The biggest single-day sporting event in the world is just days away. The 110th Running of the Indianapolis 500 takes place this Sunday, May 24, 2026, at Indianapolis Motor Speedway — and whether you’re a lifelong racing fan or someone who tunes in once a year for the spectacle, this is one race you don’t want to miss.
New broadcast home. A defending champion chasing history. A WNBA superstar giving the most famous command in motorsports. And 33 cars are about to hit 230 mph in front of nearly 350,000 fans. Here is absolutely everything you need to know before the green flag drops.
The Basics: Date, Time, and Location
Race: 110th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge
Date: Sunday, May 24, 2026
Location: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indianapolis, Indiana
Pre-race coverage begins: 10:00 a.m. ET
Green flag: 12:30 p.m. ET
Distance: 500 miles / 200 laps on a 2.5-mile oval
The track itself is a 2.5-mile rectangular oval with straightaways stretching 5/8ths of a mile long, giving drivers extended full-throttle runs that push their cars to speeds well above 230 mph. At 200 laps, the race covers exactly 500 miles, hence the name that has endured for over a century.
Where to Watch the 2026 Indy 500
For the first time in the race’s modern broadcast era, the Indianapolis 500 has a new television home: FOX.
On Cable or Antenna
According to FOX Sports, the full race broadcast will air live on FOX, with pre-race coverage beginning at 10:00 a.m. ET and the race running from 12:30 to approximately 3:30 p.m. ET, followed by a post-race show. If you have a cable package that includes FOX, you’re set. If you have an over-the-air antenna in a strong reception area, you can also catch the race on your local FOX affiliate for free.
Streaming
The race will stream live on FOX One (formerly the FOX Sports App). You can also watch through any of the major live-TV streaming services that carry FOX:
- YouTube TV — Includes FOX, FS1, and FS2
- Hulu + Live TV — Includes FOX and local affiliates
- Sling TV — FOX available in select markets
- FuboTV — Includes FOX, FS1, and FS2
- DirecTV Stream — Choice tier includes FOX and ESPN+
The good news for local Indiana fans: the 2026 Indy 500 will air without a blackout — meaning even fans in the Indianapolis area can watch from home, which was not always the case historically.
TV Broadcast Team: Will Buxton handles play-by-play, with analysts James Hinchcliffe and Townsend Bell — both former Indy car drivers who bring deep insider knowledge to the booth.
The Starting Grid: 33 Cars, One Historic Shot
The 33-car field is set following a dramatic qualifying weekend, and Alex Palou will lead the entire field to the green flag from the pole position.
According to FOX Sports, Palou — driving the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda — posted a four-lap qualifying average of 232.248 mph, earning the pole and becoming the first defending Indy 500 champion to start from pole since Helio Castroneves did it in 2010. Joining him on the front row are Alexander Rossi (No. 20, Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet) and David Malukas (No. 12, Team Penske Chevrolet).
Two drivers — Caio Collet and Jack Harvey — were penalized after post-qualifying technical violations were found on their cars and will start from the back of the 33-car field.
The Drivers to Watch
Alex Palou — The Favorite
Palou is the clear betting favorite and the story of the 2026 IndyCar season. As FOX Sports motorsports insider Bob Pockrass puts it, “Palou is going to be hard to beat. He is hard to beat at every race. At every track.” The 29-year-old Spaniard has already won three of the season’s first six races, leads the championship standings, and now starts from pole. Should he win on Sunday, he would become only the seventh driver in history to win the Indy 500 in back-to-back years — joining an elite list that includes Al Unser Sr., Emerson Fittipaldi, and Helio Castroneves.
Josef Newgarden — The Two-Time Defending Champion (Before Palou)
Newgarden won the race in both 2023 and 2024, making him the most recent back-to-back winner. Beyond the Flag notes that despite questions about Team Penske’s form in recent seasons, Newgarden’s oval-track record is undeniable — he won both Nashville and Phoenix this season and knows how to perform when it counts most at Indianapolis. He starts from well back in the field, meaning he’ll need everything to go right.
Pato O’Ward — The Sentimental Favorite
The Arrow McLaren driver is the fan favorite and the heartbreak story of the modern Indy 500. He has come agonizingly close to winning multiple times, only to see the race slip away in the final laps. Pockrass calls him “the sentimental favorite,” noting that O’Ward grabs his heart, puts it back in his chest, and loves Indianapolis all over again every year. This could finally be his year — or it could be another chapter in one of the sport’s most compelling ongoing sagas.
Alexander Rossi — The Dark Horse
Starting from the outside of Row 1, Rossi is the 2016 Indy 500 champion who has been searching for his second win ever since. Sports Talk Florida notes his qualifying run was a career-best effort at Indianapolis, and the front-row starting position gives him every tactical advantage heading into race day.
