Indy 500 drivers find crypto craze fuels needed sponsorship

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Should he win one of auto racing’s crown jewel races, Conor Daly would gladly take the seven-figure payout awarded to the Indianapolis 500 champion and deposit traditional American cash straight in his bank.

Oh, and throw in some digital dollars, too.

“We have bitcoin bonuses in our contract, so we win,” Daly said, smiling, “then there will be some bitcoin floating my way.”

The IndyCar driver is among a growing number of athletes getting in the crypto game. At Indy, where culture is traditionally steeped in bricks more than bitcoin, the shift to cryptocurrency sponsorship may still be a curious concept to the almost 300,000 fans who will pack the track Sunday. But inside the paddock -- and locker rooms around the sports world - new forms of digital money help pay the bills and salaries for teams and athletes.

Team owner Ed Carpenter is a staunch advocate for cryptocurrencies. Ed Carpenter Racing is better known in the paddock during May as the Bitcoin Racing Team because Daly and Rinus VeeKay both drive Chevrolets sponsored by BitNile, which owns and operates a data center at which it mines Bitcoin.

Got all that? Rick Mears in the “ The Yellow Submarine ” this is not.

Drivers in auto racing series around the globe hope sponsorships and paint schemes can stir interest for fans to educate themselves about the often-complicated, almost mythical, digital currency.

The more fans who dip into the crypto market, the thinking goes, the more apt those companies are to invest in racing.

Cryptocurrencies are a digital asset that can be traded over the internet without relying on the global banking system. They’ve been promoted as a way for that those with limited means to build wealth by investing in the next big thing.

They’re also highly speculative and...