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

Welcome to our annual Indy 500 fun report — basically, coverage of everything but the actual race. If race updates are what you're looking for, you can find all that and more over at IndyStar Sports.

It's finally race day.

One of the greatest artists of our time — this deeply inebriated Indy 500 fan — described the experience better than we ever could:

I started drinking at 6 a.m. We're here now, I don't know what time it is, but I'm rolling deep. And those cars are going real fast, and real left, son. They're going fast and left. F--k yeah.

We're just hours away from the green flag and the start of the 2024 Indianapolis 500, and we're just trying to get on his level (energy-wise — we're on the clock, folks). While the cars are making all those left turns, we'll be bringing you to the parties in and around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway: people-watching in the Snake Pit, roaming the infield, chilling in the Coke Lot, catching up with celebs on the red carpet and wherever else our credentials can get us in.

Stay here for updates from IndyStar's Domenica Bongiovanni, Kayla Dwyer, Bradley Hohulin, Nadia Scharf and Jade Thomas, with commentary from yours truly. Now, let's go racing.

Indy 500 weather: Does forecast today call for rain at 108th Indy 500? Bring an umbrella

Live Indy 500 coverage from IMS

Indy 500 celebrities: Catching up with Austin Butler, Flavor Flav, Ken Griffey Jr. and more

In addition to people-watching, there's a lot of good celeb-watching opportunities at the Indianapolis 500. Before the rain started, Domenica caught up with a few of them on the red carpet.

Fans in no rush to evacuate despite storm warning

Despite requests from Indianapolis Motor Speedway officials to evacuate the grandstands due to the coming storm, some fans opted to stay in their seats until the weather came closer.

“It’s packed down there (under the grandstands) and we’re going to wait until it starts raining to move down there,” said Jeff Nelson, 44, of Westfield, who has attended well over 20 races.

Added his friend Jerrald Fox, who's visiting from Atlanta: “I came to see the race, and I’m not leaving until I see it.”

'We're not leaving': Indy 500 fans wait out storm after IMS issues evacuation order

More: What if the Indy 500 is delayed? Will it start on Monday? Tuesday?

Flavor Flav and Mario Andretti walk into IMS...

...and Flav asks for an autograph. It's not even the setup to a joke. That just happened.

Read more: 'Yo, somebody give me a Sharpie!' Flavor Flav meets hero Mario Andretti at Indy 500

Indy 500 fans asked to leave grandstands, Snake Pit

As expected, the storm system has stayed on track, and fans have been asked to leave the grandstands and Snake Pit. Fans who decide to go to their cars to wait out the rain will be allowed back in the speedway.

Is the Indy 500 delayed due to rain?

More than likely. IMS President Doug Boles just gave us an update here in the media center. Here's what you need to know: If the storm continues its current trajectory, officials will ask fans in the grandstands and concertgoers in the Snake Pit to evacuate and seek shelter until the storm passes. Once the rain stops, they'll begin the process of drying the track, when takes over an hour.

So, sit tight, and we'll let you know what we know as soon as we know it.

Indy 500 fans might need to evacuate: What to know about staying safe at the speedway

See photos of the 2024 Indy 500 Snake Pit

I have heartburn just looking at these photos. And I'm still in my 20s.

Hope you had flexible bookings, folks

If the Houtens and the Gibbs were back in Auckland, New Zealand, a little rain wouldn’t be a big deal at all.

Kelvin Houten and Andrew Gibb, friends for 40-plus years, usually camp out at racing events around New Zealand and Australia for up to a week at a time, in the rain and mud. There, drivers put on special tires and drive through the rain.

“This one’s got seats — that’s a novelty for us,” Houten laughed.

Three Kiwis are racing today, one of whom, Scott McLaughlin, is the pole-sitter.

Attending the 500 has always been a bucket-list item for Houten, who turned 60 this year.

Their families made a whole two weeks out of it: LA and Las Vegas for the Gibbs, New York and Maine for the Houtens. Next stop: Chicago.

Even if rain does delay the race, they have no qualms about staying an extra day or two in Indianapolis.

“We didn’t come halfway around the world just to go home,” Houten said.

Cracking open the ceremonial first beer

Kathy Hoppenrath, 71, cracked open a cold Miller Lite nestled into a bright blue sleeve and declared, “Ceremonial first sip, everyone!”

Kathy and her friends arrived at their usual parking spot at a home behind Lot 2 around 9 a.m. Kathy’s husband, Bill, and his brother, Jim, have been coming to the 500 for 48 years.

Kathy passed around the can of Miller Lite and smiled as each person took a swig. FaceTime calls rang out as people who were at home partook in the tradition from behind their phone screens.

“It’s kind of a mini reunion,” Kathy said.

