Why does the Indy 500 winner drink milk? 2025 driver choices

Indianapolis Star

20-05-2025

It all started with a request from a parched driver in Victory Lane.
After Louis Meyer won the 1936 Indianapolis 500 on a particularly warm day, he asked for a glass of buttermilk.
In some subsequent years, the winner received a bottle of milk. In 1956, the dairy industry became involved as a sponsor, and the tradition has stuck.
Though drivers occasionally request buttermilk, it is not an option. In 2019, Brooke Williams, director of communication for the American Dairy Association Indiana, told IndyStar the organization hasn't offered buttermilk as an option since the poll was started in the mid-90s because it's not the drink it was in 1936.
Meyer was drinking milk that was left over from the butter his mother made, according to Williams. That buttermilk was refreshing, rich and creamy. But it no longer exists because dairy products are produced at large plants and the old-fashioned buttermilk is highly perishable.
Modern buttermilk is regular milk with a culture (and sometimes salt for flavor) added to it and, while you can drink it, it has a sour taste and is more often used in cooking.
"(If) we see a driver drink a full glass of buttermilk before the race," Williams said in 2019, "we'll give them some special (consideration). For now, we're keeping it to the three options (of whole, 2% and skim)."
Choice breakdown: 29 go with whole milk, four pick 2% and none pick skim
Marco Andretti, whole
Marcus Armstrong, whole
Ed Carpenter, whole
Helio Castroneves, 2%
Conor Daly, 2%
Devlin DeFrancesco, whole
Scott Dixon, whole
Marcus Ericsson, whole
Santino Ferrucci, whole
Louis Foster, whole
Jack Harvey, whole
Colton Herta, whole
Ryan Hunter-Reay, whole
Callum Ilott, whole
Kyle Kirkwood, whole
Kyle Larson, whole
Christian Lundgaard, whole
David Malukas, whole
Scott McLaughlin, whole
Josef Newgarden, whole
Pato O'Ward, whole
Alex Palou, whole
Will Power, whole
Graham Rahal, 2%
Christian Rasmussen, whole
Sting Ray Robb, whole
Felix Rosenqvist, whole
Alexander Rossi, 2%
Takuma Sato, whole
Robert Shwartzman, whole
Nolan Siegel, whole
Kyffin Simpson, whole