Could darkness cut short a rain-delayed Indy 500? Why IMS doesn't have lights

Update: Josef Newgarden won the 108th running of the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, well before the race would have been impacted by darkness.

INDIANAPOLIS — With thunderstorms delaying the 108th running of the Indianapolis 500 into Sunday afternoon, an additional threat to the race's completion has arisen: darkness.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway does not have lights to support night racing, which means that Sunday's race, if delayed significantly, could run out of light before it ends. Sundown in Indianapolis is at 9:02 p.m., and continued cloudy conditions could create dark conditions on the track before then. Race officials are expected to end the 2024 race by 8:15 p.m. if it's still running by then to mitigate potentially unsafe racing conditions due to darkness.

The Indy 500 has always been a daytime race, but the possibility of adding lights to the track has been discussed previously. IndyStar sports reporter Dana Hunsinger Benbow wrote this story of an ill-fated effort to bring lights to IMS, originally published in 2019:

From 2019: Why there won't be lights at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Brickyard 400

The sparks fly at Charlotte, Kentucky and Texas, just as they do at Richmond, Kansas and Bristol. Fiery orange and yellow flames spit from the backs of race cars as they blow around these speedways' tracks, the stars twinkling above, night settled in.

A car with a full load of fuel bottoms out...

"And it's this incredible spark show, this fire show," said Eddie Gossage, president of Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. "It's unbelievable."

Get the latest: What IMS President Doug Boles says about Indy 500 weather, start time, safety

That's the beauty of a night race — the cars look surreal. But there are plenty of other positives to taking to the track when evening falls. Tires grip better when the track is cooler. Having lighted speedways means day races disrupted by bad weather can be moved to night. Fans don't have to endure sweltering conditions during summer afternoons.

And for fans and drivers, it's nostalgic, hearkening back to the first race most of them experienced: a night race on a short track.

IndyCar and NASCAR have raced at night for decades. And as the struggling Brickyard 400 descends on Indianapolis this weekend, the question has been asked: Would a Saturday night race bring back the Brickyard's glory? Would adding lights to Indianapolis Motor Speedway even make sense?

"As far as the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is concerned, my question would be, 'Why?'" said Bob Jenkins, a former television and radio announcer for ESPN, ABC and NBC, who did the television broadcast for the first Brickyard 400. "Why would you ever want to put lights up?"

Lights at Indianapolis Motor Speedway: It almost happened

Few people know it, but talk of night racing at IMS was getting serious in 2013.

The track was making plans for a $90 million renovation, dubbed Project 100, timed for the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 in 2016.

"We did a massive inventory of the facility and said, 'If we had all the money in the world what would we want?'" said IMS president Doug Boles. The wish list included $200 million worth of projects and lighting the speedway was near the top, he said.

The fun blog: Live Indy 500 fun report: Fans asked to leave stands, Snake Pit as storm looms

"We did look at it more from the perspective of, could we move the Brickyard to a Saturday night race," Boles said. "And, at some level, that was an interesting proposition."

But as speedway officials started breaking down costs and researching what a massive project it would be, they had to cut lighting from the wish list.

"By the time you light the race track, get all the power to the infrastructure, lighting restrooms, concession stands, parking lots,"' Boles said, "you're in that $20 million (range)."

Other projects were more critical. The return on investment for adding lights to IMS wasn't high enough.

That was, in part, because the Indianapolis 500 would never move to the evening.

"That’s just the way that race has been run, so if you had lights, it wouldn't be changing the start time of the Indy 500," Boles said. Though, he said, it would allow the race to be moved to night if needed due to weather, rather than moving it to Memorial Day.

Pulling in other races seemed unlikely — and only gets more unlikely as years pass, he said.

"At that point in time even five, six years ago, there were more NASCAR races under the lights," he said. "Today, some of those race tracks that used to run under the lights have gone back to (day races)."

Before IMS would seriously consider a night Brickyard race, officials would first have to have a conversation with NASCAR and NBC, which has television rights. 

"At this point in time," Boles said, "we aren’t going to see lights at Indianapolis Motor Speedway."

Jenkins doesn't think a lighted track is the answer to the Brickyard's woes.

"The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the greatest race track in the world, period. It's a shrine for me. But it's not the best track for stock cars. And that's why Brickyard attendance has dropped off significantly from when it started here," said Jenkins. "I don't think it would make any difference if the track was lighted."

Lighting at IMS a long shot

Charlotte Motor Speedway was the first NASCAR track to install lights in 1992, nearly 30 years ago. Texas Motor Speedway opened with lights in 1997 and was the first track to do a night time IndyCar race. It has ever since, holding the Texas Grand Prix two Saturdays after Memorial Day weekend.

Lighting such a massive area presents challenges, said Gossage. IndyStar reached out to Musco, which lights almost all the sports arenas and stadiums in the United States, but didn't get a response.

"You have the challenge of being able to light a race track that is so much bigger than a football stadium," he said. Gossage worked at Charlotte when it was built. Musco had just finished the Rose Bowl and told him it took 10 times the lighting and wiring to light up that 1.5 mile track and its surroundings.

There is also the type of lighting. It's different than what's needed in a basketball arena or football stadium.

"You have to light a track so the driver can see even the smallest detail, a piece of metal, a nut, a bolt," Gossage said.

In his experience, for the tracks he's been part of, Gossage said lighting has been well worth it. The stands are packed with fans who love how fast the cars look, the beams bouncing off their colorful coats and those sparks that fly.

Yet, for IMS?

"It would seem to be a long shot for Indy, the tradition of the Indy 500," he said. "And the Brickyard? I can't see it."

110 years of magic

Logistically speaking, IndyCar radio announcer Jake Query wonders how a night race at IMS would even work. The speedway is plopped in the middle of commercial businesses and butts up against neighborhoods.

It's one thing to have 250,000 fans -- what IMS seats -- pour in and out of the speedway from morning until late afternoon.

"Depositing 200,000 people onto the streets at 11 p.m. or midnight becomes a logistical challenge," he said.

Tradition comes into play, too. IMS is 110 years old. The Indy 500 has run 103 times. Query recalls the uproar when Wrigley Field had its first night game in 1988.

"It was blasphemy, it was a break of tradition," he said. "Lights were going to make Wrigley like everyone else."

Everything, of course, turned out just fine and the novelty of the night games at Wrigley wore off. Still, Query doesn't predict IMS will take that route.

"Will there ever be lights? I guess you can never say never," he said. "But it would surprise me if there were any immediacy to it. There have been 103 installments of the Indianapolis 500 and it's as fantastic an event as it was from the third, so why change it? There are certain things that don't need to be changed."

Jenkins agrees wholeheartedly.

"I hope it never happens," he said. "I don't think it ever will."

Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on Twitter: @DanaBenbow. Reach her via e-mail: dbenbow@indystar.com.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Why Indianapolis Motor Speedway doesn't have lights for night racing