A man has just driven five hundred miles in a circle at speeds that crest 230 miles an hour, strapped into a carbon-fiber missile that costs more than your house, in front of three hundred thousand people who have been drinking since dawn. He is soaked. His ears are ringing. His heart is doing something his cardiologist would not approve of.

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And before the trophy, before the check, before he kisses the bricks, somebody hands him a glass bottle of cold milk.

Cold, white, served in a glass like it’s 1955.

He tips it back like a six-year-old who just finished mowing an imaginary lawn, lets it run white down his chin, and then dumps the rest over his own head. Whole, probably.

I need you to sit with how strange this is.

In 1936, a driver named Louis Meyer won his third 500 and asked for a glass of buttermilk, because his mother swore there was nothing better on a hot day. Mothers are like that. A photographer caught him gulping it down. A dairy executive saw the picture, smelled an opportunity the way dairy executives apparently do, and offered to put a bottle in the winner’s hands every year after.

That’s the whole origin of the most sacred ritual in American motorsport. A guy was thirsty, and his mom had opinions.

It got serious, the way these things do. Today, before the race, every driver fills out a card declaring a preference: whole, two percent, or fat-free. The American Dairy Association of Indiana keeps it on file like a sommelier’s note. Somewhere in Indianapolis sits a refrigerated cooler holding thirty-three little glass bottles, one for every car on the grid, each labeled, each a small act of faith that its driver might be the one to drink it. Thirty-two of them go home untouched. It’s the only prize at the Speedway you can’t earn ahead of time.

You want to know how much it matters? Ask Emerson Fittipaldi.

In 1993, Fittipaldi won, climbed out, and, being the proud owner of a Brazilian orange grove, reached for orange juice instead. He took a long, deliberate, businesslike sip of OJ on national television, in the cathedral of milk. He had broken no rule. The orange juice was arguably the smarter drink. And none of it saved him, because he had treated the milk as a beverage, and the milk stopped being a beverage in 1936.

They booed him. Hard.

Here is a sport that worships the future. Everything about the Indianapolis 500 is built to chase it: aerodynamics shaved by the millimeter, telemetry by the terabyte, the relentless forward lean of a machine engineered to beat the version of itself that ran last year. And at the climax of the whole spectacle, at the highest moment of triumph, the fastest people on earth reach for the most wholesome, least cool, most grandmotherly thing imaginable.

That’s the secret about rituals. They were never supposed to make sense. A ritual is a thing we agree to keep doing until it starts to mean something, and then keep doing because it does.

Every family has one. The dish nobody actually likes, but no holiday survives without. The toast in a language that half the table can’t speak. Milk is what Indianapolis built instead. It looks ridiculous to the tourist and means the world to the people inside the fence. You drink it because the champions before you drank it, and because someday a kid who isn’t born yet will drink it and think of you.

So when the fastest man alive lifts that bottle, he’s swallowing ninety years of it. Louis Meyer is in there. So is his mother. So is every winner who tipped the same cold glass to the same blinding Indiana sky.

The fastest men in the world spend their whole lives chasing the future.

And the moment they finally catch it, they taste history.

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She’ll start the Indianapolis 500 at noon. Race 500 miles around the two-and-a-half-mile oval. Board a private jet to Charlotte. Take the green flag at the Coca-Cola 600 that evening. One thousand, one hundred miles. Two races. One day.

That’s The Double.

History of The Double

John Andretti ran the first one in 1994, finishing 10th at Indianapolis and 36th at Charlotte. Tony Stewart is the most famous name in the history of the attempt. In 2001, he completed all 1,100 miles, finishing sixth at Indy and third in the 600, a feat that remains the benchmark for anyone who’s tried since. Kyle Larson took two shots at it, in 2024 and 2025, and came away empty both times.

