INDIANAPOLIS — One of the unheralded but very visible traditions of the Indianapolis 500 is identifying the drivers, car numbers, and car names with signage on the pit wall rimming their individual pit boxes.
Rookies seeing their names on the pit wall for the first time at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway are usually especially moved. It’s undeniable proof that they’ve achieved what for many has been a life-long goal: they’ve advanced through the ranks and earned the right to compete in one of the world’s premier auto races.
Even if they never compete in another race, they’ll go down in history as an Indy 500 driver.
In short, it signifies they’ve arrived at the top level of professional sports.
“It is very special to see your name on pit wall here,” said Arrow McLaren driver Nolan Siegel, who will start in his second Indy 500 on Sunday. “This place has a special energy, and to see all the fans here on race day morning and to have your name on the pit wall is really special.”
It’s even special for the veterans.
“[Pit wall signs at the Indy 500 have] been around for a long time,” said Andretti Global driver Kyle Kirkwood, who is second in the NTT IndyCar standings and will start his fifth Indy 500 on Sunday. “When I saw my name on the pit wall in my rookie year in 2022, it was a surreal feeling. This is a special place. I know I have photos at home of me standing beside my name on pit wall from my rookie year. It’s special.”
Some form of this signage has been in place since the very first Indianapolis 500 in 1911. Up until 2010 the signs were hand-painted stencils. From 2010 on, decals were used.
No driver names were used initially; in 1911 it was just the car number and the car manufacturer. Starting position wasn’t a factor; the signs were on the pit stalls that each car was assigned to for the month.
In 1927, the practice of including the drivers’ last names along with the car numbers began. Three years later they were drifting away from the car manufacturers in favor of the car number and the drivers’ and entrants’ names. By 1937 they had added the drivers’ full names above the numbers.
The drivers’ names became prominent after World War II. The car and entrant name were on the left, the number was in the middle, and the driver’s name was on the right in 1946. In 1948 it was changed to the driver’s name on the left, the car number in the middle, and the car and entrant names on the right.
It remained that way until the mid-1970s, when the car number was moved to the end. In 1980 the format moved back to the way it was before the mid-1970s change, and it’s been that way ever since.
The behind-the-scenes story about how the decals are produced is a story of its own.
They’re a product of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s graphics shop, which is located outside Turn 3 of the 2.5-mile oval, and has exactly two full-time employees. A third seasonal worker joins them some years. Eighty-hour work weeks are not uncommon leading up to the race.
The department’s leader is Kyle Knight, and his right-hand man is James White. Knight grew up in Indianapolis, and he has been involved in the graphics business since he was a student at Franklin Central High School.
He has always loved cars. He is especially into drifting, and he didn’t become a big IndyCar fan until opportunity knocked with the graphics department by chance.
“I played a lot of music in school, and I played with a guy who worked at a local graphics shop which has since closed,” he said. “They always needed extra hands, so in the evenings I would go over there and help out. I picked up the skills, and I just kept doing it, and now I’ve been working at it for the better part of 17 years. There were times when I had a full-time job doing something else, but I was still involved part-time.
“My friend Rob Chastain found the IMS job through an IndyCar contact of his and suggested we apply. We took over the shop together in 2021, before he left and took over as IndyCar’s art director for a time.
“Things have changed a ton over the years as far as the equipment involved and the tools we use,” he added. “I’ve tried to expedite the process of getting the pit wall signs up. After we produce the decals, we have a team of workers from other departments that help us tack them to the pit wall, and then we’ll come back through and get them straightened and installed firmly. With three or four people working on a 45-foot-long graphic, it goes up pretty easy.”
The decals are produced on a wide-format press that can generate decals up to 60 feet long. The graphics shop’s latest vinyl printer is by Dex Imaging, title sponsor of the track’s media center, which incidentally is the largest sports media center in the world.
Sports Graphics is also a corporate partner, but the pit lane graphics are all produced in house. Each of the 33 decals used in the pit stalls are about 45 feet wide by 25 inches tall.
They’re produced in pairs. “Just printing two takes about 45 minutes,” Knight explained. “Then we laminate them so they’re durable. Pit crew members will be climbing over them and tires will be rubbing against them, so they need to be durable and hold up until the race is over. Laminating them makes them more resilient. It takes about an hour to laminate and cut a 150-foot roll of names.”
The length of the drivers’ and cars’ names makes the time needed to print them vary. “Conor Daly is faster to create than say Ryan Hunter-Reay,” Knight noted. “And with all 33 cars, it’s roughly a mile of pit wall space to cover. It takes up almost the whole frontstretch, and that’s just under a mile.”
Has there ever been a typo?
“If there is, it’s not on us,” he said with a smile. “The teams have to submit exactly what they want [for the car’s official name], so it’s just a cut-and-paste deal for us.”
Knight’s favorite part of the process is the installation.
“The graphics department is part of the facilities department, and for the pit wall install it’s a massive team effort,” he said. “It’s all hands on deck. We start at pit exit and work our way to pit in with a team of roughly 20 people each year. It’s usually the Wednesday before the race, depending on the weather. And sometimes the install is affected if we have to wait on teams with late-breaking sponsors.
“The team just loosely applies the decals to the wall, and then we come back and actually get them straightened and installed.”
Like most things at IMS, speed is a factor.
“Our record time is getting close to under 20 minutes with 20-plus people for the initial placements; the numbers vary on who is available to help. And then it takes another hour to actually get all of the decals installed.
“It’s a very fun effort,” he added. “At the end of it we take a group photo at the yard of bricks. Just being a part of the history behind things here is huge.”
“Removal is a huge effort too,” he added. “We use super-aggressive adhesive and film because safety is important. I don’t want a pit lane sign coming off and causing an unsafe situation and a yellow.
“The painters who paint the pit wall don’t really like my film,” he noted. “Sometimes when we remove the decals it takes off quite a bit of paint. I try to leave the winner’s pit lane sign up as long as possible; usually it’s up for about two days after the race in case the team or its sponsors want to use it for a photo shoot.”
After all, it’s one of the things that make the Indianapolis 500 special.
