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SPEEDWAY, Ind.–The Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Red Cross, and Indycar driver James Hinchcliffe have teamed up for this weekend’s Big Machine Spiked Coolers Grand Prix for a blood drive in honor of Hall of Fame motorsports journalist Robin Miller.

Miller has been battling bone cancer for the last few years. He’s needed donated pints of blood to help keep him alive. He was inducted into the Class of 2021 Motorsports Hall of Fame. On Friday, he received a Bronze Flying Eagle Trophy at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

It was Miller’s first in-person trip to the Speedway since late May when the late Bob Jenkins received the Robin Miller Award. This time, Miller wanted to talk about the Class of 2022 Motorsports Hall of Fame inductees. That class includes the first foreign-born four-time Indianapolis 500 winner, Helio Castroneves. Castroneves won this year’s Indy 500.

Miller believes having drivers like Castroneves is great for Indycar because he generates interest and is a fan favorite.

“These drivers love the Indy 500. That’s all they talk about for a month. You can’t buy that publicity. You can’t buy Helio’s enthusiasm. I’ve been doing this for 53 years. This is unbelievable. What a great month (in May) and what a great way to get the season going,” said Miller.

The blood drive runs from 2:30-7 pm at the Speedway Friday. Hinchliffe will be at the blood drive from 5:30-5:45 pm.

“The need for blood hasn’t changed, and the deficit has grown. If you didn’t know somebody before who needed the blood made available by the Red Cross, you do with Robin and all the pints he’s received. And there’s a lot of people like Robin who can benefit from building up the pints that hospitals need,” Hinchcliffe to Racer magazine.

This weekend is poised to be one of the biggest in the recent history of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with the NTT IndyCar Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series, and the NASCAR Cup Series forming a tripleheader on the IMS road course.

This will be the first time ever all three series’ will be running consecutive races on the same race track in one weekend.

Robin Miller receives flying eagle trophy at IMS

(PHOTO: Diane Miller Zachary, Robin’s sister)

 

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