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Corvette & The Indy 500 Pace Car: As Classically American as You Can Get

Simon Bertram··
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2023 Corvette C8 Z06 Pace Car
Via: CorvetteForum.

The Indianapolis 500 is, for lack of a better term, America’s Race. It is part of the triple crown of motorsport, which only one driver, Graham Hill, has ever attained (with the other two races you need to win being the Monaco Grand Prix in Formula One, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans as the outright winner). It attracts drivers from all over the world to test the oval and their nerves, screaming around the 2.5 miles of banked corners inches away from their rivals. It may be on an oval track, but it is high speed, high adrenaline, and always puts on a great race.

Since 2004, when CART and the IRL merged back together to form the new IndyCar Series, GM has been the exclusive provider of the official pace car each year. Even better, except for five races between 2004 and 2022, that official pace car has been a Corvette, and is quite often the upcoming submodel. While 18 years is not the largest sampling of time to go off of, it is fair to say, looking back over the entire history of the Indy 500, that the Corvette has been the most used pace car, with a total of 19 appearances at the head of the field.

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