INDIANAPOLIS — Alexander Rossi’s Indianapolis 500 winning car from 2016 will soon have a new owner.
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway museum said Monday that the car’s current owner, David Bowen of Bowen Motorsports, is looking to put the Dallara IndyCar up for auction.
The car, which has which has been on loan to the IMS museum since winning the 100th running of the 500, will be shipped to California later this month where Mecum Auctions will sell it at it’s next event in Monterey.
Museum curator Jason Vansickle said he’s hopeful the new owner of Rossi’s #98 NAPA machine will be able to work something out with the museum to keep the car at IMS, where is sits next to Ray Harroun’s Marmon Wasp that won the inaugural Indy 500 back in 1911.
“It’s a common misconception that the IMS Museum, or the Speedway, automatically receives the winning cars from the Indy 500,” Vansickle said. “But we have to rely on the generosity of private collectors to donate or sell them to us at below-market cost.”
Vansickle added that the museum only owns 33 Indianapolis 500 winning cars at the museum and the rest are on loan. Since the museum is a separate, non-profit entity from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Vansickle says the museum does not have the available funds to purchase the Rossi car.
Vansickle said Bowen Motorsports has listed on the bill of sale for the Mecum Auction that the car must at least be loaned to the IMS museum for the April, May and June months of every year.
In 2016, Rossi won the 500 as a rookie and coasted first across the finish line with an empty gas tank in one of the most dramatic Indy 500 wins in history.
(PHOTO: Robert Laberge/Getty Images)
