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SPEEDWAY, Ind. — As summer arrives and we move one lap closer to July’s celebration of the United States’ 250th birthday celebration, there will no doubt be a nationwide inventory of “Most American” lists. And any list of Most American Sporting Events must include the annual open-wheel motorsports sweepstakes event that will take the green flag for its 110th edition on Sunday.
The Indianapolis 500 invented most of what you know about auto racing, not to mention the car sitting in your driveway. From “Drivers, start your engines!” to the rearview mirror, which debuted on the car of the winner of the very first 500 in 1911, the Greatest Spectacle in Racing is also one of the bucket list events that should be experienced by every American. Not American sports fan. American.
So, what does one need to know before watching the race that we just told you that you must watch to prove your loyalty to our nation? Please place your hand over your American heart and read on as we present our annual Indy 500 Preview To Make You Sound Super Smart On Race Day.
OK, it’s car No. 10, but the man behind the wheel, Álex Palou, is having a stretch of success that the IndyCar world has rarely seen. Like, rarified A.J. Foyt and Mario Andretti kind of air.
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He steered his Chip Ganassi Racing Honda into pole position last weekend thanks to a four-lap average speed of 232.148 mph. He has won the series championship in four of the past five seasons, during which he has racked up 22 race wins, including last year’s Indy 500. On Sunday, he will attempt to become only the seventh driver to win back-to-back 500s, and only the third since 1971.
“Being his teammate, it’s a bit demoralizing, and I mean that as a comment,” acknowledged Kyffin Simpson, driver of No. 8 Ganassi ride and starting two rows behind Palou on Sunday. “I can see his data from his car. And then I try and do what he does. And you realize, you know what? There’s only a few people who can do that. Ever.”
The last driver to repeat was another multiple time series champion, Josef Newgarden, who won the 500 in 2023 and ’24. Should he kiss the bricks a third time (that’s what the winners of this race do, kiss the start-finish line that’s made of original Indianapolis Motor Speedway bricks, covered in oil and rubber, which sounds gross but is actually awesome), then he would become only the 11th racer to win three or more. Newgarden’s Penske Chevy starts 23rd in the field of 33, but it would behoove you to keep an eye on the No. 06 Honda that’s starting nine spots farther toward the front.
Helio Castroneves (yes, the guy your mom went so crazy over when he won “Dancing with the Stars” in 2007) is the oldest driver in the field at 51, but he stunned Gasoline Alley in 2021 when he won this race at 47 and became only the fourth driver to own four wins, joining Foyt, Al Unser Sr. and Rick Mears, a whopping 12 years after his third. If he can do it again, the Artist Formerly Known As H3lio will not only smash the mark for oldest winner (Unser, 1987, 47 years, 360 days) but also hit a tier that many have long viewed as unreachable: five Indianapolis 500 victories.
“I am not racing IndyCar full time any longer and there are those moments where you are like, ‘Do I still have that drive?'” Castroneves says. “But as soon as practice starts and you hit that backstretch, that feeling comes back over you. This is where I am supposed to be and winning is why I am here.”
Palou, Castroneves and Newgarden are three of the nine former Indy 500 champs in Sunday’s field, joined by two-time winner Takuma Sato (a 59-time IndyCar race winner; second all time behind Foyt) Scott Dixon, Marcus Ericsson, Will Power, Ryan Hunter-Reay and No. 2 starter Alexander Rossi, who suffered injuries to his left hand and right ankle after a post-qualifying practice crash, but plans to race Sunday.
Helio Castroneves, 51, will start 14th on Sunday as he chases his fifth Indy 500 win. Penske Entertainment: Amber Pietz”All you need to know about how our lives center around this race is when you see guys get hurt and then somehow, like a superhero, they are healed in time for the green flag,” Indy 500 vet Conor Daly mentioned ahead of his 13th start. “That goes for us who have never won it, but the ones who have, once they taste that, they are even more psycho about doing it again.”
There are also four Indy 500 rookies in the field, all starting from the last three rows. That group includes one of the most revered names to ever hold a steering wheel.
Mick Schumacher, driver of the No. 47 Honda co-owned by 1986 Indy 500 winner Bobby Rahal and David Letterman (yes, the same one), is the son of seven-time F1 world champion Michael Schumacher. The elder Schumacher never raced in the Indy 500, but he is one of the winningest drivers in the history of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. From 2000 to 2007, F1 ran the U.S. Grand Prix on a course that melded one corner and the straightaway of the oval with a road course that snaked through the infield. Schumacher won five of them. Mick, who was born in 1999, has had his move to IndyCar questioned by uncle/TV analyst Ralf Schumacher, and back in the day his father could also be critical of the safety of the so-called American oval culture.
“This series and these tracks are so much safer than in the past,” the 27-year-old mentioned Thursday. “If you chose to be a racer, you’re only ever safe to a certain degree. The safest place is watching on your couch. But that’s not for me.”
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After two years of off-the-chart hype surrounding NASCAR champion Kyle Larson’s attempts at Indy 500/Coca-Cola 600 IndyCar/NASCAR Indianapolis/Charlotte single-day two-race marathon (I’m still exhausted from trying to follow his failed attempt in 2024), this year’s “Double Duty” hopeful is flying relatively low on the national radar.
Katherine Legge is making her fifth Indy 500 start from the 26th starting position and will spend that time praying for no precipitation. Because as soon as she is done driving her HMD Motorsports with A.J. Foyt Racing Chevy, she will chopper out of Indy and catch a private plane to Charlotte Motor Speedway, where her second ride will be waiting, another Chevy but one with fenders, the No. 78 of Live Fast Motorsports. If she pulls it off, she will become only the 11th racer to do it in 13 attempts, and the first woman.
On Thursday, she mentioned she reached out to Larson, who was foiled by rain in ’24 and finished 27th/37th one year ago. “He just told me to enjoy it. Don’t let the stress of the logistics take over and ruin the enjoyment of it.”
It was in 1936 when Louis Meyer, celebrating becoming the first three-time Indy 500 winner, first made famous the glass bottle of milk that has become a staple of the Indianapolis 500 experience, as Movietone News film cameras captured images of the Yonkers, New York, racer gulping down his jug of moo juice sitting atop his No. 8 machine. Meyer always claimed he’d done the same in 1933, but no one noticed. And why did he do it? Because his mother had always taught him that drinking buttermilk — yes, buttermilk — was the best way to cool off on a hot day.
By 1938, the Indiana dairy industry had seized the marketing opportunity. Now, American Dairy Association Indiana oversees it all, taking orders from every race participant so they are ready to serve up the champ’s chosen chilled refreshment after the checkered flag. Out of this year’s field of 33 racers, 25 chose whole milk — and considering that has been the choice of the past four winners, it feels like a smart one — while seven chose 2%, including the annual request from at least one driver for buttermilk, which is not on the menu, to pay homage to Meyer (we see you, Ed Carpenter).
Only one of this year’s entrants selected skim milk. That would be Romain Grosjean, a man who most certainly knows the importance of finding ways to quickly cool down. Sorry, too soon?
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