Bruce Martin
Special at Foxsports.com
INDIANAPOLIS — The 109th Indianapolis 500 will be contested in front of a sold-out crowd of 350,000 fans, Indianapolis Motor Speedway officials announced Friday morning.
That means that the central Indiana TV blackout has been lifted and the first Indianapolis 500 televised on Fox Sports will be rerun on WXIN’s FOX59 later that night.
“To have a sellout represents this beautiful thing that we are now making so much effort from IndyCar, Fox Sports and those pushing the sport in the right direction,” Chip Ganasi, owner of the IndyCar team, told Fox Sports. “We defeated Pensuke’s contract, finished the Fox’s contract, sold out the race. Now let’s go back to the massive crowd here for Paul Day.
“These are the ‘good old days’ we are in today. ”
According to the president of IMS and INDYCAR’s Doug Boles, tickets for just a few hundred reserved grandstands are still available and will be available for sale by the end of the Indy 500 qualifiers this weekend.
This is the first sold out of the Indianapolis 500 since his 100th run in 2016. The local power outage was lifted that year.
In 2024, a severe storm caused the Indy 500 to start four hours. The local TV blackout was lifted to accommodate a large crowd in case the race had to leave and miss due to a long delay.
“I’m really excited to say that in the next few hours, the 109th running Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge will be selling out in the grandstand,” Boles announced. “We’re under four digits in terms of what remains. We wanted to put this announcement out now. Fans thinking about coming took hours to get it done.
“I think it will definitely be done before we reach the end of practice on Monday. Swe wanted to tell people this was going to sell out of the Indianapolis 500.
Sunday is a huge sports day in Indianapolis, marking the world’s largest one-day sporting event at the Indianapolis 500, followed by the Indiana Pacers in Game 3 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals held at Gainbridge Field House in downtown Indianapolis.
By lifting up the TV blackout, fans don’t have to choose between reruns of the Indy 500 and a pacer game. For fans who have participated in the Indy 500 in person, they will have the opportunity to watch Fox Sports TV broadcast late Sunday nights.
“The Pacers are playing in town that night, but for many fans here for the race, the tradition when they get home is to see the Indianapolis 500,” Boles said. “I am sure a lot of people are trying to find a way to bounce back between the pacer games, and I hope this is a victory.
“We are really excited about it, and we will have a good time in the next few days.
“But for the first time since 2016, the grandstand has sold out.”
Sold out all grandstand seats, allowing fans to take part in a general admission ticket to the massive Indianapolis Motor Speedway infield.
“Many of the people who buy GA tickets are those who come to the snake pit. Many of the younger generations will buy tickets here during the next week, so we will continue to sell GA tickets,” explained Boles. “But we are very excited about nearly 350,000 people here on race day.
“We will be Indiana’s second largest city on the racecourse on May 25th. We’re really excited about it.”
Boles showed that most of the remaining tickets were at the northern end of the track between turns 3 and 4.
“The pass to last year’s victory in the Indianapolis 500 happened in front of those seats and there was a lot of activity,” Boles said. “You can think of Emerson Fittipaldi Al Answer, Jr. Moment [in 1989] Go back there. It was one of the most exciting turns at the racecourse, and certainly many people who saw Patoward coming out of Turn 2 didn’t know who the backstretch would be. And the people on Turn 3 and North Shoot knew who would win, as they saw a pass in front of them. ”
There are also single tickets throughout the huge grandstand.
In 2016, the Indianapolis 500 was a milestone moment celebrating the 100th running of the world’s biggest race. Sold out this year is another indication that the Indy 500 is returning to Goliath’s status as one of the most incredible sporting events on the planet.
“It’s been very exciting as a driver to perform on that stage and I’m very pleased with Roger Pensuke,” 2024 Indy 500 pole winner Scott McLaughlin told Fox Sports, referring to the owners of Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Team Pensuke. “Every time I come back here, this place looks even better.
“That’s great.”
Josef Newgarden is chasing history as team Penske drivers are about to win the Indy 500 for the third year in a row. This has not been achieved yet.
“It’s an incredible historic facility and an incredible event. Tele doesn’t look like it on Earth,” Newgarden said. “What I call the revival of the IndyCar and the Indianapolis 500 was a real joy to be in this generation.
“This is one of the best generations in IndyCar’s history. It’s pretty impressive. I like how Indycar exists at the moment. We’re really heading in the right direction.
“When you see this event in person, it’s difficult to beat it. I want everyone to feel the magic.”
Bruce Martin is a veteran motorsport writer and contributor to foxsports.com. Follow him with X @brucemartin_500.
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