The United States Space Force joined the Air Force on the grid on this year’s Indy 500 as the principal sponsor of IndyCar driver and team owner Ed Carpenter.
With the start of the Indy 500 earlier this evening, viewers got a glimpse of the all-black Space Force livery of Ed Carpenter’s No. 20 car. The sponsorship continues a long tradition of United States military branches sponsoring sports teams as a means to drive recruitment.
“The partnership gives the U.S. Space Force the ability to reach a large number of prospects and influencers through the far-reaching broadcast viewership and media coverage both for and leading up to the race,” said Maj. Jason Wyche, Chief of Air Force and Space Force Recruiting National Events Marketing Branch.
Carpenter’s No. 20 Space Force car is joined on the grid by his teammate Conor Daly’s US Air Force sponsored No. 47 car. Daly has a long-standing partnership with the Air Force and for the Indy 500 sported an orange livery created as a homage to the Bell 1-X, the first crewed airplane to exceed the speed of sound.
The US Space Force and Air Force cars qualified middle of the pack with Carpenter taking 16th and Daly 18th. The pair are currently not faring much better with Carpenter in 28th thirteen laps behind the leader and Daly in 29th another 21 laps back.
