109th Indianapolis 500

It’s May and that means only one thing…it is time for the Indianapolis 500. Since 1911, the 500-mile race has been held the Sunday before Memorial Day. This year will mark the fourth time my son, Jack, and I have attended the race. We first attended the Indy 500 in 2012 when we saw Dario Franchitti win for the third time. In 2016, we were in Indianapolis for the historic 100^th running and we saw rookie driver Alexander Rossi shock the racing world with his victory. Last year, we survived the torrential rain to witness Josef Newgarden win his second consecutive Indy 500.

This May, the buzz out of Indianapolis was rookie Robert Shwartzman who stunned everyone by posting the fastest qualifying time (232.790 mph) for the new Italian race team, PREMA Racing. Earning the coveted pole position is a big deal at Indy because you get the preferred inside starting position on the front row as well as the first pit box. The other big news out of the qualifying weekend was that defending race winner, Newgarden, along with his Penske teammate Will Power were sent to the back of the 33-car field for rule violations.

Friday of race weekend is traditional known as “Carb Day” which goes back to when cars had carburetors and teams used this day for final tune-ups. In the modern era, teams have a final two-hour practice session where they can test the race set-up of their cars. Over the past couple of years, the popularity of Carb Day has been growing and this year a new event was added to the Friday schedule: the Wienie 500. Six of the Oscar Myer Wienermobiles raced on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in front of the largest Carb Day crowd on record. The two lap race around the iconic 2.5-mile oval was won by the “Slaw Dog” beating out other wienermobiles like the “Chi Dog”, “New York Dog”, and the “Chili Dog”. Following the Wienie 500, was the annual pit crew competition which was won by Newgarden’s team. Finally, Carb Day 2025 was capped off with a concert featuring Bret Michaels who was the former frontman for Poison.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum was closed last year while undergoing a 17-month, $60.5 million renovation. The museum just re-opened this spring and it is spectacular! Vintage race cars are no longer just lined up in a big gallery, but rather beautifully displayed so they can be properly appreciated. The “Gasoline Alley” gallery showcases the evolution of racing at the speedway with race cars depicted in garages from over the decades. The “Starting Line Experience” places guests on the front row for the start of the Indy 500 in an immersive video presentation. Winning race cars are displayed in the “Winners Gallery” and some of my favorites were Dan Wheldon’s 2011 winner (his last win before his death) and A.J. Foyt’s 1967 winner (his third victory). The Penske Gallery has an incredible collection of race suits, helmets, and race car from Penske Racing that has won the most Indy 500 races (20). The rotating Chip Ganassi Gallery presently has an exhibit dedicated to the “Best of the Best: The Four-time Winners” which celebrates A.J. Foyt, Al Unser, Helio Castroneves. My only complaint about the new IMS Museum is that we didn’t have enough time…we’ll be back next year.

The weather for the 109^th Indianapolis 500 was unseasonable cool this year. The grandstands sold out for the first time since the 100^th running in 2016 and the estimated attendance was well over 350,000 race fans. The festivities Sunday morning began with the march of the Borg-Warner Trophy from the museum to victory lane followed by the Purdue Marching Band marching down the front stretch. Following the singing of “God Bless America”, the Army’s parachute demonstration team, the Golden Knights, made a jump over the speedway which included a giant American flag. Since it is Memorial Day weekend, the 21-gun salute and playing of taps is always a very somber pre-race event. The national anthem was sung this year by gospel singer Natalie Grant and included a fly over by four F-16 fighters from South Dakota Air National Guard. My favorite pre-race event is the singing of “Back Home Again in Indiana” which was sung for decades by Jim Nabors but James Cornelison has taken over the duties and does an excellent job. Following a brief rain delay, Roger Penske gave the command to start engines and the 33-car field roared to life.

As the field took their warm-up laps, they were trailed by two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters to commemorate the U.S. Army’s 250^th Anniversary. Before the green flag even flew, the field was reduced when Scott McLaughlin lost control of his car while weaving to warm up his cold tires. This year’s race was marred by pit road mishaps including a pit fire in the Alexander Rossi pit right in front of us and the pole sitter, Robert Shwartzman, having a mechanical failure which resulted in him hitting a crew member. Throughout the race, two-time winner Takuma Sato was setting the pace and lead 51 of the 200 laps. As the final quarter of the race unfolded, it was really unclear who was going to win with numerous cars in the top ten proving to be contenders. Among the front runners, Alex Palou and Marcus Ericsson seemed to be the class of the field towards the race conclusion. Finally with 14 laps to go, Palou passed Ericsson and never relinquished the lead. It was the first Indianapolis 500 victory for the 28-year-old Spainard and the sixth win for his Ganassi race team.

Once again, we had an awesome time at the Indianapolis 500 and already planning to attend the 110^th running next May.