Shopping At The Indianapolis Motor Speedway
By Susan Phillips
I must be falling into a rut of posting on getting everyone to spend money while at the track. First the Bronze/Silver Badges, now let’s hit the gift shops! My favorite place to spend money is at the IMS Museum Gift Shop. It spans across the entrance of the building—one side has mostly men’s wear and the other side has mostly women’s and kids wear. The satellite gift shops at the track are getting a lot of merchandise that the IMS Museum Gift shop has, but generally I need something to do while George and his brothers discuss the cars in minute detail that are in the museum.
The gift shops did capitalize on the fact that Danica is back for one last IndyCar race. She’s always been well-represented with merchandise in the gift shop. This year you can buy a plaque with mini replicas of tickets of all of the Indianapolis 500s that she participated in and two commemorative coins. It is an autographed limited edition of 500. There are also lanyards, decals, and keyrings bearing the distinctive Go Daddy Green.
The die-cast cars have begun coming in with the new body style. Once again, it will be time to get another Tony Kanaan car—they had them as of qualifying weekend, but I think I will wait until Road America to have it autographed—the autograph lines are pretty long during the Indy 500 weekend. There are several grades of die-cast cars—some that are highly collectible and are priced accordingly to the small Hot Wheels replicas.
Tailgating and camping seems to be a category that I see growing every year. They have several variations of coolers and they have the foldable chairs with the Wing and Wheel logo as well as different sizes of folding tables. You may not be able to afford glamping on the grounds of IMS, but you can certainly step up your game in the other camping areas.
For men the designs have remained pretty consistent. They have the usual driver’s t-shirts and caps, golf wear, and dri-fit polos (which we know how much George loves those). We will stick to our Land’s End 100% cotton polos and sew on the patches they sell in the gift shops.
For women, they have jazzed up some of the designs—I saw some sequined t-shirts and some snazzy checkered flag shorts (which begs the question “does this make my butt look big?”). I do love the additions they have added with the totes, backpacks, and bags. Still available are the PUP bags that are made from the banners from the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500. The bags are cute and I love the concept behind them. You can read a little about the work their company does here.
For kids they have t-shirts and the usual items—kid’s helmets, some books, and stuffed animals. I even found an elusive unicorn—which was really cute and unicorns are the “it” toy for girls this year. If you want one, you might grab one before they sell out. Heck, I even want one. I really loved this bib and burp cloth set also.
Right beside the IMS Museum Gift Shop is the sale (clearance) store. In this store, you can pick up some of the older merchandise that hadn’t sold in previous years. They have the old driver’s shirts from a few years back. If you liked Graham Rahal’s Steak’n’Shake apron t-shirt, now is your chance to buy it. I also found some top-quality (as in 100% cotton) Red Bull Air Race merchandise that I admired last year in the full-price gift shop. Some of the 100th Running logo merchandise is still available in the sale shop. My favorite thing I found was a nice sweatshirt with hidden pockets—I love pockets. I never saw it last year in the full-price store, so I don’t know where it was hiding. They have some great posters and wall hangings. I got George a nice picture of the 100 winners of the Indianapolis 500 to add to his wall collection. If I don’t watch out, we will be heading into man cave territory.
The selection of racewear and merchandising of all collectibles seem to be getting better every year. You will find something for everyone this year. If you can’t attend the race this weekend, the web site has almost everything that is for sale in the gift shops. Here is the link.
Happy Shopping!
Oilpressure 
May 24, 2018 at 7:03 am
I didn’t know about the discount store, gotta check that out! Thanks Susan, great article as always!
May 24, 2018 at 8:45 am
Glad to see that my dad’s favorite items, the tie-dyed t-shirts and the tall coffee mugs, are still being sold in abundance.
Heck, my mom has been known to wear the tie-dyed t-shirt from the 100th running, and she has never watched a race intently for any length of time.
Also, shouldn’t a baby who is a fan of the 500 really want the bottle?
May 24, 2018 at 10:40 am
I’d buy that bib for my 14-week old nephew. Not sure his mother would let him wear it though.