Big sports weekend in Indy. Pacers got popped by the Heat at Bankers Life. The Big Show at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway had the city at the center of world attention on Sunday afternoon. The race was once again blacked out for a 75 mile radius. Lots of records broken. Record number of lead changes from the old record set last year. Fourteen different drivers led. Record speed for the race, 187:443, was broken — a 22 year old record of 185:981 set in 1990 by Arie Luyendyke. (This should make A J Foyt happy.) Most number of cars running at the finish, 26, which ties the 1911 record. Only 21 laps were run under caution — a modern era record.
Brazilian Tony Kanaan will be one of the most popular champions ever. A skilled driver who has always been a threat at the Speedway, he had five top five finishes including a second place finish in 2004 and won the pole in 2005. He tied Sam Hanks for most race starts before finally winning with 12 starts and getting, as he says, his “ugly mug’ on the Borg Warner Trophy. He drove 2 stock car Brazil races in 2012. He married for a second time on March 8 of this year to journalist Lauren Bohlander. He has a son named Leo from his first marriage. Kanaan is one of the best liked drivers in the Indy Car series. Easy going and very friendly off of the track, he has a charming personality and an open demeanor.
Andretti Autosport once again suffered the infamous “Curse of Andretti” with team cars finishing second, third, and fourth. Only once in the 47 Indianapolis 500 races that an Andretti has been involved in, has the name Andretti been attached to a winner at IMS, and that was in 1969.
Face it, watching cars drive around in a circle for two hundred laps can get very monotonous. The Indianapolis 500’s major appeal is that it’s an event of epic proportions. Many of the “fans” who come to the Indianapolis Speedway are really not car racing devotees but come to experience the moment and be a part of the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing.” They very often have very little idea of what is actually going on during the race except for what they hear on the radio. NASCAR has worked on the problem by allowing a great deal of car bumping, forced crashes, and post race punch outs between the drivers and the crews. Danica Patrick hasn’t been able to successfully adjust to this kind of racing. This really doesn’t work at the Speedway where the cars are going at speeds of 227 miles an hour.
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway has finally broken a long standing tradition by asking for and receiving a great deal from taxpayers to finance a major upgrade of the track, including a lighting system which will allow for night racing. IMS will receive five million bucks a year for twenty years as part of an Indiana Heritage program. IMS will pay it back, but think about that when they have to close your kid’s school, or your sewer backs up, or they can’t afford to put more police on streets to handle the growing crime problem. I wonder how many Indiana legislators got permanent seats in the penthouse suites along the main straightaway for that deal!
snicewanger@yahoo.com