Final practice, air demonstrations and music acts round out schedule Friday, May 24 at IMS. Read More>
Two departure times provide more flexibility for fans who want to commute to the track on their bike on Race Day. Read More>
This partnership represents the first time a major athlete's sponsorship has been decided by a vote using blockchain technology. Read More>
View images from the shortened first day of the Indianapolis 500 Open test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. View Photos>
View images from the once-in-a-lifetime Total Solar Eclipse event at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. View Photos>
Josef Newgarden unveils the 2024 Indianapolis 500 Ticket View Photos>
On this episode of Doug and Drivers, 2022 Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson sits down with Doug Boles to talk about the pain of coming so close to scoring back-to-back wins, how he wanted to compete on ovals after his Formula 1 career and the transition to Andretti Global. Watch Video>
Why does Scott McLaughlin move his hands around so much in the car? What "button" is he pushing? What's the pressure of the iconic Yellow Submarine like? We cover that and so much more with Scott McLaughlin on the latest Doug and Drivers. Watch Video>
On this episode of Behind the Bricks, IMS President Doug Boles truly goes behind the bricks of the IMS Museum and checks in on the renovation progress. He also gets an exclusive look at the vision of the refreshed Museum, which opens a year from this week. The Museum is a separate entity from IMS and is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. Consider supporting the Museum by visiting imsmuseum.org Watch Video>
July 10, 2012 | By Paul Kelly
Danica Patrick turned laps around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in a race car Tuesday, July 10 for the first time in more than a year, but this time she had a special passenger. Patrick drove around the famous 2.5-mile oval in a two-seater version of her No. 7 GoDaddy.com/NASCAR Unites “An American Salute” Chevrolet, with iconic television personality Katie Couric in the passenger seat. She also gave Couric a tour of IMS. Both activities were part of a shoot for Couric's upcoming syndicated daytime talk show, which premiers Sept. 10.
The laps also served as a fun warm-up for Patrick’s official return to the Brickyard when she makes her IMS stock-car debut in the Indiana 250 NASCAR Nationwide Series race Saturday, July 28 during the Kroger Super Weekend at the Brickyard. “It feels really good to be at the track,” Patrick said. “I enjoyed the laps that I made out there. I really, really enjoyed coming out of Turn 4 and coming down the front straightaway and seeing everything again.” Patrick last raced at IMS in the 2011 Indianapolis 500, in which she finished 10th. It was one of her six top-10 results in seven starts in “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” since 2005, when she earned Chase Rookie of the Year honors and captured worldwide attention after an electrifying fourth-place finish. After dabbling in the Nationwide Series last year, Patrick made a full-time switch to NASCAR in 2012. She is running the full Nationwide season for JR Motorsports and is participating in a partial Sprint Cup Series season for Stewart-Haas Racing, with plans for a full-time Cup schedule in 2013. Patrick is excited for the transition to stock-car racing at Indy. She is ninth in the Nationwide Series standings, with one top-10 finish for a team owned by Sprint Cup superstar Dale Earnhardt Jr. “Obviously, I’m going to be a few inches or feet higher up in the seat from a visual perspective in a stock car, but nothing is going to feel better than to get back out there again,” Patrick said. “I fell right into place. I feel so comfortable here and I have such a great emotion just coming into the track that I feel like that helps me overall be better because I feel so good and I feel so positive. “It’s good to be back here. I didn’t think my first laps in a stock car around here would be a school stock car, but I thought it was a good lead-in to a couple of weeks from now when we’re actually here for the real deal.” But Tuesday was all about fun. Patrick and Couric met and struck up a friendship during a ride of a lifetime for Couric. “I was very, very, very, very, very quiet,” Couric said of her initial reaction to the speed and roar of a stock car from the passenger seat. “I was nervous at first, but I had a lot of fun. “I’m a huge fan of Danica’s and have watched her career for many years now, and it was fun for me to get to spend some time with her and learn a little more about what makes her tick and about some of the choices she’s made and things she’s done in her life. I’m very impressed.”