(SPEEDWAY, Ind.) – Indiana’s been using the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to scale up COVID vaccinations. Now it hopes to use the lure of the 500 to convince race fans to get the shot.
The state health department will resume mass vaccination clinics at the track the next three Mondays. They’ll be open in between to administer second doses to people who received the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine at the Speedway last month. But there will also be vaccine at the track’s three first-aid stations every day the track is open, starting with practice next Friday for the Grand Prix.
Speedway president Doug Boles says public-address announcements and signs around the Speedway will remind spectators the vaccine is available. With thousands of race fans flowing into the track, the state hopes to vaccinate 30,000 people at the track during the month of May, on top of 70,000 vaccinated there so far.
The health department is banking on the mystique of the Speedway to make the vaccine a special event for people who are on the fence about it or haven’t given it much thought. If you go to the track for your shot in May, you’ll get a “got my COVID-19 shot” T-shirt with the wing-and-wheel logo and the double checkered flag. And IndyCar drivers Charlie Kimball and Tony Kanaan have recorded public-service announcements to urge you to get your shot.
Both drivers say they got vaccinated both for health reasons, and to speed the process of bringing the coronavirus pandemic under control. They say they don’t want to endure a repeat of what Kimball calls a “soulless” 500 in front of an empty grandstand last year.
Kanaan says he wanted to make the vaccine an experience. He not only got his shot at the Speedway — he drove there in his pace car from his 500 victory in 2013.
