SPEEDWAY, Indiana – The 108th running of the Indianapolis 500 is here. Yes, 108 times… and they didn't run the event during both World Wars… and the track opened two years before the first 500.
That's old. It was so long ago that when the first edition of racing's greatest spectacle took its inaugural green flag on May 30, 1911, a large portion of the 85,000 attendees arrived in horse-drawn vehicles, eager to see what would happen. There was a lot of hype about these newfangled automobiles. The winner was Ray Harroun, with his very yellow Marmon Wasp, a car that had the first rear-view mirror.
I told you he was old.
Harroun, the pride of Spartansburg, Pennsylvania, won that first day of racing with an average of 74.602 mph. On this 108th day of racing, the 33-car field will be led to the green flag by Scott McLaughlin, the pride of Christchurch, New Zealand, who drove his also very yellow, Chevy-powered Dallara to pole position with a record average of four laps. speed of 234.220 mph and will do so in front of 350,000 fans.
So what do you need to know ahead of Sunday at 12:45 p.m. ET, when the Indianapolis Motor Speedway comes alive for the 108th time in this race? Grab some driving gloves, a helmet and a jug of milk and read on as we present four things you need to know for the 2024 Indy 500, one for each of the 2.5-mile rectangular track's 9-degree banked turns. .
Turn 1: Trickster, Trickster, Pork Tenderloin Eater
Let's start from the front, where McLaughlin and his Team Penske teammates, 2018 Indy 500 winner Will Power and defending race champion Josef Newgarden, swept the top three starting spots. (Yes, three, the field is divided into 11 three-car rows. No other major league race does this.) Penske starting on the spot isn't exactly news: the team has won the pole a record 19 times. but it's only a team's second frontcourt sweep, a feat first accomplished by… yes, Penske, in 1988 with Rick Mears, Danny Sullivan and Al Unser.
But this season, everything Penske does is met with eye-rolls and accusations, because Newgarden and McLaughlin were stripped of their season-opening IndyCar victory and third-place finish, respectively, at the St. Petersburg Grand Prix after that series officials determined had been conspiring to illegally have their passing impulses available for starts and restarts. What's that? You know in the Fast and Furious movies when Vin Diesel presses that button that sends his car into hyperspace for a moment? IndyCars come equipped with a “push to pass” button that acts like Diesel's boost button, but there are limits to where and how many times it can be used during a race. Penske was arrested for having the boost available to her drivers at the wrong time.
1:06
Josef Newgarden apologizes for breaking the rules
Josef Newgarden accepts blame for using a rigged push-to-pass system in his season-opening IndyCar victory.
Team Penske says it was a technical oversight and provided no real advantage because it wasn't used. IndyCar saw the situation differently and took the trophy from Newgarden against St. Pete. What's more, team president Tim Cindric, the race-day mastermind behind the team's astonishing success over the past few decades, including the strategy that won the 2023 Indy 500 for Newgarden, will not be at the track this week. still serving an imposed multi-race suspension. by team boss Roger Penske, who also owns the entire IndyCar series as well as the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Awwwwww.
It's been a considerable black eye for the sport all spring. If one of the Penske cars wins on Sunday, it will be interesting to see how the crowd reacts, usually one that loves the Captain and teams with him.
Turn 2: Hey, what's that NASCAR guy doing here?
Kyle Larson, the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion and current series points leader, is actually lapping IMS in an IndyCar and doing well, having qualified in the middle of Row 2 with a four-lap average of 232.846 mph in his McLaren Chevy Arrow. It's a big effort for anyone, but it's the motorsports equivalent of walking on water for someone who's never raced one of these machines before. Ever.
But he hasn't abandoned his day job. The 31-year-old will also display his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy stock car at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The same day as Indy. Oh really.
He seeks to become just the fifth driver to complete the Indy 500/Coca-Cola 600 doubleheader and just the second to complete the 1,100 miles. Drivers on both sides believe he could win one or even both events.
Speaking of walking on water, your biggest problem is probably not logistics or endurance, but the weather. Forecasters are expecting up to an inch and a half of rain, and the heavy stuff from Carl Spackler is expected to arrive just as the green flag is supposed to be waved.
“You can't really react so far,” Larson said Thursday, a great day at the Speedway. “You have a plan and a backup plan and then a backup plan to the backup plan, but in the end, you can't know how to react until you know what to react to. So, honestly, I'm not stressed. Yet.”
For more on everything Larson will face through the eyes of those who have done it before, read this story from earlier in the week, written by a handsome, glasses-wearing ESPN senior writer.
Turn 3: H5lio?
Larson has received coaching help from a living Indy legend, Tony Kanaan, who retired after making his 22nd start in the Indianapolis 500 last year at the age of 48 (he contemplated being on standby to jump in case of Larson to flee to Charlotte, but IndyCar said no). . Meanwhile, his fellow Brazilian with whom he broke into the sport decades ago shows no signs of abandoning it anytime soon.
Helio Castroneves, who turned 49 earlier this month, is set to make his 24th start and will be looking for his fifth victory. In these places, that's not just a big problem: it's the biggest problem. Castroneves won the 500 in his first two attempts, 2001 and 2002, and added a third in 2009. He then surprised the Speedway three years ago by adding a fourth edition of his silver face in the Borg-Warner Trophy, joining the holy triumvirate of Four-time Indy, AJ Foyt, Mears and Unser.
If he wins that fifth prize, it would be Indy's version of breaking the sound barrier, a line long believed to be impassable. He would also become the oldest winner, surpassing Unser, who was less than a week shy of his 48th birthday when he drank the milk in 1987.
So a definitive victory?
“No!” “There's no way I'm going to go like this. If I win five, then I'm going for six. I don't care if I turn 50. I don't feel 50. Do I look 50?”
For the record, it doesn't.
Turn 4: Milk, Silver Faces and 'Back Home in Indiana'
For those who don't know, to truly experience the Indy 500, you have to see much more than the race itself. The Purdue marching band, the flyover of the US Air Force Thunderbirds, the march of hundreds of active duty men and women, the performance of “Taps”, the singing of “God Bless America” and “Back Home Again in Indiana.” There's also the morning-long routine of the sterling silver Borg-Warner Trophy, 5½ feet tall and valued at $3.5 million, making its way around the IMS grounds with a bagpipe band leading the way. The art deco monolith is covered by 110 faces: the winners of the 109 races (there are two pairs of driver and mechanic) and Tony Hulman, former owner of the circuit.
For the people of Indiana, the festivities leading up to the 500 race are as precious as their family holiday rituals. The most frequently asked question about Indy race day traditions: Why does the winner drink a big bottle of milk in the winner's circle?
It all goes back to Louis Meyer, the race's first three-time winner, who loved to drink buttermilk, especially on a sweltering day. After his third victory in 1936, he was photographed sipping a bottle of buttermilk, and in 1956 a very smart American Dairy Association employee in Indiana offered a $300 bonus if the winner of the race drank a little milk That winner, Pat Flaherty, did it. And so have every winner since. Nowadays, they even ask runners ahead of time what type of milk they would prefer if they were the champion, offering them every option, from whole to skim and every percentage in between.
26 drivers select ALL, 5 drivers select 2% and 2 drivers select SKIM in this year's edition. #Indy500 Milk preference survey.
Our two Indiana Dairy Farmer “Milk Presenters” will be ready with all 3 options on ice! #WinnersDrinkMilk // // @I AM S pic.twitter.com/sP5gnrEwfL
— Indiana Dairy Association. (@INDairy) May 21, 2024
The only option that is not on the board? Buttermilk. Go figure.
