On This Day: May 30, 1993 — Fittipaldi Drinks the OJ
On May 30, 1993, Emerson Fittipaldi crossed the yard of bricks first at the 77th Indianapolis 500, beat Arie Luyendyk by 2.862 seconds, and then committed what some fans still call the single most baffling marketing decision in American auto racing history: he refused the bottle of milk in Victory Lane and reached for orange juice instead. ABC’s cameras were rolling. The Brazilian crowd at home went wild. The Indiana dairy farmers, somehow, did not.
The 1993 Indy 500 should have been remembered for the racing. A 46-year-old two-time Formula One world champion held off the reigning F1 champion, the pole-sitter, and a 53-year-old Mario Andretti running his final competitive Indy. Instead, it’s remembered for a beverage. That’s a particularly 1993 problem, and it’s a story that gets weirder the closer you look at it.
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The 1993 Indy 500 Field That Made Sense Only on Paper
Pole day at Indianapolis Motor Speedway is where the year’s headlines get written, and 1993’s pole was a curveball nobody expected. Arie Luyendyk, the Dutchman who had already won the 500 in 1990, posted 223.967 mph in qualifying and took the front spot. Behind him sat a roster that read more like a Formula One reunion than a CART grid.
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The Retro Almanac
A monthly roundup of "on this day" highlights from that month, decades back — plus first dibs on new retro merch drops. No spam, just the good stuff.
