Bring on the Milk

As we get closer and closer each and every day to the 100th running of the Indy 500, more great news comes on the planning of this great race. I really like this one and think its so cool and will be amazing to see.

100,000 fans will get the chance to share the toast at the end of the race this May 29th along with the race winner with this exciting news from IMS and Prairie Farms.

Drinking milk has been one of those special traditions in Victory Circle after wining the 500 and this year there will be in excess of a 100,000 strong toast and people drinking milk.

On race day 100,000 16oz pints of Prairie Farms milk will be distributed to spectators arriving in the grandstand sections along the main straight. Come post race the crowd will be asked to share the toast and "drink the milk" along with the race winner. Creating something very special indeed and an ever lasting photo of the 100th.

These pints of milk will be branded just for the event and will also be available in selected retailers around the city as well so even if you are not sitting there there is the chance to get a great take home item to mark the 100th running of the Indy 500.

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The tradition of drinking milk following a race victory dates back to 1936 with the three time champion Louis Meyer. He regularly drank buttermilk to refresh himself on a hot day and happened to drink some in Victory Circle as a matter of normal habit. 

An executive with the then Milk Foundation was so elated by the is when he saw it the following morning in the news paper he vowed to make sure it would carry on in the coming years and that's exactly what has happened.

Yet another great Indy 500 fact.
Read more on this in my new book out soon Mystique of Indy: Inside the Brickyard and check out My Indy 500 travel tips book out now on Amazon.


                                                                   Above photo

Race winner in 2008 New Zealander Scott Dixon drinks the milk in Victory Circle. 

Photo from the David Turner collection