Buttermilk was the inspiration for the tradition of the Indy 500 winner drinking milk. Louis Meyer was photographed drinking from a bottle of buttermilk after winning the 500 in 1936. The Indiana Dairy Council jumped on it and offered a bottle of milk to the winning driver and it became the tradition that is is.

In 1989, Emerson Fittipaldi won his first 500 and actually drank orange juice. Fittipaldi, who is Brazilian, owned several orange groves and wanted to promote that. He was resoundingly booed by fans at the time and when he won for the second time in 1993 he made sure he didn’t make the same mistake and did drink the milk.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk