Coach Cignetti to Drive Pace Car at Indianapolis 500

Indianapolis 500 To Honor Hoosier National Champions

It's been quite the year for Hoosier faithful, as the Indiana Hoosier football team accomplished the unbelievable by going undefeated and bringing home the national championship trophy. Let's not forget that Fernando Mendoza also brought home the elusive Heisman Trophy, as well as a slew of other awards. Do I need to list the accolades Coach Cignetti now boasts? The degree of Coach Cignetti's coolness will now include an incredibly rare experience, driving the pace car at the Indianapolis 500. According to IndyCar reports, this year's race will be laced in Cream and Crimson to honor the Hoosier National Champions, but those details are currently being held under lock and key. This year's race will take place on Sunday, May 24, with coverage on FOX beginning at 10 am EST.

History And Hallmarks Of The Indianapolis 500

The 2026 race will be the 110th running of the historic Indianapolis 500. Since 1911, motor racing fans across the world have gathered in our state's capital to watch 33 cars line up in rows of three and give it their all for 200 laps around Indianapolis Motor Speedway (that's 500 miles for the nerds like me who are wondering). Typically, this takes around three hours for the race to complete, start to finish. However, the longest race on record happened in 2004. Due to rain delays, the race took eight hours and 22 minutes to complete. Generally, the speedway hosts an average of 300,000 people on race day. Over the years, a total of ten women have started the race, yet we still await the first female winner. The only times the race hasn't been held were 1917-1918 and 1942-1945, due to the First and Second World Wars. Needless to say, the race is one of Indiana's most historic and revered events in the state's history.

Why Do Winners Chug Milk And Kiss The Bricks At The Indianapolis 500?

What about the weird milk chugging tradition and kissing the bricks? Believe it or not, the kissing of the bricks actually started during a NASCAR race. In 1996, driver Dale Jarrett kissed the bricks at the start-finish line to honor the track's history. Needless to say, the action was very popular and has stuck around ever since. The track was originally developed with 3.2 million paving bricks, in turn leaving a 36-inch spread at the start/finish line. The milk thing was started in 1936 by Louis Meyer, who chose to drink buttermilk after winning the race for the third time (the first driver to ever accomplish this). There are a lot of fascinating details surrounding the milk chugging, the timeframe in which this was switched out for water, and how they got back to milk, and why every winner chugs it now. For more on these details, check out the video below.