dailynewsnblog
Everyone these days is talking about Formula One, and for good reason. It’s often referred to as the pinnacle of motorsport, and for the last seven years, it’s basically been my entire personality. But it’s not the only form of racing that deserves attention. Deep in the heart of America lives a major hub of the sport, where, for 110 years, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has hosted the Indianapolis 500, the greatest spectacle in motorsport. It’s 500 miles and 200 laps of top-speed racing, and one of the three events that make up the Triple Crown of Motorsport, the most important achievement any driver can reach. (Only one person has done it—that is, won the Indy 500, the Monaco Grand Prix, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans: Graham Hill.) The 500 is where good drivers separate from great ones—and I got to see it play out up close and personal.
Last weekend, I spent roughly 62 hours in Indianapolis, soaking it all in with TAG Heuer, the Official Timekeeper and Scorer of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES since 2004. For the 110th race and TAG’s 21st year in partnership with it, the Swiss watchmaker released a limited-edition Formula 1 Solargraph x Indy 500. Only 1,110 were made, making it one of the year’s most sought-after watch releases, especially for motorsport fans like myself—and the race’s sold-out crowd of over 350,000 people. To celebrate, we ate steaks, sipped champagne (Moët & Chandon, of course), looked at (and test-drove) watches, and watched some of the fastest cars on the face of the planet. Naturally, I added an Indiana Fever game to the itinerary, too.
Read all about it below.
72 Hours at the Indy 500
May 22, 2026 8:10 AM
I woke up bright and early on Friday morning only to be met by countless delays at LaGuardia. The lines were long, but the delays were longer. Luckily, I had just gotten my hair colored and blown out by the legendary Morgan Lee Cook the night before, so I was having a really good hair day, which does wonders for a person’s mood. The Delta Sky Club lounge helped too, so I enjoyed about a hundred cappuccinos and got a ton of work done. Airports make me especially productive. My 8:30 AM flight didn’t take off until around 12:30 PM, but I didn’t let it ruin my day. By 2:30 PM, I had touched down in Indianapolis, where I was met with a beautiful mix of TAG Heuer marketing for the race and advertisements for Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever. If you know me, you know I excitedly took lots of pictures.
May 22, 2026 6:12 PM
I had planned to meet my dad, who lives about an hour from Indianapolis, for lunch, but with the airport delays, we didn’t have time before tip-off. Yes, I did buy a last-minute ticket to the Fever vs. Golden State Valkyries game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse the second I arrived at my hotel, The Alexander. I quickly freshened up before he picked me up, and we went to Harry & Izzy’s, an iconic local steakhouse, for martinis. The stadium is only a five-minute walk from the restaurant, so around 7:15 PM, I said goodbye to my dad and walked in the drizzling rain to the game, stopping first in the team store to contemplate buying yet another Clark jersey. There’s a new Rebel version that I’ve been eyeing, but the line was too long, so, instead, I left to find my seat.
May 22, 2026 7:32 PM
I made it just in time for tip-off. My seat was incredible, and I sat next to the long-time season-ticket holder who sold it to me. He knew everyone in the building and cheered just as loudly as I did when Aliyah Boston won the tip-off, passing it to Clark, who went on a tear right away, gaining her first of nine assists when she passed it to Kelsey Mitchell, who made a beautiful driving finger roll layup to start the game. Monique Billings followed that up with a steal, passing it to Clark, who made a two-point jump shot, a fairly new addition to her bag. A minute later, she made her first of four threes, and Gainbridge erupted.
Because of the timing of our welcome dinner at St. Elmo, my favorite old school steakhouse, maybe ever, I couldn’t stay for the whole game. I left at halftime to walk to the restaurant, which is right next to Harry & Izzy’s, so it took me about five minutes. Sometimes, I really appreciate small cities—I never have to Uber anywhere.
May 22, 2026 8:38 PM
When I arrived at the over 120-year-old restaurant, I found it packed to the brim with locals and visitors for the race weekend. The hostess took me down to the basement, through a dinner hosted by Arrow McLaren IndyCar Team and a wine cellar, and into a private room where TAG Heuer’s welcome dinner was held. Everyone had just started to arrive, and we enjoyed glasses of Moët to start the night. The food, as always, was incredible, with the restaurant’s famous shrimp cocktail being the star of the show. The sauce is made with fresh-ground horseradish root and will clear up your sinuses with one bite.
