If you haven’t bought a grandstand seat for the 2026 Indy 500, sorry to say, but you’re out of luck. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway confirmed Wednesday morning that all reserved seats for the 110th running of the famed race are now sold out. This marks the second year in a row that the venue sells out ahead of race day.
IMS has a seating capacity of 250,000, but the massive venue can also fit upwards of 1000,000 people in the infield. These tickets are purely General Admission, and attendees range from diehard racing fans who prefer to watch the action from the infield to young people who party all day and are hardly aware that there’s a race going on. IMS estimates 300,000 to 350,000 people total will attend this year’s race.
The Roger Penske-owned track has undergone many improvements since he took it over in 2020, overhauling infrastructure, seating areas, screens, and redoing many aspects that had been neglected for decades. Personally, the track could still use more (and larger) screens to follow the action in detail from the stands, but hopefully those will come in due time.
And speaking of screens, good news for Indy locals: with the race sold out, the local TV blackout has been lifted. If you don’t live in Indiana, this hardly means anything to you, but if you do, you know that you typically can’t watch the race live if you’re within a certain radius of the track. With all tickets sold out now, folks will be able to follow the race on TV in real time.
This is great news for a sport that keeps growing year over year. High five!
Got a tip? Email us at tips@thedrive.com