NBC Sports presents the 105th Running of the Indianapolis 500 Presented by Gainbridge from Indianapolis Motor Speedway this Sunday, May 30, at 11 a.m. ET on NBC. Six-time INDYCAR champion and 2008 Indianapolis 500 winner Scott Dixon won the pole position and will lead the field to the green flag for this year’s Indy 500. Race day coverage begins at 9 a.m. ET on NBCSN.
SUNDAY, MAY 30 – PRE-RACE COVERAGE BEGINS ON NBCSN AT 9 A.M. ET; CONTINUES ON NBC AT 11 A.M. ET
NBC Sports will present eight hours of live coverage from Indianapolis Motor Speedway on race day, beginning with pre-race coverage at 9 a.m. ET on NBCSN. Coverage will shift to NBC for five hours of coverage at 11 a.m. ET, with the green flag of The Greatest Spectacle in Racing slated to wave at approximately 12:30 p.m. ET. Following the conclusion of the race, NBCSN will provide an hour of post-race coverage at 4 p.m. ET.
For the third consecutive year, the Indianapolis 500 will be called by NBC Sports’ lead INDYCAR team of Leigh Diffey (play-by-play), Townsend Bell (analyst) and Paul Tracy(analyst). Marty Snider, Kelli Stavast, Dave Burns and Kevin Lee will serve as pit reporters.
Bell and Tracy have combined to make 17 career Indy 500 starts. Tracy was the runner-up in the 2002 Indy 500, while Bell registered a career-best fourth-place Indy 500 finish in 2009. Diffey will call his third consecutive Indy 500 and has also called many of motorsports’ most prestigious events, including the F1 Monaco Grand Prix, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
NBC Sports’ comprehensive Indy 500 commentary team includes host Mike Tirico and analyst and former INDYCAR driver Danica Patrick, who became the first woman to lead laps and earn a top-five finish in the Indianapolis 500 in 2005. INDYCAR rookie and seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson will serve as a Peacock Pit Box analyst alongside NBC Sports’ Steve Letarte. NBC Sports motorsports reporter Rutledge Wood returns for the third straight year to provide on-site reports around Indianapolis Motor Speedway, while NBC Sports’ Jac Collinsworth will make his Indy 500 debut when he serves as host of pre-race coverage on NBCSN.
Pre-race coverage on NBC will be highlighted by:
- NBC Sports analyst Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s sit-down interview with Marco Andretti, who will be competing in his first NTT INDYCAR SERIES race this season in the Indy 500;
- NBC Sports’ Tim Layden narrates an essay on the Wheldon family – Susie Wheldonand sons, Sebastian and Oliver, who are developmental drivers for the Andretti Autosport team – remembering their husband and father Dan Wheldon, who tragically passed away in a racing accident 10 years ago after winning the Indy 500 in 2011;
- Feature on Paretta Autosport, a racing team that is 75% female, including its owner, Beth Paretta, and driver, Simona De Silvestro, who became the first female driver-owner duo to qualify for the Indy 500;
- NBC Sports’ Rutledge Wood speaks with David Letterman, co-owner of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, whose team won last year’s Indy 500 with defending champion Takuma Sato;
- An introduction to select Indy 500 fans who have a special bond and connection to the Greatest Spectacle in Racing and what the 105th Running of the Indianapolis 500 means personally to them in Faces of the 500 segments;
- Reports from Rutledge Wood and Jac Collinsworth around IMS, taking in the sights and sounds from the approximately 135,000 spectators who will be in attendance.
NBC Sports PR
