Hotels for Indianapolis 500 2027

The 111th running of the Indianapolis 500 takes the green flag on Sunday 30 May 2027, the centrepiece of Memorial Day weekend, with the Pit Stop Challenge on the Friday and the 500 Festival Parade through downtown on the Saturday. This is the largest single-day sporting event on earth — hundreds of thousands fill the Speedway — and Indianapolis hotels price accordingly, so book months out.

The track sits in the town of Speedway, ten kilometres west of downtown; staying downtown puts the parade, Mass Ave's restaurants and the canal walk on your doorstep, with race-morning shuttles and famously well-drilled traffic plans moving the crowds. The month of May is a season of its own here — qualifying weekends before the race are a cheaper, quieter way to see the cars at speed.

First run in 1911 and won by Ray Harroun, the Indianapolis 500 is the world's oldest major motor race and, with the Monaco Grand Prix and the Le Mans 24 Hours, one of motorsport's Triple Crown. Held each Memorial Day weekend at the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway — a rectangular oval nicknamed the Brickyard for its original paved surface — the race covers 200 laps and 500 miles.

Traditions run deep: the winner drinks milk in Victory Lane, a custom dating to the 1930s, and a field of 33 cars roars away after the command to start engines. The Speedway's grandstands and infield hold one of the largest crowds in all of sport, drawing several hundred thousand spectators on race day.

A.J. Foyt, Al Unser, Rick Mears and Helio Castroneves share the record with four victories apiece. Qualifying over the preceding weekend sets the grid by four-lap average speed, with pole position among the most coveted starts in racing.