Indiana football head coach Curt Cignetti will be leading the pack to open up Sunday’s 110th running of the Indianapolis 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as he is set to drive the pace car. Cignetti, who turns down most promotional appearances, jumped at this one after winning the 2025 College Football Playoff national championship.
“Pretty cool. Yeah. Had a little test drive about 10 days ago.” Cignetti said a couple weeks ago at a fan event in Carmel. “Sarah Fisher, great teacher. And it’s intense. I enjoyed myself and get a little test run uh the evening before the race, too. So, it’ll be a lot of fun.”
The Indy 500 is one of the most iconic races in the history of motor racing sports and there will be over 300,000 fans in the stands when Cignetti leads the field on a rolling start.
“It’s like entering the football stadium.” Cignetti said. “I really don’t look at the crowd, noticed the crowd. When I went there for my test drive, it was empty. The place was empty, but I kind of had my head down the same way. I didn’t look at how many seats there were. I got to be focused.”
Cignetti merchandise is even being sold at the IMS and one reporter showed Cignetti a t-shirt (which he later gifted to the coach) with Cignetti driving an Indy car.
Cignetti’s instructor, Sarah Fisher has been coaching him through the experience to make sure everything goes right.
“She’s a vet and she knows the ropes and she knows the track. She’s raced in at least three Indy 500s. She knows when to start the turn and when to come out of the turn and, you know, how the car will function and the trust you got to have in the car and she knows the program. I think she, most importantly, she wanted to make sure I could get my ass out of that car real fast cuz she’s the official pace car driver when the race starts and I got to get out real quick so she can get in.” Cignetti explained.
Cignetti and Fisher will be leading the field to a rolling start around 12:45 pm on FOX as the green flag is schedule for 12:45 pm.