The 110th running of the Indianapolis 500 goes green on Sunday, May 24, and for the first time in a while there is a genuine favourite wearing the target. Alex Palou starts from pole and is chasing something only a handful of drivers have ever managed: back-to-back wins at the Brickyard. Thirty-two other cars would quite like to spoil that. Here is the full picture before the field rolls out.
The race in one line
Thirty-three cars, eleven rows of three, two hundred laps around a 2.5-mile oval — five hundred miles of flat-out racing that usually comes down to the final stint. It is the centrepiece of the Memorial Day weekend in the United States and, by most measures, the single-largest one-day sporting event in the world.
How the Indy 500 actually works
The maths is clean: the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is a 2.5-mile rectangular oval, so 200 laps make 500 miles. There are four turns, all roughly the same radius and all close to flat, which sounds gentle but is the opposite — drivers hold the throttle almost wide open the whole way round, trimming the car so finely that a small gust of wind or a tweak in track temperature changes everything.
Qualifying is its own event, run the weekend before the race. Each car runs a four-lap average over ten miles, and the fastest 33 make the field. That is where the grid is set, and it is why pole position at Indy is measured in average speed rather than a single fast lap. On race day the strategy game is fuel and tyres: a typical 500 needs several pit stops, and a perfectly timed yellow flag can win or lose the whole thing in seconds.
The grid: Palou leads them out
Alex Palou claimed pole with a four-lap average of 232.248 mph, edging out Alexander Rossi and David Malukas to lock up the front row. Palou has been the class of the IndyCar field again this season, and carrying that form into Indy qualifying is exactly the kind of statement that makes the rest of the paddock nervous.
Rossi, a former Indy 500 winner himself, lines up second and knows this place as well as anyone on the grid. Malukas completes the front row and represents the younger wave hoping to gatecrash the established order. Behind them sits a deep field of past winners and contenders, because the brutal truth of the 500 is that track position on lap one means very little by lap 180.
Storylines to follow
- Can Palou go back-to-back? As the reigning winner starting from pole, he has the cleanest path on paper. Only a small club of drivers has ever won consecutive Indy 500s, and doing it from the front would put him in rare company.
- The veterans hunting another drink of milk. Indy is unusually kind to experience — knowing how to save fuel, when to commit to a pass, and how to survive the chaos of a late restart matters more here than raw speed. Several former winners are within striking distance of the front.
- Strategy roulette. Fuel windows and caution timing decide more 500s than overtaking does. Watch the teams who gamble on an off-sequence pit stop when the first big yellow flies.
How to watch the 2026 Indy 500
The race is on Sunday, May 24. In the United States, FOX is the broadcast home, with build-up coverage beginning in the late morning Eastern time and the green flag scheduled for the early afternoon — roughly 12:45 p.m. ET after the traditional pre-race ceremonies, command to start engines, and pace laps. Those rituals are part of the show, so tuning in only for the green flag means missing half the theatre.
Wherever you are watching, you can follow the running order, lap counts and timing live on Scorelisto. Keep an eye on today's motorsport fixtures for the latest as the race unfolds.
What makes a great 500
The Indianapolis 500 has a rhythm unlike any other race. The opening stint is fast but cagey, drivers feeling out their cars in traffic. The middle is a long chess match of pit windows and track position. And the final twenty laps — especially if a late caution bunches the field — turn into the highest-stakes restart in motorsport, three-wide at over 220 mph with the milk bottle and the kiss of the bricks waiting for whoever gets it right. Sunday has every ingredient for one of those finishes.
FAQ
Why is it called the 110th running if the race is decades older than 110 years? The first Indy 500 was held in 1911, but the race was not run during parts of both World Wars. The "running" count tracks the number of editions actually held, not the calendar years since the first one.
Why do drivers drink milk in victory lane? It dates back to the 1930s, when winner Louis Meyer drank buttermilk to cool off and a dairy executive saw a marketing opportunity. It stuck, and today each driver in the field lists a milk preference in advance — one of sport's most charming traditions.
What is "kissing the bricks"? A strip of the original brick surface remains at the start/finish line. After winning, drivers and their teams kneel and kiss the bricks — a tradition borrowed from NASCAR in the 1990s that the IndyCar paddock happily adopted.
Where can I follow the result live? Check today's motorsport scores on Scorelisto for live timing, or head back to the Scorelisto blog for more previews and explainers.