With the Fever game still going on, I had no choice but to stream it on the WNBA app, and a few other attendees joined me in watching my team come out on top in the end, winning 90 to 82. We ate steaks of all cuts, an abundance of sides, and enjoyed chocolate cake and cheesecake to finish off the meal.
May 22, 2026 11:33 PM
Right before leaving, I remembered my journey through the wine cellar earlier in the evening, and had to get photos inside. I wore a sleeveless turtleneck from COS with my favorite Colleen Allen low-rise trousers and a pair of Bottega Veneta stretch-thong sandals that I haven’t taken off since I splurged on them in Rome over the summer. Thankfully, I grabbed a Coach leather motorcycle jacket before I left for the airport, so I had something warm to go on top. I wasn’t prepared in the slightest for the chilly rain in Indy, but then again, when have I ever properly packed for the weather?
May 23, 2026 7:15 AM
Hotel gyms hate to see me coming, especially before 8:00 AM. It’s mostly because I’m terrible at sleeping on press trips, no matter how comfortable a hotel’s beds are. I never do anything very impressive in them, but I did get in two miles on the treadmill and a small circuit workout that woke me up and prepared me for the long day ahead.
May 23, 2026 11:07 AM
After I left the gym and got ready for the day, I stopped at the cutest coffee shop, Amberson Coffee & Grocer, before we headed to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Legends Day, a day dedicated to the fans that always takes place on the Saturday before the race. It’s also when all the drivers are announced and introduced. This year, a few spoke to fans, like fan favorites Pato O’Ward and Alexander Rossi. We got a front-row seat for all of it, and I naturally snuck up to see the legendary Borg-Warner Trophy, which is the size of a 5’4” human and features three-dimensional carvings of the faces of every Indy 500 winner. Pretty impressive.
May 23, 2026 11:39 AM
Later, we headed to watch people do hot laps on the track and explore. Trinidad Alamos, a fashion editor at L’OFFICIEL who also attended the trip, and I got the celebrity treatment, getting photographed in our TAG Heuer timepieces. We then proceeded to take a hundred photos of each other. Shocker.
May 23, 2026 2:20 PM
(Image credit: Courtesy of TAG Heuer)
The exploration continued with a tour of the legendary garages known as Gasoline Alley. These aren’t technically used for active races, but they stand to represent the storied history of the 500. Instead, drivers and teams use more modern accommodations during the race, but Gasoline Alley still gets plenty of traffic, with fans, drivers, teams, and more visiting and using the garages for other instances. Originally, they were wooden, barn-like structures where early Indy 500 mechanics and crews would work until the mid-1980s. After the tour, we headed to the IMS Museum, where you can walk through a recreation of Gasoline Alley through the 500’s history.
May 23, 2026 4:57 PM
By the time we got back to the hotel after Legends Day, I knew that if I even so much as stepped into my room, I’d do the worst thing possible: Fall asleep. So, instead, a few of us went to Vintage Kulture, a vintage sportswear store I discovered when I was in Indy last summer for the WNBA All-Star Game. It’s a treasure trove of vintage sports tees, Levi’s, hats, and more, all for great prices that you’d never find in New York City.
May 23, 2026 8:25 PM
(Image credit: Courtesy of TAG Heuer)
I’d heard about TAG Heuer’s dinner at Wheelhouse Social Club from 2025, so I was thoroughly excited to see it IRL. Wheelhouse is a private car club where people store some of the most beautiful sports cars I’ve ever seen. They don’t host dinners—like ever—but they make an exception for TAG, allowing guests of the brand to dine alongside the irreplaceable vehicles. I was like a kid in a candy store, taking pictures of every single one I could see in the dimly lit warehouse.
I was also glad for the occasion, because I’ve been dying to break out the new cashmere halter dress that I scored at Prada’s most recent sample sale. It reminds me of a dress worn by Carla Bruni during a fitting at Prada in the ’90s that I have pinned on Pinterest probably 100 times. I paired it with Manolo Blahnik Maysale mules, my well-loved 1995 Re-Edition Prada bag, and the TAG Heuer 39mm Carrera Date I borrowed for the weekend.
