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Drive through the neighborhoods surrounding Indianapolis Motor Speedway and it looks like Christmas in May.
Checkered flags and “Welcome race fans” signs on every block. Neatly trimmed lawns decorated with cutout Indy cars, a mock Borg-Warner Trophy, even an inflatable version of the track’s familiar golden, winged logo.
Yet the “Racing Capital of the World” is eagerly and happily sharing the Memorial Day weekend stage with the Indiana Pacers and the Indiana Fever, two teams straight from the Hoosier State’s lifeblood of basketball.
The Pacers flags and Caitlin Clark jerseys are easy to see all over town, including Gasoline Alley a few steps from the speedway’s famous Brickyard.
Pacers & Racers weekend is in high gear.
“This is an epic weekend, an incredible opportunity to put Indianapolis on the minds of virtually every major sports fan on the planet,” said Chris Gahl, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for Visit Indy. “Our initial research shows no other city in the U.S. has hosted this diverse level of major sporting events in such a short amount of time.”
It may be an anomaly nationally, but Indianapolis is built to thrive in this sort of spotlight.
The city has hosted the Super Bowl, two NBA All-Star Games, multiple international and national championships and, of course, now the 109th running of the Indianapolis 500. And through every virtually twist — even an NCAA men’s basketball tournament held entirely in and around Indy — the reviews have come back with races.
The lineup
On Saturday afternoon, Clark and the Fever host the defending WNBA champion New York Liberty in front of a sellout crowd early in a season with title hopes for a team boasting perhaps the biggest star in the league. An estimated 350,000 race fans are expected for Sunday’s midday Indy 500 race, including the first sold-out grandstands since 2016. The weekend will be capped Sunday night when the Pacers host the New York Knicks for Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
It’s the fourth time an NBA game has converged with race day, and the Pacers lost each of the first three — to the Knicks in 1999, to the Pistons in 2004 and to the Heat in 2013. They went on to lose all three series, too.
The off-court, off-track stories such as the Team Penske cheating scandal, the WNBA investigation into alleged racial comments directed at Angel Reese after a Fever game and the call for international peace from Israeli-born, Russian-raised pole winner Robert Schwarzman have played into the buildup. Even the Oscar Mayer Wienermobiles came to town Friday.
In a state where the greatest athletic feats often have been defined by auto racing or basketball, this weekend seems like a fitting marriage even to locals. Just ask IndyCar team owner-driver Ed Carpenter, a longtime Pacers fan and the stepson of former speedway president and CEO Tony George.
“I think it celebrates the city, the people that live here and the fans that make the pilgrimage to the race,” he said. “(Having the other events) just makes it that much more special.”
Carpenter hopes to attend Sunday night’s game — even if he wins the 500 — and now finds himself surrounded in Gasoline Alley by a growing legion of crossover fans
Six-time IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon and three-time 500 winner Dario Franchitti attended Game 3 of the Indiana-Cleveland series. Former IndyCar driver and broadcaster James Hinchcliffe was there for Game 2 and the triumvirate of Kyle Kirkwood, Colton Herta and Marcus Ericsson went to Game 2 of the Indiana-Milwaukee series. Scott McLaughlin, a Knicks fans, has a wager on the series with Carpenter and may attend Sunday’s game if he’s not drinking the milk in victory lane.
“How’d that go?” fellow driver Alexander Rossi asked after the Pacers’ thrilling Game 1 victory on Wednesday.
“Real bad, we lost the unloseable,” McLaughlin said. “We had a good wager. I have to buy the equivalent — if the Pacers win in six games — if they win in seven, the bet is off, or I win — I have to buy the equivalent up to 2500 bucks of his (coffee/java).”
Red carpet treatment
The red carpet isn’t just being rolled out for the Pacers and the racers. Film director Spike Lee is expected to be in his familiar spot inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse while his old foil, Reggie Miller, calls the game for TNT. It’s unclear how many big wigs from the race will make the 15-minute drive (in good traffic) to the arena for the game. Two tickets to each event would cost you nearly $4,000.
Kyle Larson, who is making his second attempt at a different kind of race day double — completing 500 miles at Indianapolis and 600 more in Charlotte’s NASCAR nightcap — already has made that trip. He went to the Fever game Tuesday night.
“Outside the car, it’s been crazier this year logistics-wise,” Larson said. “Going to New York and having a full day of media there and then flying back here. Going to the Fever game was fun.”
The interest and intrigue goes the other way, too.
Three years ago, Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton made his IndyCar debut in a two-seater with Mario Andretti. Last weekend, Fever coach Stephanie White, an Indiana native, returned to the track while Fever center Aliyah Boston, the 2023 WNBA Rookie of the Year, got her first glimpse at the historic and vast 2.5-mile oval.
“Being on the track and kind of seeing how fast all the cars go, and to meet Colton was pretty dope,” Boston said. “The track is huge. Colton told us how many things could fit in the track and that’s insane. You don’t understand how big it is till you’re there.”
Bottom line
Gahl said hotels are virtually sold out in Central Indiana and everywhere from Lafayette to Bloomington, roughly one-hour drives from Indy; downtown, the average cost is about $550 per night with a three-night minimum and restaurant reservations are scarce. Local merchandisers are capitalizing, too, selling blue-and-gold shirts that read “Zoom Baby,” a play off the late Bob “Slick” Leonard’s radio calls of “Boom Baby” for Pacers’ 3-pointers.
In the midst of so much going on in a 36-hour window, the Pacers, racers and the Fever are all following the same playbook: Ignore the distractions and celebrate this incredible weekend.
“You’ve got to enjoy the moment, let the excitement and pressure go, focus on the task at hand right in front of you,” Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard said. “It should be exciting and fun.”
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