Indy 500 Traditions: Milk, Snake Pit & the Four-Timer Club

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.

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 Snake Pit and Carb Day survival guide has the full breakdown of tickets, gate rules, and what to expect.

The original "Snake Pit" was something different. In the 1970s and 1980s, it was a notorious party zone in the IMS infield where fans would gather with no real organization, no concert stage, and a reputation for being one of the wildest scenes in American sports. Nudity, fighting, and general lawlessness made it the kind of place that ended up in articles about the Indy 500 for the wrong reasons.

The infield was tamed in the 1990s. The Coors Light Snake Pit, the modern sanctioned EDM festival, launched in 2011 as a way to bring back the festival energy in a controlled environment. Today's Snake Pit is 18 and over, ticketed, and as much a part of race day as the green flag itself.

Carb Day

Carb Day is the final practice session for the Indianapolis 500, held on the Friday before race day. The 2026 edition is Friday, May 22.

The name is a holdover. In the days when IndyCars used carburetors instead of fuel injection, the day was when teams "carbureted" their cars for race day, making final adjustments to the fuel mixture. The technology changed long ago. The name stuck.

Modern Carb Day has evolved into a full-day event. Final practice runs from 11 AM to 1 PM. The Oscar Mayer Wienie 500 (a parade of Wienermobiles, in its second year in 2026) follows at 1 PM. The Indy 500 Pit Stop Challenge happens at 2:30 PM, with crews competing head-to-head in a bracket tournament for the fastest stop. The day ends with a concert in Turn 3, headlined by Counting Crows in 2026 with Switchfoot opening.

Carb Day is the unofficial start of race weekend. Locally, it's treated as a holiday. Many Indianapolis-area employers give the day off, and downtown is half-empty as everyone heads to the Speedway.

Legends Day

The Saturday before the race is Legends Day. May 23 in 2026.

Legends Day is the day for tributes. Past champions return to IMS for autograph sessions. The full Indy 500 field of 33 drivers participates in a public autograph session. The Public Drivers' Meeting takes place, where drivers receive their final instructions from race officials before race day. It's the closest thing the Indy 500 has to a meet-and-greet day for fans.

The 2026 edition includes autograph sessions from the entire field plus a separate session featuring Indy 500 veterans. Tickets are reasonably priced and include access to the IMS infield for the day. If you're trying to figure out where to actually sit at IMS, our 2026 IMS seating guide covers every grandstand, Vista, and infield section with current prices.

The Four-Timer Club

Only four drivers in the 110-year history of the Indianapolis 500 have ever won the race four times. The list.

A.J. Foyt (1961, 1964, 1967, 1977). The first to do it. Texas-born, Indiana-adopted. Foyt's win in 1977 was the first by anyone driving an American-made car since 1968. He turned 91 in January 2026 and remains a fixture at IMS during Month of May.

Al Unser Sr. (1970, 1971, 1978, 1987). The patriarch of the Unser racing dynasty. His back-to-back wins in 1970 and 1971 came at the height of a stretch where the Unser family was the dominant force in the sport. His 1987 win, at age 47, made him the oldest Indy 500 winner in history.

Rick Mears (1979, 1984, 1988, 1991). Roger Penske's franchise driver. Mears was famously good in qualifying, with six pole positions including a record four straight from 1988 to 1991. He retired in 1992 with four 500 wins to his name and remains close to the Penske organization to this day.

Hélio Castroneves (2001, 2002, 2009, 2021). The most recent member of the club. Castroneves's fourth win came at age 46 with Meyer Shank Racing, ending a 12-year wait between his third and fourth victories. He famously climbs the catch fence at IMS after wins. He's the only foreign-born member of the four-timer club.

Each four-timer gets a bronze brick installed in front of the Pagoda commemorating their fourth win. The tradition has held since A.J. Foyt's bronze brick was placed after his fourth victory in 1977.

For the full deep dive on the four-time winners, what their wins meant, and the bronze brick tradition, check out our four-time winners feature. For the flip side of Indy 500 history, the most famous near-misses and what's known as the Andretti curse, we have the full story there too.

Other traditions worth knowing

A few more traditions that round out the Indy 500 experience.

The Yard of Bricks. The 36-inch strip of original 1909 bricks at the start/finish line, the only remaining original brick surface at IMS. Winners traditionally kiss the bricks after their victory. The tradition began in 1996 when Dale Jarrett kissed the bricks after winning the Brickyard 400. Indy 500 winners adopted it shortly after.

"Back Home Again in Indiana." The unofficial state song, performed live before the green flag every year. Jim Cornelison has been the regular performer since 2017, taking over from Jim Nabors who held the role for 36 years.

The Borg-Warner Trophy. Five feet, four inches tall. Made of sterling silver. Each Indy 500 winner has their face sculpted onto the trophy. Insured for more than $3.5 million by current estimates.

The pace car parade. The pace car leads the field around the track in formation before the green flag. The 2026 pace car is a Chevrolet Corvette ZR1X driven by IU football coach Curt Cignetti, fresh off Indiana's national championship season. Our ZR1X pace car and Coach Cignetti preview covers the full story.

For terms you'll hear during race week and the broadcast, our Indy 500 racing lingo guide breaks down the language drivers, crews, and announcers use.

Closing

Every sport has traditions. Few have the volume and depth that the Indianapolis 500 carries. The milk. The bricks. The bottle. The four-time winners. The infield concerts. The 35 different rituals that happen on race weekend that don't happen anywhere else in American sports.

The 110th Running of the Indianapolis 500 takes place on Sunday, May 24, 2026, at 12:45 PM ET. For the complete Fox broadcast guide, we have TV times, streaming options, radio coverage, and the full announce team. Subscribe to our newsletter for the rest of our 21 Days to the Bricks coverage as race weekend approaches.