Five drivers have attempted the feat, starting with John Andretti on May 29, 1994. In 2001, Tony Stewart became the first and only driver to date to complete all 1,100 miles of both races in the same day. Robby Gordon has tried five times, Stewart and Kyle Larson twice, and Kurt Busch once. No driver has won either race while attempting the feat. Stewart’s 2001 effort stands as the best combined result: sixth at Indianapolis and third at Charlotte. Larson attempted it in 2024-2025.

Katherine Legge will become the first woman to attempt the effort.

Who is Katherine Legge?

She’s 45, from England, and has been racing go-karts with her father since she was 9. Her résumé spans nearly every category in American motorsport. Forty-seven career IndyCar starts. Nineteen NASCAR national series starts. Four victories as an Acura factory driver in sports cars. Stints in Formula E, touring cars, and Pikes Peak Hill Climb.

The Indy 500 is where she’s made her mark on the oval circuit. In 2023, she set the fastest single-lap qualification speed by any woman in the event’s history: 231.627 mph. Her four-lap average of 231.070 mph went with it. Records that still stand.

For this year’s race, she qualified 27th, driving the No. 11 for HMD Motorsports in partnership with AJ Foyt Racing.

The 600 side comes through Live Fast Motorsports. Legge is 39th of 39 entrants, driving the No. 78. No charter. No guaranteed field spot. A small entry list cleared that problem for her.

The Brand Behind the Entries

e.l.f. Cosmetics is sponsoring both entries.

That deserves more than a sentence. This is year four of the partnership between Legge and e.l.f. Beauty (NYSE: ELF). In 2024, e.l.f. became the first beauty brand in American motorsport history to serve as the primary sponsor of an Indianapolis 500 entry. Now they’re funding both halves of the most operationally demanding single-day feat the sport has. The No. 11 at Indianapolis and the No. 78 at Charlotte both carry e.l.f. colors.

The campaign is called “eyes.lips.fuel.” Patrick O’Keefe, e.l.f.’s Chief Integrated Marketing Officer, described it plainly: “eyes.lips.fuel. is a commitment to every eye, lip, and face watching who needs to see that they belong.”

Legge’s own framing of the partnership tells you something about how four years feels from the inside: “e.l.f. has been more than a sponsor. They’ve been my voice, my platform, and my fuel.”

e.l.f. has built a deliberate portfolio in women’s sports over the past three years, and Legge is the anchor of it.

Their current roster: the Professional Women’s Hockey League, the Billie Jean King Cup, the National Women’s Soccer League, and the iHeart Women’s Sports Audio Network. Paralympic swimmer Anastasia Pagonis is an Individual Athlete Partner. And Legge across IndyCar and NASCAR.

Chief Marketing Officer Kory Marchisotto has stated publicly that the brand won’t do “logo slap” sponsorships. That means every activation needs a story attached.

The statistics e.l.f. cites about women in motorsport make the brief explicit: women receive 1% of all sports sponsorships. Women account for 4% of drivers on track. Women are twice as likely to leave racing in their first five years. The brand is not citing those numbers to create guilt. They’re citing them to identify an underserved market and position themselves inside it before the competition.

For a company trading on the NYSE, this is a commercial thesis, not an awareness campaign.

The broader pattern of brands spending record levels in motorsport is mostly about audience scale and corporate hospitality. e.l.f.’s approach is different: they’re building cultural ownership around a specific idea. A beauty brand that shows up where beauty brands don’t. An audience that wasn’t being spoken to by the category.

What This Weekend Means

The Double is a long shot regardless of who’s driving. Kyle Larson had Hendrick Motorsports infrastructure and still couldn’t complete it. Legge is running a non-charter team in the 600 after a 27th-place grid position at Indianapolis.

Finishing is the goal.

Either way, e.l.f. owns the story of the first woman to attempt The Double, and if she completes both races, that has a shelf life that extends well past the race broadcast. Four years of consistent investment become a punchline that actually pays off.

Motorsport sponsorship rarely works this way. Most brands buy reach and then wait. e.l.f. has been building toward a specific historical moment with a specific driver for four consecutive years.

Regardless of outcome, Legge is a hell of a racer, and e.l.f. is a hell of a brand taking big swings in playgrounds not traditionally dominated by women.

