2007 Indianapolis 500 - News

News

• The pace car for the 2007 Indy 500 was a Chevrolet Corvette. Patrick Dempsey was the driver.

• Kid Rock headlined the Miller Lite Carb Day concert. Other performers during the month included Daughtry, Saliva, Augustana, and Bräck (a band headed by the former Indy 500 champion).

• Indianapolis Colts quarterback and Super Bowl XLI MVP Peyton Manning served as the grand marshal of the IPL 500 Festival Parade on May 26, and waved the green flag to start the 2007 Indy 500.

• No testing took place prior to the start of official May activities.

• The initial official entry list was released on April 10, 2007 featuring 69 cars, four former winners, and one rookie.

• Davey Hamilton's 02 car marks the first time in which a car number beginning with the digit "0" has been entered in the 500.

• ESPN on ABC announced that the race would be broadcast in HD for the first time ever. The HD broadcast was presented via Sony high-definition technology.

• Dreyer & Reinbold Racing was fined $25,000 for the use of an illegal fuel mixture, containing 27% methanol (no methanol is allowed) in one of its cars during Pole day. Team officials claimed this was due to an inexperienced crew member using an old container of fuel and was not intentional. Indy Racing League chief administrator Brian Barnhart called this "at least plausible," noting that the presence of water in the fuel mixture supports the claim that the fuel was old. The illegal mixture was used only during practice, not for a qualification attempt. It should be noted that from 1965–2005, only methanol fuel was used in the Indianapolis 500; in 2006, a 10% ethanol-90% methanol mixture had been used in the IRL in transition to the ethanol fuel used in the IRL for the 2007 season.

• Jim Nabors, who sang "Back Home Again in Indiana" during the pre-race festivities twenty-nine times from 1972 to 2006, missed the 2007 race due to an illness. The fans were asked to sing the song in his place.