted like no other.
So much has to fall into place perfectly for a driver to win the race against the other 32 cars in the field, and one little detail or mistake can be the difference between a glorious victory or absolute heartbreak. But once a driver wins, their name is etched in IndyCar history, and they become embedded in Indy 500 lore.
When most drivers would do anything to win the Indy 500 one time, several drivers in the last 105 races have won more than once. In the last two decades, those with more than one Indy 500 win include Hélio Castroneves, Juan Pablo Montoya, Dario Franchitti and Takuma Sato.
Here’s a look back at every driver who has won the iconic race since 2000.
Indianapolis Motor Speedway has so much history and tradition. But what’s the history behind its Brickyard nickname?
This story was originally published in 2019. It has been updated.
There are more than 100 years of racing history at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the iconic 2.5-mile track that will host the 107th running of the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday (pre-race coverage begins on NBC and Peacock at 11 a.m. ET but the green flag is set for 12:45 p.m. ET). So obviously, there’s a lot to learn about the track, the race and the drivers.
The historic track is commonly referred to as the Brickyard — a term that even made its way into the name of the NASCAR Cup Series’ previous race there each season. But why? Let us break it down…
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Why is Indianapolis Motor Speedway called the Brickyard?
The simple answer is because it is literally a yard of bricks. At one time, more than a century ago, the whole track used to be paved with bricks, but to know how that happened, we actually have to go farther back in IMS track history.
The original surface of the track when the speedway first opened in August of 1909 was created from “a sticky amalgam of gravel, limestone, tar, and 220,000 gallons of asphaltum oil”, according to History.com. But this actually turned out to be a dangerously fatal disaster at the very first car race. Five people died as a result of the chaos produced from the rough yet slippery surface, and “‘flying gravel shattered goggles and bloodied cheeks'”.
In a span of 63 days in fall 1909, 3.2 million paving bricks, each weighing 9.5 pounds, were laid on top of the original surface of crushed rock and tar to upgrade the Speedway.
On a rainy day… (Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports)
When were the Indianapolis Motor Speedway bricks repaved?
Gradually in the first few decades of the track’s existence, asphalt was added to different pieces of the surface, and rougher sections of the turns were covered in 1936. Eventually, all four turns were fully paved with asphalt in 1937. More from Indianapolis Motor Speedway:
In 1938, the entire track was paved with asphalt except for the middle portion of the front straightaway.
In October 1961, the remaining bricks on the front straightaway were covered with asphalt. A 36-inch strip of the original bricks was kept intact at the start/finish line, where it remains today as the fabled Yard of Bricks.
The bricks are still there today and actually continue past the literal track and into the infield. They’re part of every celebratory moment.
Why do drivers kiss the Yard of Bricks when they win?
There are so many elements of the track’s and Indy 500 history that come down to tradition. And you won’t see an Indy 500 winner (or NASCAR race winner) walk away without kissing the bricks.
2017 Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato kisses the bricks. (Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports)
Drivers and their teams will line up along the Yard of Bricks to take their own always spectacular photos. But it wasn’t always that way, and this is a newer tradition compared with the whole history of the track. From IMS’ website:
The tradition of “kissing the bricks” was started by NASCAR champion Dale Jarrett. After his Brickyard 400 victory in 1996, Jarrett and crew chief Todd Parrott decided to walk out to the start-finish line, kneel and kiss the Yard of Bricks to pay tribute to the fabled history of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The team joined them for a group kiss on the bricks, and an Indianapolis tradition was born that Indianapolis 500 and Brickyard 400 winners have followed since.
And one of 33 drivers Sunday will continue the Brickyard tradition of kissing the bricks.
Cars weren’t on track today, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be.
When the green flag flies Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Alex Palou will lead the fastest Indianapolis 500 field in history to green, starting on the fastest front row in race history after he broke the race record for fastest pole-winning speed.
All records last set in 2022, and all indicating the Indy 500 just keeps getting faster and faster.
Palou, the IndyCar Series 2021 champion, claimed his first Indy 500 pole Sunday with a stunning four-lap average speed of 234.217 miles per hour, breaking teammate Scott Dixon’s mark set last year. As for the 33-car field as a whole, the average speed is 232.184 miles per hour, and it’s the third straight year the fastest Indy 500 field record has been broken.
The No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda driver just hopes he has the lasting speed to stay out in front of this quick group. Should he win his first Indy 500 from the pole, he’ll celebrate with an ice-cold bottle of whole milk.
Ahead of the 107th Indy 500, For The Win spoke with Palou on Monday about his pole, the wild speeds and his expectations for Sunday’s race.
Most drivers keep it simple, but some want more than the three milk options offered.
Who wants milk after a usually hot and always physically taxing 500-mile race? Well, whoever wins Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 will definitely want a big jug of milk.
Typically, following an immediate on-track celebration, the Indy 500-winning driver pulls the car into Victory Lane, and a representative from the American Dairy Association Indiana — also known as the “Veteran Milk Man” — hands the driver a bottle of milk. The winner usually takes a few sips before dumping it on their head and maybe splashing some folks nearby.
Ahead of each Indy 500, the American Dairy Association Indiana polls drivers for their preferred milk choice if they end up winning it all. The options are simple — whole, 2 percent or fat-free milk — though many drivers hilariously would like a few more options. (There is a secret lactose-free option, should a driver request that.)
Of the 33 drivers, 28 selected whole milk, while three went with two percent and two would like skim. No chocolate, strawberry or buttermilk write-ins this time, it seems.
28 drivers select WHOLE, 3 drivers select 2% and 2 drivers select SKIM in this year's #Indy500 Milk Preference Poll.
After the milk poll was released Tuesday, Dreyer and Reinbold Racing announced Graham Rahal — who initially didn’t make the Indy 500 field Sunday — will replace injured Stefan Wilson. As a result, Rahal’s milk choice isn’t listed.
So, why milk? The answer is simple: It’s a nearly 100-year-old tradition. And the many traditions of the Indy 500 and Indianapolis Motor Speedway help make the 500 the magical event it is — milk and all.
“Three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Louis Meyer regularly drank buttermilk to refresh himself on a hot day and happened to drink some in Victory Lane as a matter of habit after winning the 1936 race. An executive with what was then the Milk Foundation was so elated when he saw the moment captured in a photograph in the sports section of his newspaper the following morning that he vowed to make sure it would be repeated in coming years. There was a period between 1947-55 when milk was apparently no longer offered, but the practice was revived in 1956 and has been a tradition ever since.”
Buttermilk is no longer an option, but after the Indy 500, the designated “milk people” from the American Dairy Association Indiana will pull one of three bottles — one for each milk option — from a chilled cooler, which one of the milk people is sometimes handcuffed to. And they deliver it to the winning driver for the iconic celebration.
The 107th Indy 500 is set for Sunday, May 28 (green flag at 12:45 p.m. ET) at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
