If you are asking whether or not the Indianapolis Motor Speedway can increase the number of people that can attend the Indianapolis 500 this year between now and race day, the answer is no.
This year’s attendance for race day and all track activity throughout the month of May has been capped at 135,000 fans in order to stay in compliance with local COVID restrictions and in order for fans to maintain proper spacing.
But, if Mayor Joe Hogsett, the Marion County Health Department, or anyone else in charge were to tell IMS that they could add more fans to that cap, IMS President Doug Boles says they couldn’t do that even if they wanted to.
“Unfortunately, where are now at 135,000 we basically had to re-seat the whole venue,” Boles said on Tony Katz and the Morning News on WIBC in Indianapolis. “We’re starting to send those tickets out now.”
“If somebody said ‘hey, you could add another 20,000’, I’d have to reset all of our tickets, our ticketing team would have to draw tickets back, and then re-space folks out.”
That means no matter how the pandemic changes for the better between now and race day, it is set in stone that only 135,000 people can be in attendance. Boles said that if you have ordered a ticket and it hasn’t arrived yet, you should be patient as they are sending tickets out every day to race fans.