I’ll be rooting for them.

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Formula 1 lends its IP to Hasbro’s Monopoly

Growing up, I loved Monopoly. It taught me about business and managing money, and how to get out of jail (just kidding).

But now, two of my loves, board games and Formula 1, come together in an epic remix of one of the most iconic games of all time.

Formula 1 has partnered with Hasbro to release a special-edition Monopoly, available from July 15.

The F1-themed edition of the game will have players racing around the board with the 24 locations on the real calendar, taking the place of the regular properties.

Emily Prazer, chief commercial officer of Formula 1, said: “Monopoly is one of the most iconic and best-loved board games in the world, so we’re thrilled to bring a Formula 1 twist to such a classic. This edition captures the excitement and competitiveness of the sport in a fun, accessible way, and we’re confident fans of all ages will love going head-to-head with their friends and family when they take to the grid and compete in the Monopoly Grand Prix.”

Billy Lagor, president of toy & games at Hasbro, said: “Formula 1 is one of the most iconic sports in the world, and we’re excited to bring the adrenaline of race day - roaring engines, pitlane drama, and split-second strategy - into a game night experience.”

A big thanks to all of our subscribers, especially our Founding Members, for their continued support.

Founding Members: Andy Amendola, Web Smith, Alex Nunez, Hannah Elliot, Mark Boudreau, John LePore, Josh Felber, Marshall Pruett, Blake Plumley

Corporate Members: T-Mobile for Business, Electranet Inc., Bloomfield AI, HYTON

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Latest on the Business of Speed Podcast

Robert Jakobi grew up with Ayrton Senna at his family’s dinner table. His father ran IMG Europe and later left to manage Senna personally. When Senna died in 1994, the Jakobi family lost one of their closest friends.

Thirty-two years later, Robert is using that relationship to build something new. His company, Hyton, is four months old and has just secured a deal to bring the Ayrton Senna Forever exhibition to Fontainebleau Las Vegas this November.

Nine cars, helmets, trophies, a full immersive installation, and it’s the first time the exhibition has ever come to America.

We sat down with him at the Concours Club during Miami GP week. Go listen.

The plan is to bring you more around what’s happening in IndyCar this season, so stick around.

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IndyCar just raced between a football stadium and a baseball stadium in Arlington, Texas. Sold-out grandstands. Up to $100 million in projected economic impact. Drivers who’ve raced all over the world say it felt like a completely different series.

The Java House Grand Prix of Arlington, held March 15, ran a 2.73-mile, 14-turn street circuit threading between AT&T Stadium and Globe Life Field. Longest street course in IndyCar history. Kyle Kirkwood took the win.

The real story, however, is what the track was built on. Parking lots. Service roads. The kind of infrastructure that exists for one reason: moving 100,000 people in and out of a building on a Sunday afternoon. Penske looked at that and saw a racetrack.

Let’s talk about the money. Penske Entertainment, the Dallas Cowboys, the Texas Rangers, and the City of Arlington split the $50 million build cost four ways. For context, building a permanent racing circuit from scratch runs anywhere from $250 million to over $1 billion. Arlington’s math looks very different.

Mark Miles, Penske Entertainment CEO, put it plainly: the existing pavement, roads, and parking lots “require relatively little expenditures to get into racing fitness.”

The infrastructure was already there. It just needed a different purpose for one weekend.

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Why a Stadium District Changes Everything

Street racing has always carried logistical baggage. You shut down a city center. Reroute traffic. Negotiate with local businesses losing foot traffic. Relocate utility access. It’s expensive, politically messy, and the goodwill runs out fast.

Nashville learned this the hard way. The Music City Grand Prix ran downtown across the Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge starting in 2021. Then construction began on the new Titans stadium, displacing the circuit. The race hasn’t returned.

