Essentially the most iconic a part of profitable the Indianapolis 500 is the milk you get to drink in Victory Lane. The custom started in 1936 when Louis Meyer requested a bottle of buttermilk after profitable the twenty fourth working of the occasion. He was the primary particular person to win three Indy 500s, and Meyer later claimed that he additionally drank milk after his second win in 1933.
Nevertheless, it did not change into an official and everlasting custom till 1956 when dairy executives bought concerned, as they noticed an important promoting alternative. Race winner Pat Flaherty was paid $400 for ingesting the milk.
Since then, each winner has taken a drink of milk after the race, however there may be one exception — when Emerson Fittipaldi infamously drank orange juice in 1993, and it was not well-received.
Within the trendy age, each drink selects their milk beforehand, and will probably be ready for them in case they’re the driving force to cross the end line first within the a hundred and tenth working of the Indy 500 subsequent weekend. Two dairy farmers will be part of them in Victory Lane, with one handing off milk to the profitable driver, and the opposite handing it off to a staff proprietor or one other key member of the staff.
The final 4 winners all selected complete milk, whereas Helio Castroneves is the latest to drink 2% after his record-tying fourth victory in 2021.
Check out everybody’s selections for this yr’s version of the Indy 500:
2026 Indy 500 Milk of Alternative
25 drivers selected complete milk / 7 drivers selected 2% milk / 1 driver selected skim milk
Automotive No. – Driver
Milk of Alternative
Hometown
#2 – Josef Newgarden
Complete Milk
Nashville, Tennessee (USA)
#3 – Scott McLaughlin
Complete Milk
Christchurch, New Zealand
#4 – Caio Collet
Complete Milk
Sao Paulo, Brazil
#5 – Pato O’Ward
2% Milk
Monterrey, Mexico
#06 – Helio Castroneves
2% Milk
Sao Paulo, Brazil
#6 – Nolan Siegel
2% Milk
Palo Alto, California (USA)
#7 – Christian Lundgaard
2% Milk
Hedensted, Denmark
#8 – Kyffin Simpson
Complete Milk
Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands
#9 – Scott Dixon
Complete Milk
Auckland, New Zealand
#10 – Alex Palou
Complete Milk
Barcelona, Spain
#11 – Katherine Legge
Complete Milk
Guildford, England
#12 – David Malukas
Complete Milk
Chicago, Illinois (USA)
#14 – Santino Ferrucci
Complete Milk
Woodbury, Connecticut (USA)
#15 – Graham Rahal
2% Milk
New Albany, Ohio (USA)
#18 – Romain Grosjean
Skim Milk
Geneva, Switzerland
#19 – Dennis Hauger
Complete Milk
Aurskog, Norway
#20 – Alexander Rossi
Complete Milk
Nevada Metropolis, California (USA)
#21 – Christian Rasmussen
Complete Milk
Copenhagen, Denmark
#23 – Conor Daly
Complete Milk
Noblesville, Indiana (USA)
#24 – Jack Harvey
Complete Milk
Bassingham, England
#26 – Will Energy
Complete Milk
Toowoomba, Australia
#27 – Kyle Kirkwood
Complete Milk
Jupiter, Florida (USA)
#28 – Marcus Ericsson
Complete Milk
Kumla, Sweden
#31 – Ryan Hunter-Reay
2% Milk
Fort Lauderdale, Florida (USA)
#33 – Ed Carpenter
Complete Milk
Indianapolis, Indiana (USA)
#45 – Louis Foster
Complete Milk
Odiham, England
#47 – Mick Schumacher
Complete Milk
Gland, Switzerland
#51 – Jacob Abel
Complete Milk
Louisville, Kentucky (USA)
#60 – Felix Rosenqvist
Complete Milk
Varnamo, Sweden
#66 – Marcus Armstrong
Complete Milk
Christchurch, New Zealand
#75 – Takuma Sato
2% Milk
Tokyo, Japan
#76 – Rinus VeeKay
Complete Milk
Hoofddorp, Netherlands
#77 – Sting Ray Robb
Complete Milk
Payette, Idaho (USA)
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