Caitlin Clark Lands Indy 500 Grand Marshal Role and Fans Roast Angel Reese as the Better Fit for the Brickyard
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway dropped its 2026 Indy 500 Grand Marshal news on Monday, and somehow Angel Reese ended up trending instead of Caitlin Clark.
The track named the Indiana Fever superstar as Grand Marshal for the May 24 race. It is a layup of a hometown PR move. Clark is the most recognizable basketball player in the state, and the Fever are running hot to start the WNBA season.
Then the internet did what the internet does. Because the Speedway is nicknamed “The Brickyard,” fans flooded social media with the same joke: Angel Reese should have been the Grand Marshal, because nobody lays bricks like Reese does.
It is cheap. It is mean. It is also working in part because Reese is making it easy on people right now.
Through the Atlanta Dream’s first three games of the 2026 WNBA season, Reese is shooting 33.3 percent from the floor. She is averaging 10.7 points per game, which is a respectable line, but anyone who watches knows the bulk of those numbers come from second and third chance opportunities. The pull-up game still is not there. The mid-range still is not there. The finishing through contact still wobbles.
Clark, on the other hand, is playing like a player nobody can guard. Four games in, she is putting up 24.3 points per game on 42.5 percent shooting, and she is launching from anywhere past the logo with no fear.
That is the actual story underneath the jokes. The rivalry that started at the 2023 national title game between Iowa and LSU never went away. It just keeps mutating with every new headline.
Reese cannot escape it because every Clark milestone reopens the comparison. She was the rookie face of the Sky. She is now in Atlanta. The team uniform changed. The conversation has not.
Reese has earned some of this. She built a national platform on the Clark beef when she was making the shots and winning games. She leaned into the heel turn, the trash talk, the rebound chase. You do not get to do all of that and then ask the audience to stop noticing when the production drops.
What she does not deserve is the assumption that she will never figure it out. She is 24. Big athletic forwards usually take longer to find their offensive footing in the pros, especially players who relied on physical dominance in college. The path back is open. It just looks longer than her fans want to admit.
For Clark, the Grand Marshal gig is the easy part. The hard part is staying healthy and carrying a Fever team that has playoff expectations for the first time in years. She has handled the spotlight for two pro seasons now. A waving flag and a few laps in a pace car will not change that.
The Brickyard jokes will fade by next week. The basketball comparison will not. Reese has to fix the shooting numbers if she ever wants to be the one taking the ceremonial role instead of the one taking the punchlines.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
