Business booming in Speedway, Ind.

INDIANAPOLIS » Delaney Hill sees a difference this May. Customers of the Dawson’s on Main she manages are flooding into the popular restaurant night after night — and not a penny is pinched.

It’s a welcome change for Hill and her family, which opened Dawson’s in 2006 a short walk from the southwestern corner of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It’s good news for everyone else around Speedway, Indiana, too.

For two years, COVID-19 restrictions kept crowds away from a community whose financial health is closely tethered to that of the iconic venue nearby — particularly in May. When things are normal, May revenue fills the coffers of local eateries and wineries, vendors and businesses, even school and charity fundraisers like it’s Christmas elsewhere.

With the Indianapolis 500 finally back to full capacity, the fans and dollars are flowing back home again and spurring a much needed economic boom.

“The year it was zero fans, it was a little bit of a ghost town,” Hill said, noting Indycar teams pitched in by ordering food in 2020. “Last year, we could see a lot more people than the previous year, but it wasn’t as exciting. This year, it’s the month of May and it feels like the month of May.”

The signs of resurgence are everywhere.

Speedway President Doug Boles said he is expecting the second-largest crowd since at least 2000 — the 2016 race was sold out — and reserved seating is nearly gone. Some 300,000 fans are expected on the grounds of the vast speedway on Sunday as the 500 resumes its role as the largest single-day sporting event in the world.

Chris Gahl, senior vice president of marketing and communications at Visit Indy, said the city’s roughly 8,400 downtown hotel rooms are nearly sold out and at least 4,000 local Airbnb properties have been booked. Hotels in suburban Indy are near capacity, too, and even rooms in Bloomington and Lafayette, each more than an hour’s drive from the track, are filling up fast.

Tom Beaudry of Speedway sells souvenirs at IndyCar races and said his sales have skyrocketed this year, his first with a booth inside IMS. Track officials have seen a similar trend with Boles describing the speedway’s merchandising sales as “through the roof.”