Indianapolis 500 Traditions - Post-race

Post-race

• A long-standing tradition of the Indianapolis 500 is for the victor to drink a bottle of milk immediately after the race. This practice first began in 1936 after Victor Louis Meyer asked for a glass of buttermilk, something his mother had encouraged him to drink on hot days. By 1956, it became a ritual as milk companies became sponsors of the race purse and handed a bottle of milk to the winner to promote their product. A sponsorship of currently $10,000 now paid out by the American Dairy Association if the winner sips the milk in victory lane. In 1993, Emerson Fittipaldi drank orange juice instead of milk after his victory. Later he took a sip of milk. Fittipaldi owned citrus farms in Brazil, and wished to promote his industry. As a result, he was booed in driver's introductions the following week by the crowd in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the heart of "America's Dairyland."
• A bas-relief sculpture of the winner's face, along with his name, average speed, and date of victory is added to the Borg-Warner Trophy. The trophy has been in use since 1936. A smaller replica of this trophy has been officially presented to the winner after the race since 1988 and team principal since 1997, usually in a January press conference at the Speedway, except for the 2011 race because of extenuating circumstances (the winning driver had died in a crash at an aborted INDYCAR race; the winning team principal and the driver's widow were presented at the North American International Auto Show the ensuing January). Prior to that, winners received a replica mounted on a chestnut plaque.
• The winner has been awarded one of the pace cars, or a replica, almost every year since 1936. In 1941, there were only six copies of the special Chrysler Newport Phaeton, and no production models created. The co-winners did not receive it. In 1946, an oil painting and a trip to Italy was substituted as the award, but winner George Robson died in a motor sports accident before he received it. In 1991, the Dodge Viper was still a prototype vehicle, and only two were in existence. Winner Rick Mears was awarded instead a Dodge Stealth, which was to be the original pace car but after protests by the UAW (because the Stealth was a captive import built by Mitsubishi in Japan), they were instead used at the track for festival cars.
• The tradition of the winning driver and crew kissing the yard of bricks that mark the start/finish, started by Dale Jarrett at the 1996 Brickyard 400, appears to have carried over to the Indy 500, starting with Gil de Ferran in 2003.
• Among the numerous awards presented to the winner is the traditional Winner's Quilt. Since 1976, Jeanetta Holder has hand-crafted a special quilt blanket for the winner, which features an Indy-related design. She presents the quilt to the winning driver the morning after the race, during the traditional winner's photo shoot.
• For many years, the results of the race were considered unofficial until the following day. After the race, the sanctioning body, namely USAC, would review the scoring records, as well as video tapes and film, prior to releasing the official results. It was not unusual for the vetting process to go late into the evening, past midnight, and into the early hours of the morning. Traditionally, the official results would be posted at 8 a.m. local time the morning after the race. Revisions were not unusual, as assessed penalties and scoring corrections would be part of the official standings. A brief protest period would open for the teams to voice complaints, and if there were no protests, the official results would stand. The most famous instance of protest occurred in 1981. Starting in 1990, a new electronic scoring system was implemented, simplifying the scoring process. In that year, officials compiled the official standings very early in the evening, but still released them at 8 a.m. the next day. By 1993, the rules were amended such that the official standings would be released approximately six hours following the conclusion of the race (rather than the next morning). This was largely due to the fact that computer and GPS-based scoring systems had automated the process, and errors were almost non-existent outside of manually-assessed penalties.