Milk Choices for the 101st Indy 500

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor

As legend has it 1936 Indy 500 winner Louis Meyer pulled into Victory Lane after a particularly hot race and asked for a cold bottle of buttermilk. After seeing the bottle of milk in Meyer’s hand in a newspaper photo the next day, an unknown Milk Foundation executive made it his mission to make victory milk a tradition.

It caught on for a few years, but then fell out of fashion. The tradition was brought back for the 1956 race and it has held strong for the last 60 years. The American Dairy Association Indiana (ADAI) have been the keepers of the flame ever since.

Each year the 33 participating drivers are given their choice of milk to drink should they win the race, with three options hand: whole, 2 percent, and fat free. Flavors such as chocolate or strawberry are not allowed, but should a lactose intolerant driver win, the ADAI says they will bring a lactose free bottle.

Below are the driver’s choices for tomorrow’s big race.

Whole Milk: Marco Andretti, Ed Carpenter, Gabby Chaves, Max Chilton, James Davison, Jack Harvey, James Hinchcliffe, Ed Jones, Buddy Lazier, Juan Pablo Montoya, Carloz Munoz, Josef Newgarden, Simon Pagenaud, Spencer Pigot, Will Power, Graham Rahal, Sebastian Saavedra, Oriol Servia

2% milk: Fernando Alonso, Mikhail Aleshin, Helio Castroneves, Conor Daly, Scott Dixon, JR Hildebrand, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Tony Kanaan, Sage Karam, Alexander Rossi, Takuma Sato, Zach Veach

Fat Free Milk: Jay Howard, Charlie Kimball, Pippa Mann