The Crowds Are Here For Carb Day
When you’ve been here since the Open Test in mid-April, then for every day of track activity in May, at a mostly empty Speedway – you get a little used to it. It’s great for the bottom line if IMS and crowds breed bigger crowds, but when you’ve had free run of the place for the last couple of weeks, it’s hard to fall in love with the massive crowds, like the one that showed up early today for Carb Day. You can’t help but wonder…where were you all month?
But after you get over that hump, it’s good to see a festive crowd that is having a ton of fun.
We have attended Carb Day for at least the last ten years. I don’t think it would be a stretch to say this is one of the biggest crowds they’ve had in that time.
Unlike most people, my favorite part about Carb Day is the two-hour practice. It is the final tune-up before things get down to business on Race Day. I don’t think you van pay any attention whatsoever on the speeds we see posted on Carb Day. Too many teams are working on too many different things, and most of those are not trying to find maximum speed.
For what it’s worth, Scott Dixon had the fastest speed of the session at 227.206 mph. Helio Castroneves was second-quick, with a speed of 226.939 mph. Pato O’Ward, Colton Herta and Tom Blomqvist rounded out the Top-Five.
The slowest car today belonged to Chip Ganassi Racing’s Linus Lundqvist, with a speed of 222.840 mph. Front-row starter Josef Newgarden was second slowest, but I’m not hearing any panic coming from the No. 2 team, so I am assuming they are one of the many teams looking for something other than speed. Other drivers in the thirties were Rinus VeeKay and Katherine Legge.
Shortly after practice wound up, the USAF Thunderbirds began practicing for their pre-race performance on Sunday. The first time they flew over, it was unannounced. They came from the north and practiced their initial fly-over. We were just exiting the pits and when they suddenly appeared, it scared us to death. I happened to be down there when they made their second starburst pass over The Pagoda. I had just enough time to get my phone out of my pocket and switch it to video. Please excuse my finger partially covering the lens.
I know my driver predictions rarely come true, so I’ll now try my hand at meteorology. Most people are convinced that Sunday will be a complete washout. It was either 2018 or 2019, that we had similar predictions, and we never saw a drop during the race. I don’t know if we get 200 miles in, but I think we will get in the required 101 to make it a complete race. I know many disagree with me, but I would rather have a rain-shortened race on Sunday, than have to come back on Monday. We will stay for a Monday race, but many can not do that, including one of my two brothers.
It’s just like finishing a race under the yellow. It happens and there’s nothing wrong with that. Dario Franchitti won the last rain-shortened race in 2007. I don;t think anyone puts an asterisk by his name because the first of his three Indianapolis 500 wins did not go 200 laps.
There will be a post here tomorrow morning, then we will post from here (IMS) on Sunday morning, regardless of the weather. We are now going to get out of here, before the crazies from Carb Day completely take over. I’ll close with a few photos that Susan got just after practice.
George Phillips
Oilpressure 
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