YORKTOWN — For the past 24 years, Julie Harman Vance has designed the Indy 500 wreath the same way, with a few minor tweaks. She uses 33 orchids, one for each driver in the race. She has the same red, white and blue ribbon. The miniature checkered flags have gotten bigger, but there are no major differences. She has perfected it, she says.
But for the 100th Indy 500, which is Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, she wondered: Should I do something different? Something special to commemorate the historic race?
“I wanted to do metallic letters, put a 100 on it or something clever,” she said this week as she designed it.