Don't try this at home: Talking speed with Indy 500 celebrities

Known for his character's dominant swagger on TV's "The Walking Dead," Jeffrey Dean Morgan embraced his chance to drive the Indy 500 pace car.

Morgan, who portrays bat-wielding villain Negan on the AMC series, said he reached 140 mph in a 2017 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport during practice laps on Saturday.

For Sunday's main event of leading the starting field to the green flag, Morgan said Indianapolis Motor Speedway officials wanted him to go no faster than 110 mph.

"I drive a Raptor (Ford F-150 truck), and it has a lot of balls to it," Morgan said. "But I can't just drive it at 140 mph at any given time. They're letting me loose on the Indy 500 track, for God's sake. They're telling me I have to remain at a certain speed, but yesterday I went pretty fast."

Morgan was one of several celebrity attendees on the pre-race red carpet Sunday who talked about the fastest car rides of their lives.

For all of the bluster associated with pro wrestling icon Ric Flair (the "stylin', profilin', limousine-riding, jet-flying, kiss-stealing, wheelin' and dealin' son of a gun"), speed may not be the Nature Boy's thing.

Flair, who attended the race to serve as master of ceremonies for the Snake Pit concert, said he declined a chance to ride in a two-seat Indy car with Mario Andretti.

Marveling at Indy 500 drivers, Flair said: "To drive 230 mph — and I've done everything there is — is mind-boggling. We take a lot of chances in our business, and it's very physically demanding. But I think people who drive these cars are from a different planet."

Boston Marathon bombing survivor Jeff Bauman didn't pass on his chance to ride with Andretti on Saturday.

“We did like 200 mph coming around,” Bauman said of his Indianapolis Motor Speedway perk. “It’s the scariest thing I’ve ever done in my life.”

Bauman wrote the book "Stronger" after he lost both of his legs in 2013's bombing, and he helped law-enforcement officials identify Tamerlan Tsarnaev as one of the terrorists responsible for the attack.

The bombing survivor was accompanied Sunday by actor Jake Gyllenhaal, who portrays Bauman in an upcoming film adaptation of "Stronger." The duo waved the green flag to begin the race.

Talking about the movie's script, Gyllenhaal said it "was funny, full of a lot of humor because (Jeff) is always full of a lot of humor."

"I loved it because it moved me so much, but it didn’t take itself too seriously.”

Asked about his relationship to speed, Gyllenhaal deadpanned, “Fastest I’ve been in a car was when I was trying to follow Jeff Bauman around Boston.”

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Indianapolis opera singer Angela Brown, who sang "God Bless America" before the race, impressed when talking about hitting 103 mph in her Prius.

"On the PWR mode, mind you," she said. "I was going to Huntsville, Ala., and I happened to look down. You don't really feel those cars moving. Honey, I was like, let me pump my brakes, literally."

"Dancing with the Stars" star Sharna Burgess recalled a fast ride with her former TV partner, IndyCar driver James Hinchcliffe.

"James raced me around the track in Sonoma," she said. "It's a different kind of track, so I think we only got to maybe 180. But there were the hills and really sharp turns. I felt like I was on a roller coaster."

Motley Crue bass player Nikki Sixx, who attended the race as a guest of Nashville music executive Scott Borchetta, said he has hit 165 mph in his Ferrari.

"On the freeway, no cops around," Sixx said. "There's a certain place in California you can go and open it up at the right time."

There's apparently a place in Indiana, too.

Clayton Anderson, a Bedford native and country singer who played before Keith Urban and Dustin Lynch at Saturday's Legends Day concert, said he loosened up a pace-car Corvette this spring on Ind. 446.

"I don't know if Indianapolis Motor Speedway wants to know this, but when they gave me a pace car to drive for a little bit, I think I got it up to about 130," Anderson said.

Call IndyStar reporter David Lindquist at (317) 444-6404. Follow him on Twitter: @317Lindquist.