Arlington sidesteps all of it. The entertainment district exists specifically to absorb massive crowds. Wide roads. Modern pavement. Hotels, restaurants, and convention infrastructure are already operating at scale. Sixteen million visitors come through that district annually. Doug Boles, IndyCar’s president, put it simply: “You are in and amongst the community, but you have the benefit of these massive parking lots.”

Scott Dixon, six-time champion, said after the race: “I didn’t think I was turning up to an IndyCar event. I thought it was maybe an F1 event.” Then he added something that should probably hang on a wall somewhere at Penske Entertainment headquarters: “I think this is the new standard. This is what IndyCar needs to stick to.”

Santino Ferrucci called it IndyCar’s “first Formula 1-style street course.”

The closest comparison in American motorsport is the Miami Grand Prix, which races around Hard Rock Stadium, home of the Dolphins. Stephen Ross built that model from scratch, turning a stadium parking lot into a temporary circuit surrounded by a multi-day festival. The result: $449 million in economic impact and a race weekend that sells out months in advance. Arlington took that same stadium-as-backdrop concept, applied it to an entertainment district that already had two venues instead of one, and executed it for a fraction of the cost. Where Miami spent years and hundreds of millions building its footprint, IndyCar walked into an infrastructure package that was already assembled.

Motorsport’s push into American culture has largely been driven by spending into new markets. IndyCar is finding a different entry point. Same instinct, leaner execution.

Fox’s Role

In July 2025, Fox Corporation acquired a one-third interest in Penske Entertainment for roughly $125 to $135 million. Bundled with a multi-year extension of IndyCar’s media rights.

Think about what that means for venue selection. A broadcast partner wants compelling television. Fine. An ownership partner wants compelling television in top-10 media markets, with iconic visual backdrops that enhance the value of their investment. Different conversation entirely.

And this goes beyond corporate strategy. Fox CEO Eric Shanks is an Indiana native who used to go to the Speedway as a teenager and tell people Rick Mears was his uncle to try to impress girls. As Will Buxton put it on the Business of Speed podcast: “What better platform could you have than the boss of the network being this huge fan who just wants to do it right and wants to tell the story and promote it and make it as big as he thinks it should be and should always have been.”

Fox ran IndyCar commercials during the Super Bowl. Think about what those slots cost. Eight figures, easy, for airtime they could have sold to advertisers. That tells you something about conviction.

DFW is the fourth-largest metro in America. AT&T Stadium is one of the most recognizable buildings in professional sports. Fox didn’t need much convincing.

The early returns are worth noting. The 2025 Indianapolis 500, Fox’s first as broadcaster, averaged 7.01 million viewers. A 41% increase. A 17-year high. The full 2025 season averaged 1.36 million viewers per race, up 27% over 2024. Buxton offered a stat that doesn’t get enough attention: in 2025, IndyCar and Formula 1 both averaged 1.3 million viewers in the United States. The same number.

Fox is also reviving the SPEED brand as a cross-series motorsport media platform, pulling NASCAR, F1, and IndyCar content under one roof. Own a piece of the series. Broadcast the races. Build the media ecosystem around them. Stadium-district races in major markets feed every layer of that stack.

The Audience Was Already There

The series has a well-documented structural problem. Eighty-seven percent of its television audience disappears after the Indianapolis 500. 87%. The series has struggled for years to build sustained fandom in individual markets.

Marshall Pruett, who’s covered IndyCar longer than most people have watched it, framed the challenge on Business of Speed: “IndyCar’s greatest problem is not the quality of the drivers, racing, none of that. The product’s phenomenal. Not enough human beings know that it exists.”

Tony Kanaan said nearly the same thing from the team operations side: “Fox bought into the series. I think we need to get known. The series is great, the cars are great. It will not matter if people don’t know who we are.”

NFL stadiums offer a shortcut to that awareness problem. And a pretty elegant one.

The Cowboys’ marketing machine, their sponsor network, their fans. These are assets IndyCar could never build on its own in a market like Dallas-Fort Worth. Jerry Jones showed up in hospitality. Pudge Rodriguez and DeMarcus Ware gave the start command. That kind of crossover doesn’t happen organically. It gets engineered through partnership.

