Despite a brief scare this week, Indianapolis 500 fans who’ve grown used to obtaining placards to park in private businesses typically blocked off due to race day traffic patterns have no reason to worry about their parking plans for next year’s edition of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

Wednesday evening, fans who had already purchased a parking spot for the sizable lot at the southwest corner of 16th Street and Olin Avenue, owned and operated by private company Turn 2 Indy and not the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, began receiving letters, refunds, or both regarding their reserved parking spots for the 2025 Indy 500. In the letter, a copy of which X user Bryan Friedrich posted to the social media platform, Turn 2 Indy told its customers that the “Indy 500 traffic committee” had decided not to issue traffic placards that had been necessary to gain access to areas otherwise cordoned off by roadblocks on race day morning.

After 35 years of parking dozens of cars and RVs in its lot, Turn 2 Indy thought it would not be able to host fans — some of whom had made parking there part of their longtime race day morning plans.

It appears, however, the owners and operators of the lot had a miscommunication with Speedway city officials and members of the police department, according to IMS president Doug Boles.

One to remember: Relive the rainy — and rad — 108th running

After the issue was brought to Boles’ attention Thursday evening, he says he spoke with the Speedway Police chief — the city’s police force issues the placards each year that allowed holders to drive past barriers that otherwise blocked certain streets and access to some private businesses — and was told there had been no such decision and there is no Indy 500 traffic committee. There is a ‘law enforcement committee’ made up of local, city and state law enforcement officials that IMS works with to form traffic plans and patterns for race day.

Boles also said he spoke with the parking lot owners, Friday, who said they would be reaching back out to customers to communicate that parking abilities had been reinstated so those who’d grown used to parking there could ensure their spots would be secured and paid for for next May after refunds had been issued.

According to Boles, two-thirds of the nearly 350,000 Indy 500 race day fans park on property somewhere that IMS doesn’t own — whether it’s a side street, private business, private lot or a homeowner’s front lawn. Despite this week’s confusion, there’s no plans to hinder or scale back those capabilities, he said.

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Fantastic Friday with lower humidity in place this afternoon. Cooler weekend with low humidity and dry conditions.

TODAY: A cold front moved through the state late last night. This is bringing less humid air across parts of Indiana for the afternoon hours. Look for lots of sunshine today. We will see high temperatures into the upper 70s right around 80 in Central Indiana. Southern Indiana will climb into the lower 80s later this afternoon. Humidity values continue to drop as the afternoon continues. 

Debby is still producing some rain and even stronger thunderstorms across parts of the northeast for the first part of the day today. That system continues to push off to the east and that moves the weather pattern a little bit here across parts of the Great lakes. 

TONIGHT: Skies will be mostly clear and it is going to be on the crisp side. We’ll see those temperatures falling into the 50s across much of the state. 

COOLER WEEKEND

We have a cooler weekend on tap with temperatures staying into the 70s for afternoon highs. Lots of sunshine on your Saturday after a crisp start. We’ll see temperatures climbing into the mid 70s for the afternoon. That’s about 10 degrees or so below normal. We will see temperature starting out into the upper 50s and lower 60s as we begin Sunday morning. So if you’re out tailgating for the Colts preseason game on Sunday it will be comfortable with low humidity and those temperatures into the lower 60s. Sunny skies with a few clouds here and there across parts of the state on Sunday. It will be dry temperatures will be climbing into the upper 70s 

7 DAY EXTENDED FORECAST: Next week is still looking good. On Monday sunny skies low humidity values with temperatures near 80. And it looks like we have a long dry stretch. Dry conditions through the middle part of the week with the next chance of rain not until Thursday. 

FRANKLIN, Ind. (WISH) — An Indianapolis man was sentenced for pointing a firearm at another driver in March 2023, according to a news release on Thursday.

On Aug. 2, Jeremy Haskett was sentenced to a year and a half in prison after a Johnson County jury convicted him of pointing a firearm (a level 6 felony). The jury convicted Haskett on May 14, 2024. The sentence was suspended to probation.

Haskett pointed a gun at another driver in March 2023 near the intersection of U.S. 31 and County Line Road. At trial, the victim and another witness unrelated to either party both testified about Haskett’s actions.

“This is another example of out of county miscreants endangering the lives and safety of our citizens,” said Johnson County Prosecutor Lance Hamner. “We can’t have people driving through our community waving guns around and pointing them at people just because they’re having a temper tantrum.”