Kathy's first 500 was in 1983, right after she began dating Bill.

Her fondest memory is when she met Paul Newman. Kathy spotted him near his trailer and unlike the gaggle of fans around him clamoring for an autograph, she played it cool.

“Good luck today, Mr. Newman,” she said to him before shaking his hand.

“She about floated all the way up the stands after that,” Bill said.

Ginny Mende, 46, is a family friend of the Hoppenraths. She's been coming to the 500 off and on since she was 17.

After the ceremonial first beer, Mende mentioned another tradition. Each person in the group picks racers names out of a hat and puts them in their lanyard, alongside their ticket. Whoever wins uses the pot to buy pizza for the group.

Race day is sort of a spiritual experience...

...so does today count as a worship service? In Speedway, Indiana, it just might.

At Indianapolis Motor Speedway, 'everyone is like immediate family'

It’s not Pacers blue and gold Ludvig Mellberg, Alice Stridbeck and Matilda Mellberg are wearing but the colors of the flag of their home country, Sweden.

Complete with little propeller hats, the three Swedes in their young 20s staked out their hilltop spot overlooking Turn 4 around 6 am, ready to cheer on Indycar’s Swedish drivers — particularly Marcus Ericsson.

They’ve got an even more personal local connection in 32-year-old Clay Warner of Avon, sitting behind them. Ludvig Mellberg and Warner both work in the racing auto parts industry — Mellberg a mechanic, Warner on the design side. Their friendship solidified when Mellberg came to town for a Performance Racing Industry trade show two years ago. Mellberg caught the bug: he wanted to come to a 500 and this year, his sister and a friend joined him.

“It’s a party, it’s racing, it’s huge, and so many nice people,” Mellberg said.

Swedes are known for being more reserved, Stridbeck explained. But here, they’ve been greeted enthusiastically by other race-goers, all just looking for a good time.

“Here, everyone is like immediate family,” she said.

Name recognition goes a long way in elections AND racing, apparently

One of the greatest jackets at the Speedway belongs to Susan Burch, 62. She's been coming for 30 years, and she adds a pin every race day.

Burch and friend Dianna Napariu, 64, don't have strong feelings about who wins this year — "Sting Ray Robb," Napariu joked, "because I like his name" — but they used to. They knew the pit crew when they first started coming, so they had some favorite drivers: Al Junior and Danny Sullivan in particular.

Burch lives in Montana now, but she's come the past few years to spend the day with Napariu and other friends. Her jacket stays in Indiana, though — "it's too heavy!"

Traveling 4,000 miles for the 500-mile race

How far would you travel in the search for great racing? Three friends from the Netherlands said their over-4,000-mile journey to IMS is worth every second.

Hans Hulsebos, 60, decked out in Rinus Veekay merch, prefers IndyCar racing over the predominantly European series, Formula 1. He started coming to Indy with his friend, Ed van den Ham, 71, around 2010 and another friend, Charly Corjanus, 35, joined in four years ago.

For Corjanus, the 500 “is not just about the race.” It’s about the relationships folks make with each other.

“It’s more human,” she said. “You can meet the drivers and see them.”

As for the weather, this group is completely unbothered. If the race is moved to Monday, they’ll still be here, camping in a trailer.

“I’m not worried,” Hulsebos said. “I’m Dutch.”

Snake Pit update: Borgs are back!!!

And the names are GOOD this year, too!

It’s 8:30 a.m., and Australian DJ Timmy Trumpet is serving up “drum and bass for breakfast.” But there’s plenty more on the menu in the Snake Pit.

Remember how borgs were a thing? Some Indy 500 fans are carrying jugs of liquid. What's in them?

Charred chunks of chicken and pork line the grills of Ardy’s Kabobs, delivering a quick hit of protein via skewer. Instead of toast or bagels, spectators take their grains fermented courtesy of Miller-Coors and Yuengling. There’s also plenty of morning tea, so long as you take it Twisted. And if you’re trying to get in your vitamins, don’t worry — fruit juice is a popular ingredient in several pastel-colored borgs (black-out rage gallons) carried by spectators throughout the pit. The mobile, boozy juice bar features such selections as “Borgaritaville,” “Borgering on alcoholism” and “The Battle of Gettysborg.”

Doug Boles on IndyStar Pit Pass Live: 'No good answer' to weather concerns

IMS President Doug Boles says on the "Pit Pass Live" preview show that biggest challenge facing race fans will be lightning.

"It's a challenge and there's no good answer," he said.

Boles said that in a break from a usual race day, IMS officials will allow fans to leave the track and re-enter should weather delay or interrupt the race.

The National Weather Service is still estimating the rain will arrive between noon and 1 p.m.

