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The most iconic part of winning the Indianapolis 500 is the milk you get to drink in Victory Lane. The tradition began in 1936 when Louis Meyer requested a bottle of buttermilk after winning the 24th running of the event. He was the first person to win three Indy 500s, and Meyer later claimed that he also drank milk after his second win in 1933.
However, it didn't become an official and permanent tradition until 1956 when dairy executives got involved, as they saw a great advertising opportunity. Race winner Pat Flaherty was paid $400 for drinking the milk.
Since then, every winner has taken a drink of milk after the race, but there is one exception -- when Emerson Fittipaldi infamously drank orange juice in 1993, and it was not well-received.
In the modern age, every drink selects their milk beforehand, and it will be waiting for them in case they are the driver to cross the finish line first in the 110th running of the Indy 500 next weekend. Two dairy farmers will join them in Victory Lane, with one handing off milk to the winning driver, and the other handing it off to a team owner or another key member of the team.
The last four winners all chose whole milk, while Helio Castroneves is the most recent to drink 2% after his record-tying fourth victory in 2021.
Take a look at everyone's choices for this year's edition of the Indy 500:
2026 Indy 500 Milk of Choice
25 drivers chose whole milk / 7 drivers chose 2% milk / 1 driver chose skim milk
| Car No. - Driver | Milk of Choice | Hometown |
| #2 - Josef Newgarden | Whole Milk | Nashville, Tennessee (USA) |
| #3 - Scott McLaughlin | Whole Milk | Christchurch, New Zealand |
| #4 - Caio Collet | Whole Milk | Sao Paulo, Brazil |
| #5 - Pato O'Ward | 2% Milk | Monterrey, Mexico |
| #06 - Helio Castroneves | 2% Milk | Sao Paulo, Brazil |
| #6 - Nolan Siegel | 2% Milk | Palo Alto, California (USA) |
| #7 - Christian Lundgaard | 2% Milk | Hedensted, Denmark |
| #8 - Kyffin Simpson | Whole Milk | Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands |
| #9 - Scott Dixon | Whole Milk | Auckland, New Zealand |
| #10 - Alex Palou | Whole Milk | Barcelona, Spain |
| #11 - Katherine Legge | Whole Milk | Guildford, England |
| #12 - David Malukas | Whole Milk | Chicago, Illinois (USA) |
| #14 - Santino Ferrucci | Whole Milk | Woodbury, Connecticut (USA) |
| #15 - Graham Rahal | 2% Milk | New Albany, Ohio (USA) |
| #18 - Romain Grosjean | Skim Milk | Geneva, Switzerland |
| #19 - Dennis Hauger | Whole Milk | Aurskog, Norway |
| #20 - Alexander Rossi | Whole Milk | Nevada City, California (USA) |
| #21 - Christian Rasmussen | Whole Milk | Copenhagen, Denmark |
| #23 - Conor Daly | Whole Milk | Noblesville, Indiana (USA) |
| #24 - Jack Harvey | Whole Milk | Bassingham, England |
| #26 - Will Power | Whole Milk | Toowoomba, Australia |
| #27 - Kyle Kirkwood | Whole Milk | Jupiter, Florida (USA) |
| #28 - Marcus Ericsson | Whole Milk | Kumla, Sweden |
| #31 - Ryan Hunter-Reay | 2% Milk | Fort Lauderdale, Florida (USA) |
| #33 - Ed Carpenter | Whole Milk | Indianapolis, Indiana (USA) |
| #45 - Louis Foster | Whole Milk | Odiham, England |
| #47 - Mick Schumacher | Whole Milk | Gland, Switzerland |
| #51 - Jacob Abel | Whole Milk | Louisville, Kentucky (USA) |
| #60 - Felix Rosenqvist | Whole Milk | Varnamo, Sweden |
| #66 - Marcus Armstrong | Whole Milk | Christchurch, New Zealand |
| #75 - Takuma Sato | 2% Milk | Tokyo, Japan |
| #76 - Rinus VeeKay | Whole Milk | Hoofddorp, Netherlands |
| #77 - Sting Ray Robb | Whole Milk | Payette, Idaho (USA) |
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