Christian Bale and Matt Damon are the honorary starters for Sunday’s 103rd Indianapolis 500, and they’re set to wave the green flag to start the race around 12:45 p.m. ET.
The two actors — while promoting their upcoming movie Ford v. Ferrari — have spent the weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, meeting drivers and riding around the track with legendary driver Mario Andretti.
They were also having a great time during a joint press conference Saturday, and Bale cracked himself up by inadvertently making a joke about the defending Indy 500 winner, Will Power.
Bale just couldn’t get over Power’s name, calling it “the best name I’ve ever heard.”
He and Damon were also blown away during the press conference as the Air Force was practicing the flyover for race day. If you’ve never seen one in person, it’s astonishingly loud — way louder than race cars — and Damon loved it.
“So that just happened,” Damon said. “Just another normal day in the Brickyard.”
When Bale was asked if he thought the Batmobile could win the Indy 500, he said, via the Indy Star:
“It might have a slight advantage in that it could jump,” Bale said. “I don’t know if that would be legal or not.”
Matt Damon was unsure of Bale’s claim, noting his pit crew would be confined to one man.
“I think the problem you’d run into is the only person in your pit crew is Michael Caine,” Damon said. “He takes a while to fix things.”
Here’s a clip from their red carpet interview with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Rutledge Wood on NBC on Sunday:
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