IndyCar Traditions and Superstitions You Didn’t Know Existed

IndyCar Championship 208

Drinking milk after the races, not using the number 13, the 500 Festival: IndyCar is a category in motorsports full of traditions since its first years. Here are a couple traditions and superstitions that you maybe didn’t know even existed explained in one paragraph.

Drinking milk after winning the Indy500: In the Indy500 race in the years 1933 and 1936, the race’s winner Louis Meyer asked the stewards one thing when he stepped out of the car: a cold cup of buttermilk. Rumor has it that his mother told him to drink it on hotter days, so he did it to force of habit. In a couple of years later, milk was replaced by water in the shortages during World War II. In the mid-1950’s, the tradition was revived, with many milk companies sponsoring the event, and, with the American Dairy Association, if you sip milk in the victory lane, you’ll receive a $10,000 award. This tradition is so valued that in 1993, Emerson Fittipaldi opted to drink orange juice after his win, since he owned a citrus farm and wanted to promote his business. Fans didn’t support his decision, so he got booed in subsequent race weekends and fans in Indiana still hold a grudge.

The number 13: It’s common sense between a lot of people that the number 13 means bad luck, and in IndyCar it’s not different. Many drivers believe that racing with this number brings bad luck and poor race results. This belief was enforced in the first Indy 500 when the No. 13 car failed to make a race. Between the years 1926 and 2002, the number was disallowed in the category and, since its return to motorsport, only three drivers have used the number: Greg Ray, E. J. Viso and Danica Patrick. Neither Viso nor Patrick have finished the race.

The Andretti curse: That the Andretti family is sort of a dynasty around the Indianapolis oval, that isn’t news to anyone. The contradiction is that, after Mario Andretti’s win around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1969, any of the other four Andrettis that competed in the race won. According to IndyCar reporter Robin Miller, this curse is the result of a disagreement between Mario and Clint Brawner’s wife. The win in 1959 was behind the wheel of a car owned by Andy Granatelli and Clint Brawner, but, in the following year, they parted ways after feuding over team ownership. Mario Andretti chose Granatelli’s side, and Brawner’s wife, Kay, allegedly set this curse on the Andretti family. Even if it’s only a rumor, it is in fact curious that the Andrettis can’t perform well on the 500 again after Mario has set their dynasty.

Kissing the brickyard: It’s very common to see drivers kissing the brickyard in the Indianapolis Motos Speedway after winning a race there, but how did this start? This tradition actually started in NASCAR, when the category’s driver Dale Jarret and his crew chief, Todd Parrott, kissed the bricks after winning the 1996 Brickyard 400. Ince then, winners of both Brickyard 400 (NASCAR) and Indy 500 (IndyCar) kiss the brickyard in a form of celebration. The tradition was brought to IndyCar in 2003, after Gil de Ferran’s win in the 2003 Indy 500. This also can be seen as a tribute to the track’s history and legacy as one of the most iconic racetracks in America and connecting with its history, the bricks being the only remaining part of the original 1909 surface.

No peanuts before the race: Since the 30s, IndyCar drivers believe that eating peanuts before a race brings bad luck, due to an unfortunate series of events in that time. In that decade, there were many race crashes with fatal and serious injuries, and in most of them, peanut shells could be found in the car or near the accidents. That is a consequence of the vendors selling peanuts where the races took ground, and a lot of crew members would eat them, the shells being blown around, ending up scattered near the garage area or even in the cockpit. With that, the unwritten rule of not eating peanuts in a racetrack was settled in all the American categories in motorsport.

It's very interesting how traditions and superstitions play a very important role in motorsports, always connecting drivers and teams with the past and with their beliefs. There are still many traditions and superstitions that will be created, and to see them, we’ll have to sit back and wait for them to come to life. It’s nice to see that many fans also have their own personal rituals that they believe bring good luck to their favorite team or driver, also connecting them with the sport at a much deeper level.

Written by Kauany Gouveia