Memorial day is a federal holiday in the United States that honors all of the soldiers that have died for the United States while in war. This holiday has resulted in a day out of work and school for many people for that Monday making it big for travel and gathering. This makes it the perfect time for sporting events to occur. 

The NASCAR Cup Series is seen as the highest regarded for all of stock car racing and has all of its races in the United States. With its southern roots and American location, this sport is likely the most patriotic and makes sense to have a lot of viewers. The Coca-Cola 600 took place on Sunday, May 26 this year in the evening at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Charlotte, NC. This year, following the surprising and sudden passing of Cup Series champion Kyle Busch, there was a lot honoring his life and bringing together the NASCAR fanbase. This with the Memorial Day atmosphere made it a race to remember. This year the race ended 27 laps early because of rain but made most of the distance. The race lasted over 4 and a half hours. The race concluded with driver, Daniel Suarez coming out as victor.

Though Formula 1 isn’t too tied to the United States, they also had a race midday on that same Sunday. The Canadian Grand Prix is a race on Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in Montreal, Quebec in Canada. This is a temporary course on Notre Dame Island that is named after a world champion with the name of the course who unfortunately passed away in a crash during the qualifying for the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix. With a Formula 2 race earlier in the week showing some rainy conditions, some teams thought that this could be a risky race with rain. The Mercedes both qualified for the front row with their dominant cars with the Mclarens following them. Mclaren made a harsh blunder with choosing intermediate tires for a dry course forcing them to pit. Mclaren continued with bad luck after the pit with Norris’s engine failing and a 10 second time penalty for Piastri after crashing into the Williams of Alex Albon. Mercedes’ George Russel’s engine fails making him lose his lead and see his teammate Kimi Antonelli pull further away in the points. The race ends with Antonelli on top followed by a good Hamilton performance with Ferrari, then Verstappen in a Red Bull that is finally competitive then Ferrari’s Leclerc followed by the Red Bull of Hadjar.

The Indianapolis 500 is such a massive race for the Indycar series that it is what gave the series its name. The first version of this race took place in 1911 which makes it one of the oldest races that are still held to this day. This predates the modern Indycar series that was first raced in 1996 though there was open wheel racing in the United States since 1905. This 500 mile race takes place on the same Memorial Day weekend Sunday and is often attempted by drivers trying to complete it and the Coca-Cola 600. This year also had some difficult weather with many restarts. The race ended with a passing on the final straight to the line with Felix Rosenquist winning by only .0233 seconds making it the closest finish for the Indianapolis 500 in history.