IndyCar driver Pato O’Ward understands winners drink milk at the Indianapolis 500.
He just does not want a small oversight to cause him any more race-day consternation. So during Thursday’s media day, O’Ward said he plans to participate in a superstition that he hopes would end the tough spills he has endured in his first five Indy 500 starts.
Pole winner Robert Shwartzman recounted how after last weekend’s qualifying, he took part in the rookie tradition of milking a cow — and the role it is believed to play in who quenches their thirst in the victory lane.
Photo: AP
“The woman, she came to me and said: ‘The people who didn’t milk the cow, they never won the Indy 500,’ and they were like... It’s bad luck,” Shwartzman said. “Whoever milks the cow. Alexander Rossi did it. He won the 500. You have to milk the cow.”
Shwartzman described his personal experience with a “very calm, cute” cow named Indy.
O’Ward never got his chance to squeeze an udder because his rookie start came in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the race was run in August with no fans and the milking tradition was put on hold.
Since then, he has finished sixth, fourth, second, 24th and second.
Two-time race winner Takuma Sato claimed he never took part in the tradition, but that did not seem to impress O’Ward, who eventually asked: “Are they always ready to just...?”
Finally, after Shwartzman suggested O’Ward wait until next year to make it right, O’Ward said he was not content to have yet another race day spoiled. He wanted to milk a cow immediately.
The Indiana Dairy Association was quick to offer help.
“We know some farmers who know some cows who can make that happen,” the group wrote on social media.
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