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Curt Cignetti’s already had a year most coaches can only dream about. Now he’s getting to drive the Pace Car at the Indianapolis 500.
The Indiana head coach will lead the field to green at the 110th running of the race on May 24, the NTT IndyCar Series announced Wednesday. It’s one of the state’s biggest honors, and it comes just months after Cignetti led the Hoosiers to their first national championship in program history.
Cignetti’s getting behind the wheel of a Chevrolet Corvette ZR1X to lead those 33 cars around the track. He joins a pretty exclusive club; sports legends like Ken Griffey Jr., Michael Strahan and Jim Harbaugh have all served as Pace Car drivers at the Indy 500.
“Coach Cignetti will have our field in a special victory lap formation as he leads the stars of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES to the green flag at this year’s Indy 500,” INDYCAR and IMS President J. Douglas Boles said in a press release. “His Hoosiers have been nothing short of remarkable, and their National Championship run inspired our entire state. He’s the perfect choice to drive the Chevrolet Pace Car, and I know his introduction on Race Day will bring out a special roar of appreciation from our crowd.”
The past two years have been absolutely wild for Cignetti and Indiana football.
His first season in Bloomington saw the Hoosiers go 11-2 and make the College Football Playoff. That was already historic for a program that’d never really been a contender on the national stage. Then he somehow topped it last year, going undefeated and winning the whole thing.
Indiana also produced quarterback Fernando Mendoza, who became the program’s first Heisman Trophy winner and is projected to go No. 1 overall in the 2026 NFL Draft. Cignetti himself won National Coach of the Year for the second straight season.
Driving around Indianapolis Motor Speedway in front of that crowd? That’s just another moment to cap off what’s been an incredible run. The man’s earned it.
