An estimated 325,000 fans visited the 106th running of the Indy 500

Speedway, Indiana — On Sunday, around 325,000 fans packed into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the 106th running of the Indy 500.

“Listen to it, that’s it right there, listen to it, you can hear the crowd,” Rodney Osborne of Ohio said.

According to Osborne the track has changed a lot. He attended his first Indy 500 in 1989. “I don’t remember the grandstands being across from the suites and everything. It was open, I was on Turn 3 back then in 1989, and just graduated high school,” Osborne said.

Since COVID restrictions were completely lifted at the track, Sunday’s race is the first one ran.

The near-capacity crowd was a benefit even to those who didn’t go to the race. Emily Smith was able to park 6 cars in front of her home, just two blocks from the track. “Definitely paid for pizza for the night, and some kind of dessert too,” she said.

According to Smith, there was a mad scramble for parking even after the race started. “Probably for a half hour there were people begging trying to get lots, and we were calling neighbors trying to get to get them in,” Smith said.