Good morning from the IMS Media Center

I don't know if this says more about my resting heart rate or my caffeine tolerance, given that I had a homemade cold brew at 4 a.m. and have since had three cans of Starbucks Nitro Cold Brew on top of it, but my Apple Watch only just asked me if I'm ready to start my day because it seems like I'm awake. Unless I'm dreaming and I slept through all three of my alarms, I've been here since 5:50 a.m.

My colleagues on IndyStar Sports are going live with their annual pre-race show at 8:30. As a non-race-watcher, I always learn what I need to know before the race from our motor sports insider, Nathan Brown.

Watch now: Pit Pass Live show previews Indy 500 from Gasoline Alley with stars of racing

They're smoking meat in a trash can in Turn 4

Here’s an economical way to smoke pork ribs and chicken for an early morning tailgate in Turn 4: some smoking chips and a giant metal trash can.

That’s what a group of high school friends from Northern Indiana have been doing since 2011, give or take a few years as they’ve moved away to start jobs and families. They’ve had tailgates as large as 125 people. This year, just 30 to 35.

“Which will be nice for me,” says 39-year-old Tony Chapman, the cook, “because it’s less work.”

“And I’m the sous chef,” Joe Gramelspacher chimed in, pulling ribs from a marinade.

The Snake Pit is already Snake Pitting

Jorts. Borgs. Mosh pits. You won’t find any of these words in the Bible, but they’re as good as scripture in the Snake Pit.

Hundreds of people are already swarmed in front of the stage at 7:30 a.m.

“Raise your hands if you’ve got a cold drink already and you don’t give a f—!” DJ Maestro implores the pre-concert crowd from his turntable.

At least a dozen different Coors Light logos adorn the stage’s towering screens, a reassuring reminder that even in this hive of debauchery, brand synergy remains strong. Seemingly every square inch of the Speedway is dedicated to advertising. Even the sky isn’t off-limits — a plane overhead pulls a massive banner, urging those below to call now and rent the precious airborne signage.

The air is cool, the sky is pale blue. Rain may be on its way, but the Snake Pit doesn’t seem to care. Maestro begins spinning a bass-throbbing remix of Sean Paul’s “Temperature.” The 500 festivities are underway.

Are race delays possible?

Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Doug Boles gave a media update during the 6 a.m. hour, and here's the TL;DR: They're going to keep watching the forecast, and they'll let us know.

More: What IMS President Doug Boles says about Indy 500 weather, start time, safety

Indy 500 race day weather

(You can't see it, but I'm making this face while writing this part.) We've been holding our breath all week, and chances of rain today are... good. Well, they're not good for us, but they're good in the sense that rain is more likely to happen than not.

As of Saturday evening, the National Weather Service's forecast calls for an 80% chance of showers and thunderstorms before 4 p.m., with a high near 80 degrees and south-southeast winds gusting as high as 25 mph.

If there's moisture on the track, the race will be put on pause until conditions are safe enough for the cars to return. It could be a long day, so prepare accordingly and bring an umbrella (but only those small enough to avoid obscuring others' views). Speaking of...

Good to know: Why they don't run the Indy 500 in the rain

Get IMS and IndyStar alerts: How to stay informed in case of severe weather during Indy 500 weekend

What can I bring to Indianapolis Motor Speedway?

If you're still packing for race day, know that you generally can bring bags and coolers, alcohol (as long as it's not in glass containers), strollers, wheelchairs, lawn chairs and service animals. Do not bring weapons of any kind, carts and wagons or aerosol cans (except sunscreen).

For a full list of what you can and can't bring, read this article or check the permitted item list on the IMS website.

Procrastinator's guide to the Indy 500: When is it, what to bring, how to watch at home

What to know about the 2024 Indy 500

If you're bright-eyed and bushy-tailed already this morning (or you've been drinking in the Coke Lot since last night) and you're looking to fill time, here's a little pre-race reading:

About the race:

33 things to know about Indy 500: Drivers to watch, history on the line, Larson's 'Double'

Get to know the grid: A complete guide to the starting lineup for the 2024 Indianapolis 500

Who's on the pole? Get to know Scott McLaughlin, the 2024 Indianapolis 500 pole-sitter

What radio station is Indy 500 on? How to listen to race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

About the vibes:

'It's pretty much chaos': How a Speedway bar prepares for the Indianapolis 500

IMS museum renovations: A very early look inside the speedway's museum

Flying high: For these big spenders, there's only one way to really beat Indy 500 traffic

Snake Pit, Carb Day and Legends Day: Looking back at the good, the bad and the bizarre of Indianapolis 500 concerts

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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: 2024 Indy 500 live updates from Snake Pit, Coke Lot, infield and more