Scott Dixon — The Living Legend
The 45-year-old New Zealander is one of the greatest drivers in IndyCar history. A six-time series champion and multiple Indy 500 winner, Dixon is never out of a race at Indianapolis as long as he’s still running in the final laps. Experience and racecraft are his weapons, and he has more of both than anyone in the field.
The Grand Marshal: Caitlin Clark
This year’s Indianapolis 500 has an extra layer of Indiana pride baked into it. Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark has been named the Grand Marshal for the 110th Running — and she will deliver the most iconic command in motorsports: “Drivers, start your engines.”
Clark, the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer and a FIBA World Cup Qualifying Tournament MVP in March 2026, has been a Gainbridge brand ambassador since her senior year at Iowa — and Gainbridge is the presenting sponsor of the Indianapolis 500. The connection is organic, and the reception from Indiana fans is expected to be electric. As Athlon Sports notes, “The Indianapolis 500 is an Indiana tradition through and through, and Clark is now part of that tradition.”
Her pre-race appearance will be broadcast live on FOX starting at 10 a.m. ET.
The Traditions You Need to Know
The Indy 500 isn’t just a race. It’s a century-old ritual, and several of its traditions are worth knowing before you watch.
Drinking the Milk
Since 1936, the winner of the Indianapolis 500 has been handed a bottle of cold milk in Victory Lane. The tradition started when three-time winner Louis Meyer was photographed drinking buttermilk after his victory — it was his preferred post-race refresher. The dairy industry officially sponsored the tradition starting in 1956. Drivers get to choose between whole, 2%, and skim milk ahead of the race, and their choice is announced beforehand — a quirky pre-race storyline that the IndyCar world takes surprisingly seriously.
Kissing the Bricks
The winners of major events at Indianapolis Motor Speedway traditionally kneel down and kiss the “Yard of Bricks” — a three-foot-wide strip of original brick preserved at the start-finish line. The tradition began in 1996 when NASCAR’s Dale Jarrett won the Brickyard 400 and knelt with his crew chief to pay tribute to the speedway’s history. It has been part of the Indy 500 celebration ever since, and watching a driver and their team lower themselves to the start-finish line to kiss the pavement is one of the most genuinely moving moments in motorsport.
“Back Home Again in Indiana”
Jim Nabors — best known as Gomer Pyle from The Andy Griffith Show — sang “Back Home Again in Indiana” as a pre-race tradition at the Indianapolis 500 for decades, becoming one of the most beloved figures in the race’s history. Nabors sang the song at the race 36 times between 1972 and 2014. His tenor voice on that song became as inseparable from the Indy 500 as the roar of the engines. Today, the tradition continues with other performers, but Nabors’ version remains the definitive one in the memories of millions of fans.
The Pace Car
This year’s pace car is the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1X, driven by Indiana Hoosiers football head coach Curt Cignetti. The pace car leads the field through the warm-up laps before peeling off just prior to the green flag — and it’s always a showcase moment for the vehicle manufacturer lucky enough to land the honor.
A Brief History of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing”
The Indianapolis 500 was first run in 1911 — making this year’s race the 110th edition of what is widely considered the world’s most prestigious motorsport event. Indianapolis Motor Speedway opened in 1909 and was originally paved with 3.2 million bricks, earning it the nickname “The Brickyard.” In 1961, the track was resurfaced with asphalt, with the exception of the three-foot Yard of Bricks at the start-finish line that still stands today.
With a permanent seating capacity of over 257,000 and race-day attendance typically approaching 350,000, Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the highest-capacity sports venue in the world. No other sporting event on the planet puts that many human beings in a single location on a single day.
The race has been won by some of the most legendary names in motorsport history — A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, Al Unser, Rick Mears, Helio Castroneves, Danica Patrick (who became the first woman to lead laps at Indy in 2005), and many more. The Borg-Warner Trophy, presented to each year’s winner, has had every champion’s likeness cast in sterling silver on its body since 1935.
This Sunday’s Schedule at a Glance
9:00 a.m. ET — Pre-race ceremonies begin (FOX)
10:00 a.m. ET — Full race day coverage begins (FOX / FOX One streaming)
~12:00 p.m. ET — “Back Home Again in Indiana” performance, driver introductions, Caitlin Clark’s “Drivers, start your engines” command
12:30 p.m. ET — GREEN FLAG
~3:30 p.m. ET — Checkered flag and Victory Lane ceremonies
3:30–4:00 p.m. ET — Post-race show (FOX)
The 2026 Indianapolis 500 has everything you could want from one of sport’s greatest events: a dominant champion chasing back-to-back wins, a sentimental favorite who keeps getting his heart broken, a new broadcast home on FOX bringing the race to new audiences, and Caitlin Clark — Indiana’s biggest sports star — delivering the command that starts it all.
Set your alarm. Clear your Sunday afternoon. And when the green flag drops at 12:30 p.m. ET on FOX, you’ll understand exactly why they call it the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.
