Tyrese Haliburton gets his first IndyCar experience this weekend at IMS
Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton will be at the speedway on Saturday for the Grand Prix, and ride around the road course before the start of the race.
Tyrese Haliburton will be part of a special experience at the GMR Grand Prix on Saturday.
IndyCar’s road course race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway begins at 3:07 p.m. ET, airing on NBC, and the Pacers guard will be in a two-seater driven by legend Mario Andretti to get it started.
He has been part of the community for just three months after being acquired at the trade deadline in a six-player deal centered around Haliburton to Sacramento for two-time All-Star Domantas Sabonis.
“It’s crazy, I had no idea that this was going to happen,” he said a few days later, still stunned that he was dealt. “But I’m excited because it’s closer to home for me. I’m a midwest kid through and through.
He was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, attended Iowa State University and has family in Kokomo, Ind. that he visited each summer growing up. Now the face of the Pacers, Haliburton is 22 and just completed his second season in the NBA.
“I put a lot of love, a lot of trust in Sacramento and immersed myself in the community with the people, then they got rid of me,” he said. “That’s part of the business. I think that’s part of my best trait — somebody who just loves hard. I want to be here and I want to be part of it.
“I think I’m currently a free agent when it comes to being a football fan so maybe I’ll be a Colts fan. I had Jonathan Taylor in fantasy; he carried me to the championship. I’m excited, there’s a lot of different things that I hope to see.”
Haliburton has traveled some over the last month with his girlfriend, but he has mostly been in Indy and working out daily. He sat courtside for the Indiana Fever’s win over the Minnesota Lynx on Tuesday.



Former Pacer Justin Holiday, who was sent to Sacramento in the deal for Haliburton, drove the pace car at the Verizon 200, a NASCAR Cup Series race on the road course at IMS, last August.
Watch Holiday’s vlog of his experience below.