Why does the Indianapolis 500 winner drink milk?

Imagine participating in a grueling three-hour event that leaves you physically exhausted. You’re dehydrated and need some kind of fluids to quench your thirst. Preferably water or a sports drink of some kind.

Instead what you’re handed is an ice cold bottle of milk. While that may not sound the most pleasing, for the 33 drivers participating in Sunday’s 101st running of the Indianapolis 500 (noon ET, ABC), sipping milk afterward would be a gratifying experience.

“I had always dreamt of drinking that milk,” said Ryan Hunter-Reay, 2014 race winner. “When it actually happens and they hand you the bottle you’re like, ‘Wow, this is the moment I’ve been waiting for all these years.’ Then you take that sip. It tasted excellent.”

When an event has been going on as long as the Indianapolis 500, traditions are naturally going to form. The Greatest Spectacle in Racing is no exception: During pre-race ceremonies a military marching band plays “Taps,” someone will sing “Back Home in Indiana Again” and a member of the Hulman family (the owners of the track) gives the command for “Gentlemen, start your engines!”

These are just a sampling of the customs that occur on a yearly basis. But among the many traditions associated with the Indianapolis 500, the sipping of milk in Victory Lane holds a special place because of what it signifies. In a poll recently conducted of the 27 living race winners by the Associated Press, 13 said swigging milk in celebration was their favorite tradition.

“It was the best afternoon milk I’ve ever had,” Tony Kanaan, 2013 race winner, told SB Nation. “It never tasted better.”

The practice of the Indianapolis 500 winner sipping a bottle of milk began when Louis Meyer won the 1933 race and asked for buttermilk following the nearly five-hour event. That was what Meyer’s mother had always told him to drink as a boy growing up when he was thirsty, track historian Donald Davidson told SB Nation.

Three years later when Meyer again won the race he repeated his request, this time receiving the buttermilk in a glass bottle. A dairy executive for the Milk Foundation saw footage of Meyer drinking milk and realized the marketing potential. Henceforth, every winner from 1938 to 1941 sipped milk, as did the 1946 victor. (Indianapolis went dormant during World War II.)

But in 1947 every winner began declining to drink milk immediately afterward, instead opting for cold water delivered in a silver cup handed to them by former three-time winner and then-track president Wilbur Shaw. Engraved on the cup was the saying, “Water from Wilbur.”

Like many things in racing, it took a monetary incentive for drivers to fully embrace the idea of swigging milk as a celebratory gesture. Starting in 1956 the winner was paid an additional $400 if they drank a bottle of milk. Sunday’s winner gets a $10,000 bonus from the American Dairy Association.

Only once since has a winner snubbed the tradition. When Emerson Fittipaldi won the Indianapolis 500 for a second time in 1993, he elected instead for a bottle of orange juice. So defiant was Fittipaldi, not only did he push away an initial offering of milk, he then eschewed a second attempt while being interviewed on national television, telling someone off-camera, “No, I’m not having the milk, sir.”

And what was Fittipaldi’s reasoning? Financial, of course. The Brazilian owned orange groves and thought it made better business sense to drink a product he produced rather than an alternative.

The decision turned the once-popular driver into a bit of a villain, Davidson said. Fittipaldi received resounding boos during introductions in a race the following week at the Milwaukee Mile.

“That just goes to show you how important this tradition is,” Davidson said. “He found that out the hard way. It changed his career.”

Nowadays no driver would even think for a second to pull a stunt similar to Fittipaldi’s. To drink milk at Indianapolis is a sign of accomplishment, something one strives for.

“My 3-year-old is putting a lot of pressure on me, he wants to pour milk on his head someday,” Ed Carpenter said. “That’s my biggest motivation, to not disappoint him.”

On Sunday, bottles of two-percent, fat-free and whole (the three options drivers can select) will be laying on a bed of ice inside separate medium-sized portable coolers.

To assure the milk becomes ice cold, none of the coolers are opened until it’s time to hand the specific bottle to the winner. The three coolers are protected by a security guard stationed inside a suite during the race.

“Indianapolis has a lot of traditions, but this one is especially meaningful,” Davidson said. “It means a lot to a lot of people.”