350,000 for the Indy 500: First Sellout in a Decade

With an expected audience of 350,000 for the 109th running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 25th, Indianapolis Motor Speedway officials have declared the race to be a sellout, the first time since the historic 100th anniversary of the race in 2015. Some tickets remain, but so few that all are expected to be sold by Monday. The race itself has typically been televised in the Indianapolis market on a tape delay, but it will be shown live this year in that market.

Wait, IndyCar fans might be saying: The Speedway has 350,000 seats? Good question. They don’t, but the grandstands can hold a still-enormous 232,000 people. Add in another 20,000 who will be watching in suites, another 12,000 who are employees on race day, fans who will watch from the infield, the Fox TV crew, team employees in the garages and on pit lane, and “You can see how quickly we get to that 350,000 number,” said Doug Boles, president of both the Speedway and the IndyCar series, at a press conference today.

In tandem with this historic update, event organizers have also lifted the local broadcast delay of the race. Expanded coverage of the first Indy 500 to air on FOX starts on Sunday, May 25 at 10 a.m. ET across the country, including Indianapolis, with the green flag set for approximately 12:45 p.m. ET.

Penske Entertainment President and CEO Mark Miles proclaimed that this is a “terrific showcase for the IndyCar series and a great milestone to supercharge our relationship with Fox Sports. It is also absolutely a fitting tribute to the continued leadership and investment of Roger Penske.” This is the first year of a multi-year contract with Fox, and Roger Penske is the owner of both the track and the series. Billionaire Penske, 88, is expected to be on his usual perch for IndyCar races, on top of a pit box helping with strategy for his three-car team, which includes Josef Newgarden, who is hoping to do something never before done in the Indy 500, and that’s win three of them in a row.

“I love living here for three weeks. I almost wish it was longer,” Newgarden said. “It’s definitely one of my favorite times of the year, if not the favorite. It just gets better when you win it. We have an opportunity to make history, which would be tremendous.”

This year, there are multiple solid story lines to follow between now and the race, one of them being NASCAR Cup driver, and past champion, Kyle Larson, who will attempt for the second year in a row to be the first driver since Tony Stewart, in 2001, to complete all 500 miles of the Indy 500, and all 600 miles of the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Larson tried it last year, but a rain delay at the 500 had him board the private jet to North Carolina too late to race in the 600. Like last year, he’s driving for Arrow McLaren at Indy and for Rick Hendrick’s NASCAR team at Charlotte.

The rain delay that made Larson miss the 600 last year meant that he earned no season points for that day; this year, Hendrick has made it clear that Larson will be at the 600, even if it means getting yanked out of the IndyCar mid-race. Should that happen, and likely only would with another rain delay, Indy winner Tony Kanaan will be standing by.

In practice for the 500, there had been no serious crashes, and only one minor one, until today, when Chip Ganassi Racing driver Kyffin Simpson crashed hard into the turn 4 outside wall, getting airborne and very nearly flipping before landing upright, and sliding down into the inside wall. Simpson was shaken but uninjured, but the car suffered a lot of damage, meaning Ganassi Racing must get the backup car ready for qualifying on Saturday and Sunday.

Another storyline to watch is another attempt by Helio Castroneves to win his fifth Indy 500, which has never been done. Castroneves, who is semi-retired from racing, will be in the Meyer Shank Racing car, run by the team that gave Castroneves his last victory at the Speedway.

More things to watch: Can anyone stop Alex Palou? The Spaniard has won four of the five IndyCar races so far this year, with his only loss coming at Long Beach to Kyle Kirkwood. Also, Pato O’Ward, who drives for Arrow McLaren, was leading last year’s race until the very last lap, when Newgarden seemed to come from nowhere to pass him. The TV coverage caught a devastated O’Ward on pit road after the race, and his fans think Indy owes him one.

And finally, 33 cars will start the Indianapolis 500, not 34, as a reporter who asked Boles whether or not the track will make an exception, as it has before, and let all 34 cars entered this year in the race. Absolutely not, Boles replied, “Not as long as I’m the president here.” So one car will go home after this weekend, and as Boles pointed out, some very big names over the years have failed to make the race.

Saturday, televised coverage from the track will begin at 9:30 a.m. on Fox Sports 1, with coverage throughout the day shifting to Fox Sports 2 at 1:30, and then at 4 p.m., to the Fox network. Sunday, coverage will air on the Fox network from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. As mentioned, coverage of the race on May 25th will begin on Fox at 10 a.m. ET, with the green flag scheduled for 12:45 p.m. Fans who want to watch Larson’s performance at the NASCAR race in Charlotte will need Amazon Prime, which will televise the next five NASCAR races.