'If they get really mad, it's hilarious': The art of pranking drivers at the Indy 500

Conor Daly wanted to have a little extra fun at his motorhome this month as part of his ninth appearance in the Indianapolis 500. So he took a page out of former IndyCar racer -- and his hero -- Tomas Scheckter’s book and brought a miniature hot tub to the paddocks this year.

Daly just wanted to see what that experience was like and enjoy some relaxation during his time away from the track. While Daly flaunted his hot tub on social media, other drivers began plotting against the Ed Carpenter Racing driver.

On Tuesday morning, Daly woke up to his hot tub filled with hundreds of thousands of Orbeez, which are tiny balls that expand once submerged in water. What started as a fun addition to his motorhome has become a minor headache.

More: Conor Daly is soft-hearted, focused on Indy 500 win and going 243 mph: 'It's like a drug'

“I was very excited about it at first,” Daly said. “Now it's become a lot of work. Alex Rossi brought me one of those like pool scoopers where you clean out debris because as I refilled it with water (Thursday) for the weekend turns out there's still a lot of debris in there.”

But on Thursday afternoon, Daly still didn’t know who pulled off the prank.

“A bunch of snakes out here in the paddock,” Daly said. “I've got no answers to who has delivered all of the debris to my hot tub. But I hope to find out someday and when I do find out, they better run and hide.”

Just hours before Daly spoke with the media on Thursday, however, veteran driver and known prankster Tony Kanaan nearly outed himself to IndyStar.

When first asked about the Orbeez prank, Kanaan — with a grin on his face — claimed to know nothing about it. But after some prodding, Kanaan began to use the word “we” when referencing the situation.

“Oh, the hot tub. I heard, yeah. Well, let me put it this way, when somebody brought the idea up, because we — some people — discussed that the idea was to put a couple of them there. Well, we put 400,000 of them in there, so that's all I'm going to say,” Kanaan said.

Colton Herta of Andretti Autosport went as far as saying Daly was asking for it by bringing a hot tub to the paddock and posting a picture of it on Instagram. Herta claimed to have no idea who pulled of the prank but gave kudos to the person who did.

While Daly disagrees that he was asking for his hot tub to be invaded by Orbeez, he welcomes the lighthearted pranks. He appreciates the longstanding tradition of the drivers pulling pranks on each other, which started about 20 years ago.

By now, all of the drivers know to expect some elaborate pranks at the Indy 500. Kanaan and Bryan Herta, the father of Colton Herta, were some of the original masterminds. While in Japan in 2004, the pair, along with Dario Franchitti, pulled one of the biggest pranks of all time. They stole every left shoe of teammate Dan Wheldon and shipped them back to the United States.

Kanaan remembers times when drivers would saw each other’s bikes in half, break golf carts or buses, and mess with their cars. Now, the 2013 Indy 500 winner believes some of the pranks have gotten too soft.

However, there has been some discussion on whether these pranks ever go too far. Kanaan said one controversial incident was when he and other drivers messed up Wheldon’s locker prior to a driving session. However, Kanaan didn’t think the prank went too far. Unless someone gets hurt, he said he doesn’t think any prank is too far.

“Wheldon was a very neat person, very organized, OCD, the most OCD person I've ever seen," Kanaan said. "And we messed with his locker one hour before he got to the car. And he actually was late for the session, because until that locker was totally organized, he wouldn't show up. Is that too far? No, because he could have left the locker messy and come back later and fixed it. You're asking the wrong guy to have mercy.”

Throughout the years, there have been up and down periods, but Kanaan is happy to see drivers still coming up with unique ideas. One of the prank wars’ heights was in 2017 when Daly and James Hinchliffe were the targets.

Prior to race day that season, Daly and a couple of other drivers left Indianapolis for a media tour in New York. When he returned, Daly couldn’t even walk into his motorhome.

“I came back in and there were about 150 cups of water, all on my floor and about 1,000 balloons full of glitter in my bedroom,” Daly said. “And I didn't really realize that the balloons are full of glitter, obviously until you start popping them. And then that makes a mess as well. So that was a lot. That was a lot.”

One of Daly’s favorite pranks was in the same year. Longtime Andretti mechanic Mike Miller hid a train horn under James Hinchcliffe’s golf cart that would blare uncontrollably. Hinchcliffe transferred the horn under Marco Andretti’s bus before he and a few of the drivers went out to dinner.

Rossi, who knew about Hinchliffe’s move, decided to tell Miller where the horn was and which restaurant they were at. So when Hinchliffe returned to his car, the horn sounded through the parking lot.

“I'm not gonna lie, when we left dinner and there was a train horn underneath his car that he couldn't control; that one had me laughing a lot,” Daly said.

This year, Daly wasn’t the only victim of the pranking. Andretti driver Romain Grosjean, a 500 rookie, got his first taste of the tradition.

Grosjean woke up one morning to his scooter perched on top of the Pagoda, which  is 199 feet tall. Several drivers found the prank impressive, given the amount of effort it likely took to pull it off.

On Thursday, Daly exposed Rossi, Will Power and Herta as the offenders. Earlier in the day, Herta claimed to have not been involved in any pranks this year.

While the 22-year-old Herta is only in his fourth Indy 500, he makes his presence known each year through his pranking. He gets it from his father, Bryan.

“I think maybe our sense of humor is the same. I think it's just funny,” Herta said. “(My dad) has some really good ideas still that maybe I'll use at some point. But you have to find the right person because if you're just gonna prank people, it's not funny. And if they don't care, it's not funny. But if they get really mad, it's hilarious. And it makes you want to just keep doing it.”

Even for the young drivers who haven’t been involved in pranks yet, the past stories are enough to keep them on high alert. Rookie David Malukas came into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a plan to stay as far away from the pranking as possible, in hopes the other drivers wouldn’t make him a victim.

So far, Malukas hasn’t been pranked, but every night he makes sure to lock his stuff up and triple check it before going to bed.

A few nights ago, Malukas suspects he heard some of the drivers setting up a prank as he heard a lot of ruckus while trying to fall asleep. He eventually had to put headphones in to drown out the noise.

When he woke up, he saw a golf cart on top of some trash cans nearby.

Although the idea of getting pranked has created some fear and caution in the rookie, he understands the tradition at IMS and will embrace any of the fun that comes his way. It serves as a reminder that the Indy 500 and racing, in general, should be a memorable and exciting period of his life.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indy 500 drivers drive each other crazy with pranks