Pruett sees this as the real unlock for IndyCar’s growth: getting big partners with big marketing machines to tell the story for you. “What’s more important,” he asked, “IndyCar adding a lot more money to its bottom line or figuring out ways to use big companies with big marketing machines to say, hey, you probably know F1, you probably know NASCAR. Let us tell you about this American tradition.” The Cowboys and Rangers are exactly that kind of megaphone.

Arlington’s entertainment district draws from a metro of 8 million people. Roughly 40% of race weekend visitors came from outside Texas. IndyCar didn’t build that audience. The Cowboys and Rangers had already built it. IndyCar just showed up with cars.

Conor Daly put his finger on what Arlington delivered that most IndyCar weekends still lack: “We just got to figure out a way to get more of the, ‘Hey, whoa, what’s happening there? We got to go there.’ That factor. Right now, it’s really cool to go to an F1 race. We just need to have a little bit more of that as well.”

Arlington had it. The question is whether it can travel.

And for brands looking at the series, the sponsorship entry point starts around $500K. The venue economics are built on splitting costs with partners who already own the real estate. When you’re trying to attract commercial partners and grow the grid, that accessibility matters.

Denver, D.C., and What Comes Next

Arlington looks like a proof of concept. Not the endgame.

Promoters in Denver have proposed a 1.8-mile street circuit around Empower Field at Mile High, home of the Broncos. They’re targeting 2027 and seeking a four-year commitment from the city. Same model: NFL entertainment district, existing infrastructure, major media market.

Washington, D.C., follows a different version of the same logic. The Freedom 250 Grand Prix, scheduled for August 23, 2026, will run a 1.66-mile circuit near the National Mall. Pennsylvania Avenue. The Washington Monument. The Capitol. Free to the public, with over a million spectators expected. No NFL stadium, but the principle is the same: race in front of something iconic. Make the broadcast impossible to ignore.

IndyCar also just restructured its relationship with Honda and Chevrolet, offering transferable equity-like charter stakes through 2030. The manufacturer deal, the Fox ownership stake, and the stadium venue strategy. All load-bearing walls in the same structure that Penske is building.

The Template

Roger Penske bought IndyCar and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2020. Since then, the strategic direction has been consistent: raise the floor on every dimension of the product. Broadcast quality. Venue quality. Partnership quality.

For years, the results lagged behind the ambition. Pruett was blunt about it: “Looking for moves, looking for big things to happen. They’re not happening. 2024, hey, okay. We’re now many years into owning IndyCar. Big things? Nothing happened in there as well.” But 2025 changed the trajectory. The Fox deal landed. Arlington got announced. D.C. materialized. New cars and a new engine formula began to take shape. The momentum everyone hoped for in 2020 finally arrived, just five years late.

“We don’t have this kind of commitment any place that we go as we do here,” Penske said in Arlington. “The investment by the partners along with IndyCar is amazing.”

Stadium entertainment districts give him something he can replicate. A venue template. Existing infrastructure, shared costs, built-in audiences, broadcast-ready backdrops. Every NFL city in America has one. Not everyone will get to race in IndyCar. But the ones in the right media markets, with the right ownership groups willing to invest, just got a glimpse of what’s possible.

Buxton, who left F1 broadcasting to join Fox’s IndyCar coverage, sees this as an inflection point: “I see so many parallels between what Fox wanted to do with IndyCar and what Liberty did with Formula One.” He pointed out that when he was broadcasting F1 in the States on Speed Channel and NBC in the early 2010s, the series averaged around 400,000 viewers. Liberty took over in 2017, and it still took 3 to 4 years before F1 broke the million mark. IndyCar is already averaging 1.36 million in year one with Fox.

Zak Brown was at the race. His review: “Fantastic event. Drivers loved it, sponsors loved it, and it was packed.”

Pato O’Ward called it the best street course and event in IndyCar. Period.

Penske found his template. Now the question is: how many times can he stamp it?

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