SPEEDWAY, Ind. – A schedule locked down to the millisecond. Millions of dollars of live television airtime on the line. Months of anticipation and precision coordination behind the scenes.
It is all part of what makes the annual running of the Indianapolis 500 and its surrounding festivities possible – the iconic race itself widely recognized as the largest single-day sporting event in the world.
Helping synchronize one of the event’s most visible traditions – the military flyovers that thunder above Indianapolis Motor Speedway – is the Indiana National Guard.
Each year, Indiana National Guard Soldiers work alongside federal, state and civilian aviation partners to coordinate multiple military flyovers tied to Indy 500 festivities. In 2026, the organization is scheduled to help execute five separate flyovers, culminating in intricate aerial presentations above the Indianapolis 500 itself.
As the events are broadcast around the world, special care is taken to ensure everything runs on time, down to the exact second. In a combat or training environment, a flyover would typically have to time its arrival at a target to within a minute, but at the Indy 500, the flight crew only has about a 3-second window. That allows them to fit neatly into the broadcast schedule, and for the race to go on as scheduled.
Chief Warrant Officer 4 Josh Wesner with the Indiana National Guard’s state aviation office has been participating in flyovers around the Indy 500 for the past five years. For the first time this year, he is part of the ground control team, helping ensure everything goes off without a hitch.
He and his team lead the months of coordinating and training that take place in the lead-up to May.
“Everything is scripted down to the second, and we are coordinating with a variety of different partners,” Wesner said. “So that presents its own challenges, but because Indianapolis Motor Speedway controls the script well, it usually is a lot easier than it seems.”
Perched at the top of the Speedway’s Pagoda overlooking the famous Yard of Bricks, Wesner and his colleagues work side-by-side with U.S. Air Force Reservists from Grissom Air Force Base to monitor time cues, communicate with pilots in real time and advocate for changes in aircraft speed that will impact arrival by mere seconds and ensure the flyover aligns precisely with the May 9 race-day program for the Indianapolis Grand Prix.
At the track, the flyover follows the national anthem. The team on the ground coordinates directly between the pilots and the broadcast booth to ensure a precise arrival time, having them back off or come in by just seconds, depending on the speed of the anthem singer.
The plane used for the Grand Prix flyover is a KC-135 Stratotanker, typically used to refuel aircraft in flight. For the race, though, it provides excited onlookers with a glimpse of the American military's capabilities.
“The person on the ground has to relay and stress the speed of the program as it is going on, over and over again,” Wesner said, shortly after another successful flyover for the Grand Prix. “We all know the national anthem is about two minutes and 36 seconds, so we can sort of pace the pilots off of that.”
Though the flyovers serve as a signature moment for race fans, these conditions are fertile ground for further training for the Soldiers and Airmen who patrol the skies. Year in and year out, the Indiana Army National Guard and its partners prove they can operate in high-visibility, congested airspace while still hitting precise timing windows.
The confidence that comes from that makes them know they’ll be ready when lives could be on the line.
“This is a skill set that is important for us to build,” said Air Force Capt. Sean Hanna, who flew the KC-135 over the Grand Prix. “Getting time on target right, utilizing our tools correctly and practicing flying low to the ground, just to name a few. That is all an important part of our overall mission set.”