Some things are baked into you. And like many native hoosiers, I was born into the tradition of the Indianapolis 500.
Every Memorial Day weekend, more than 300,000 people pour into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) for the largest single-day sporting event in the world. A cannon is set off at sunrise to signal the start of race day as people pack their cars and begin the slow crawl through traffic to the speedway. Similar to basketball, it’s almost like a religion in Indiana — a yearly pilgrimage to the famed brickyard to get our ears blown off by engines roaring near 200 mph.
During the month of May, the phrase, “you going to the race?” is just an everyday question across the state, race fan or not. Actually a grand majority of the Indy 500 lovers I know don’t even follow the sport the rest of the season, it’s all about the one day and everything it holds.
