Sunday 25 May 2025
What a day.
No matter what, the Indianapolis 500 delivers in spades, and the 109th running of the famed speed classic, though somewhat weather-delayed and stacked with some random events, was brilliant. At the end of it all, two hundred laps and eight hundred left-hand turns, Spain’s Alex Palou achieved racing immorality, and became the first from his country to win the 500. Spain is the fourteenth different nation to produce a driver who has gone to victory lane at Indianapolis.
We arrived at the track quite early, before 9:30am. We parked in a nearby supermarket parking lot and walked a little over a mile and a half to the north entrance of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I enjoy the walk in, with people everywhere bubbling with excitement about what’s to come, and there’s some spectacular people-watching as well!
It’s always better to be in early than late. You can get some food and drink and have a walk around if you want before pre-race ceremonies begin at around noon. It seems like a long time to be on the property, but there’s plenty going on to keep you entertained. And anyway, I can’t imagine how bad traffic and the entry must be an hour or so from the green flag.
The stands around us in turn three really fill up and fill in around ninety minutes before the race starts. All the pre-race ceremonies went off without a hitch – including a couple of Army helicopters shadowing the field on their pace laps, which is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen – and it wasn’t until literally a handful of minutes before the command to start engines that a light rain began to fall.
According to my Weather Channel app, it was about sixteen degrees Celsius, the coldest Indianapolis 500 since at least 2003. The coldest ever was 14.4 Celsius in 1992, so we were close. My new windproof jacket really came in handy today! I would have been miserable without it.
All told, the delay was about forty-five minutes. On the final pace lap before getting the green, New Zealand’s Scott McLaughlin crashed whilst trying to warm his tyres. Then there was an accident in the first turn when they finally went racing, bringing out another yellow flag. McLaughlin was in tears when he got out of his car; he was considered a strong favourite by many experts.
What else? Drivers running into their crews during pit stops, fires in pit lane, unlikely leaders, some enormous but thankfully not serious accidents, including one on the last lap. There’s a train of thought that races in years ending with 5 are weird, and 2025 didn’t do much to buck that trend.
There was a pass for the lead fourteen laps from the finish. Palou, the championship leader, hadn’t let at all until that point, and he held on despite being dogged by Sweden’s Marcus Ericsson all the way home. It was a tense and exciting duel between two very good drivers.
Parking more than a mile from the Speedway was a brilliant idea, as we walked past most of the traffic stalled in the narrow neighbourhood streets around the track, and were back in Carmel only just over an hour after leaving the track. A long day outside, but a very good one.
We hung out by the pool at the Myrehn’s house as the sun set, then headed back to our Airbnb. There was an abortive beer run, during which we discovered that alcohol isn’t sold in Indiana after 8pm on a Sunday. We took a few group photos as we’re all headed in different directions tomorrow morning, and I’m officially exhausted.
And so, another brilliant Indianapolis 500 race week is in the books, one filled with great people, great food and, of course, great racing. No wonder I can’t stop coming back! The only thing I don’t like is that it seems to fly by so quickly. Already looking forward to May of 2026.
Off to Chicago tomorrow.
kitchtrips 