'It's part of the fabric of the state': Curt Cignetti prepares for role as Indy 500 pace car driver

Following Indiana’s historic 16-0 national championship season, Curt Cignetti and IU football were bombarded with countless media requests and invitations for public appearances — but Cignetti and the Hoosiers said no to almost every single one of them.

IU wasn’t set on basking in its 2025 success. It was set on the road ahead, the road to back-to-back championships, and with a short turnaround after a lengthy season that ended on Jan. 19, Cignetti found that the vast majority of these events wouldn’t benefit the program and wouldn’t benefit the fans.

That is, with one glaring exception: the Indianapolis 500. Dubbed “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” the 500-mile, 200-lap IndyCar sensation was something that even Cignetti couldn’t say no to. He’ll be the honorary pace car driver on May 24, leading the field of 33 racers to the green flag before the festivities get started at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

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“We’ve said no to about 95% of them,” Cignetti explained. “I thought the Indy 500, everybody agreed, was a great one because it’s part of the fabric of the state. Great history, national event.”

Sports are huge in Indiana, and that was clear during the Hoosiers’ run to an undefeated national title, but there’s something even more special about the 500. During the race, Speedway becomes the second-largest city in the state, and it’s the highest-attended single-day sporting event in the world.

To be the pace car driver is an honor that cements your place as a celebrity, and Cignetti has certainly earned the part. He’s taken the state by storm and has become a phenomenon across the nation as a beacon for underdog stories.

For IMS, it was a fantastic choice, and for Cignetti, he simply couldn’t say no — even if that means he has to learn to drive a pace car.

His duties consist of three “parade” laps around the track, where Cignetti will drive the Corvette at about 100 mph. That’s obviously more than any car is supposed to drive on an actual road, but Cignetti did joke that he’s driven at high speeds on the freeway in the past.

“I can’t tell you the truth,” he said during spring practice. “But I bought a new Audi SQ8 the first summer I was employed here from down the road there, and that thing has got a lot of horsepower in it. One night within the first couple weeks that we owned it, my wife and I were returning from Ohio to see our son, and there was nobody on the highway.”

Cignetti wouldn’t admit if he went quite as fast as what his pace car is going to do, but as he was laughing with the media contingent present for the story, he acknowledged that he’ll be ready to turn up the speed at IMS.

More recently, as the calendar has flipped to May, Cignetti has been practicing on the track in preparation for his big day on the 24th.

“I had a little test drive about 10 days ago,” he said during IU’s fan event in Carmel this week. Former IndyCar driver Sarah Fisher has been showing him the ropes, as she’ll be the driver who follows Cignetti for the final official pace lap.

In describing how his practice went, Cignetti had a similar moment to the one where he was driving on the highway with no one else on the road. “We did have one funsy after about 15 or 16 laps out there. I gunned it and got it going a little bit. I’m probably not allowed to tell you how fast we went” he said with a laugh.

Cignetti won’t be going as fast as Fisher will, and after the three laps, he’ll have to get out of the way and let Fisher lead the 33 cars on the lap before the real thing begins.

“It’s got to be tempting to stay out there with the actual race cars,” Cignetti mentioned about the fact that he has to let Fisher take control for the final lap before the green flag comes out.

Executing that switch can be nerve-wracking, but just how Cignetti coaches, he’s committed to getting better each day. And like how he wants his players to act, he’s listening to those teaching him and maintaining discipline in blocking out all the outside noise.

But when his foot hits the gas pedal to lead the cars to begin the race, he won’t be focused on the 350,000-plus who will attend the 500.

“I got to be focused,” he said.

Cignetti may not be going as fast as the drivers will be throughout the race, but he’ll still be going at intense speeds compared to everyday driving. It’s not a completely easy task, but of course, neither was taking the once-losingest FBS program to a 16-0 national champion.

Indiana’s head coach isn’t taking it lightly and understands how much the 500 means to a large part of his fan base.

“People are fired up,” Cignetti added. “And it’s good to see them excited. Now it’s our job to keep them excited.”

In a month that isn’t usually filled with many — if any — college football headlines, Cignetti continues to dominate the headlines and dominate the interests of the state.

As fans pack IMS or gather around television sets across the country, they’ll see Indiana’s head coach kick off a special day rooted in Indiana pride. IU football is now woven into the fabric of the sporting culture so important to the Hoosier state, as it’s fitting that Cignetti will be the pace car driver — making it impossible for Cignetti to say no.

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