Ashley Stockwell and Brian Rexing will present milk to the winning driver and head mechanic
Dairy farmers will once again be part of the victory celebrations at the Indianapolis 500.
Ashley Stockwell, who with her husband runs Stockwell Farms in Hudson, is the Veteran Milk Presenter at the 110th race on May 24.
“I get to hand the (skim, whole, or chocolate) milk to the winning driver,” she told Farms.com. “Last year I was the rookie milk presenter and got to hand the milk to the team owner and crew chief mechanic.”
Brian Rexing, founder of New Generation Dairy in Owensville with his wife, and current chairman of the National Milk Producers Federation, is this year’s rookie presenter.
Dairy Farmers of America Facebook photo.
The tradition of winning drivers enjoying milk after the race in Victory Circle started in 1936.
After winning his third Indy 500, Louis Meyer asked for buttermilk to cool him down.
“His mother told him buttermilk would refresh him on a hot day, and it was a personal preference he carried,” the Indianapolis Motor Speedway website says.
Presenting the milk to the winning driver isn’t just about the celebration, Stockwell says.
That bottle of milk is symbolic of the thousands of dairy farms and producers across the country.
"I get to represent all of our fellow peers in the dairy industry and the dairy farm families,” she said.
Looking at racing and farming together, parallels can be drawn.
For Stockwell that’s another reason this opportunity is special.
“It’s two worlds colliding,” she said. “Race car drivers work hard all year during the season, just like farmers do. Race car drivers have a pit crew around them. Our pit crew is a nutritionist or a veterinarian. We know everything that’s happening with our animals the same way the drivers know everything that’s happening with their cars.”
The Indianapolis 500 is a major TV event.
The 2024 race, for example, had more than 7 million viewers in the U.S.
Those viewers would include people outside of agriculture.
Stockwell wants those viewers to remember that behind every farm is an average American family.
“We’re just like everybody else,” the mother of four said. “We just happen to own a dairy farm.”