The Indianapolis 500 is more than a race. It's a 115-year-old collection of traditions, rituals, and cultural touchstones that make this one event feel different from any other on the American sporting calendar. Some are 90 years old. Some are barely 30. All of them contribute to why 350,000 people show up every Memorial Day weekend.
Here's a primer on the five most iconic traditions of the Indy 500, what they mean, and where they came from. For the full story of how the race itself evolved from 1911 to today, our Indy 500 history piece traces the 115-year arc.
The bottle of milk
The most photographed moment at the Indianapolis 500 isn't the green flag. It's the winner standing in Victory Lane with a bottle of milk pressed to their lips, milk running down their fire suit, smiling because they just won the biggest race in American open-wheel motorsport.
The tradition started by accident. In 1936, three-time Indy 500 winner Louis Meyer drank a glass of buttermilk in Victory Lane after winning his third 500. He was a regular buttermilk drinker on hot days, a habit his mother had instilled. A photographer captured the moment, the photo ran in newspapers across the country, and the dairy industry took notice.
By the late 1940s, the American Dairy Association of Indiana had partnered with IMS to provide a bottle of milk to every Indy 500 winner. The tradition has been maintained without interruption since 1956, with one notable exception. Emerson Fittipaldi famously drank orange juice instead in 1993, claiming he was a Brazilian orange grower. The crowd booed. He drank milk a moment later. He has never lived it down.
Each driver fills out a milk preference form months before the race (whole, 2%, skim, fat-free, chocolate). The American Dairy Association of Indiana keeps that form, and the right bottle is ready in Victory Lane just in case.
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The Coors Light Snake Pit
The Snake Pit is the modern festival side of the Indy 500. It's an EDM concert that runs in the infield by Turn 3 of IMS while the race itself plays out on the track. More than 20,000 fans attend each year. The 2026 lineup is headlined by Zedd, with Crankdat, Wooli, it's murph, and Wax Motif on the bill. Our