May 24, 2026 12:43 PM
(Image credit: Courtesy of TAG Heuer)
Race day in Indianapolis! We left early, around 9:00 AM, in two buses led by police escorts to make it to the track in record time. There’s nothing like driving into the neighborhoods that surround the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the day of the 500. There are people everywhere—parked on lawns, cooking breakfast in front of RVs, and full-on partying bright and early in the morning. It’s like the tailgates I used to go to in college in Iowa, but about a dozen times bigger. When we got inside, we dropped our stuff off at TAG Heuer’s suite before heading down to the track. The Indiana Pacers were hanging out in the suite next to ours, so I, of course, freaked out like I’d spotted Paul McCartney or something.
After grabbing a bite, a few of us headed up to the top balcony, where you can get 360º views of the track, inside which you can fit the entire Vatican City, as well as the White House. It was there that we watched the pre-race extravaganza. There’s nothing like it. I’ve been to the 500 before, but many of the attendees with TAG hadn’t yet, so it was cool to see it through their eyes. There are helicopters, fireworks, and cannons. The best part is the flyover, which is so loud that you can feel it in your chest. As this year’s Grand Marshall, Clark was responsible for delivering the iconic line, “Drivers, to your cars!”
May 24, 2026 1:24 PM
(Image credit: Courtesy of TAG Heuer)
The race is 200 laps in total, so there’s plenty of time to watch it from multiple vantage points and really soak in all the action. This year, there were a few different crashes and rain delays, so it was even longer than usual, which made it even more fun. (Everyone was okay and no one got soaked until the very end, when we left the track to head back to the buses.) Because of how long the 500 is, there are multiple stages to the race, so there’s no shortage of excitement.
I went into the race cheering on two drivers: O’Ward, who I watched nearly win it a few years ago, and Alex Palou, the winner of the 2025 Indy 500. The latter is a TAG Heuer ambassador, so we got to chat with him on Saturday about his pre-race routine, watch collection, and feelings going into the race. He started on pole, otherwise known as first place, so my hopes were high for a repeat win for the Spanish driver.
Though I didn’t end up buying Clark’s new jersey, I did pack one on the trip, initially thinking I’d wear it to the game if I ended up getting tickets. I thought against it, given the formal nature of St. Elmo, and decided to wear it to the race instead. My favorite hack is to buy youth-size jerseys because of how much cheaper they are. They’re also shorter, so you don’t have to tuck them in. I paired mine with the same black Colleen Allen trousers I wore on night one and my trusty pair of Reformation Inez Pumps. They’re far more comfortable than the other shoes I packed, making them perfect for a long day of racing.
May 24, 2026 4:30 PM
(Image credit: Courtesy of TAG Heuer)
This year’s Indy 500 ended in dramatic fashion, with the closest finish in the race’s history. In a one-lap dash following a red flag, Felix Rosenqvist came from behind to beat David Malukas by just 0.0233 seconds, earning him a slew of prizes, from the new TAG Heuer Formula 1 Solargraph x Indy 500 to a $4.34 million payout. The Swede celebrated by drenching himself in whole milk and kissing the famous bricks—two of many traditions at the 500—and likely calling his wife, who was at home with their newborn daughter, Stella, who was born just a few weeks shy of the race. “Hey, Emille and Stella, I wish you were here,” he said in a radio message, immediately after crossing the line and hearing his race engineer announce his victory. “I honestly think I’m in a dream.”
May 24, 2026 10:02 PM
It takes a famously long time to get out of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, so by the time we got back to the hotel, it was late, and everyone on the bus was tired and hungry. Luckily, there was a deliciously casual dinner waiting for us, so I quickly got changed out of my race clothes and headed back downstairs to eat. I just wore a Reformation pencil skirt, Bottega Veneta sandals, and a white tank top underneath my ever-present Coach jacket. By 10:30 PM, I was in bed, reading my Kindle and preparing to pass out.
May 25, 2026 8:25 AM
The next morning, I let myself sleep in and lazily packed up my bags before heading out on a walk around Indy. My flight wasn’t until around 11:00 AM, so I had time to grab a coffee and just stretch my legs. The city isn’t very big, at least downtown isn’t, and it was pretty quiet given that it was Memorial Day, so I circled the entire place twice and then headed back to the hotel to wait for my car pickup. By 9:30 AM, I was at the airport, awaiting my flight back to New York. There were no delays this time, so I made it home by 1:30 PM and immediately started packing up my apartment. Did I mention that I’m to Los Angeles—in two days?
