INDIANAPOLIS — If you’re in, or around, Indianapolis during the month of May, you’ll probably see one of those nice Indy 500 Chevrolet Camaros driving around the streets.

Have you ever wondered who gets to drive them?

Bob Bryant, CEO of the 500 Festival, says every year, Chevrolet sends 50 “festival cars” to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The majority of them then go to the festival’s board members.

“There are 33 board of directors for the festival. And we’ve always had the tradition of all 33 of the starting drivers (in the Indy 500) being in the 500 Festival parade,” Bryant said. “So, Chevrolet worked with the festival to provide vehicles that all those drivers would be driven in during the parade.”

Bryant says the directors usually receive the cars sometime in April, and get to keep them during May. However, they’re not used just for fun joyrides. The cars are used for specific events besides the parade.

“They have them to participate in outreaches that the 500 Festival princesses might be doing at their universities and hometowns,” he said. “And then their last official duty is on race day, to show up to the track and drive the princesses around for a ceremony lap.”

Bryant says in his eight years as the festival CEO, there haven’t been any major “news worthy” incidents involving a festival car, but over time, there have been some scratches or small dents. When that happens, they send it to a local Chevy dealership to fix it and get it quickly back on the road to promote the race.

So what happens after the race?

Bryant says the board of directors don’t get to keep the cars.

“Those 50 cars, at the end, are actually turned in and they go out to dealerships around the country,” he said. “They’re actually sold to the general public at Chevrolet dealerships across the United States.”

Bryant says usually they’ll leave some sort of commemorative item in the car, like a program signed by the drive that rode in that vehicle, so the owner knows the history of that festival car.