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I am going to insert myself into this a little bit, but when it’s my website, I guess I can do whatever I want. As I sit and type this in our hotel room on Monday morning, I am still amazed at what we witnessed yesterday. I’ve been to a lot of Indianapolis 500s in my lifetime, but I’ve also missed more than I care to admit – including a twenty-year gap between 1972 and 1992. If you look at those dates, you’ll notice that I was never there when the first four-time winners won their fourth. In fact, I never saw Rick Mears win any of his races.

That all changed yesterday when Helio Castroneves won his fourth Indianapolis 500 in a dramatic fashion. I read a sobering comment on Facebook this morning from someone just a little older than me, but it most likely applies to me as well. I’m paraphrasing, but the comment said that we have probably seen the last four-time winner in our lifetime.

Who else will do it? Besides Castroneves, there were only two other multiple winners in the field – Juan Montoya (age 45) and Takuma Sato (44). They are both sitting on two wins. I guess it’s possible, but highly doubtful that either of them have two more Indianapolis 500 wins in their futures. All of the other current winners in yesterday’s race have “only” one Indianapolis 500 win on their resume. Most of them are in their forties or late thirties. Only Alexander Rossi is still in his twenties, and he turns thirty in September.

Will any of this young crop of talented drivers reel off four wins before I assume room temperature? Probably not. That’s why I am relishing what I was there to witness yesterday.

Yesterday’s win by Castroneves was no fluke, nor did an off-schedule pit strategy magically put him in the lead by Lap 200. As AJ Foyt said in congratulating Helio; “He worked hard for it, and he earned it”. When Foyt’s full statement was read to Castroneves in yesterday’s post-race press conference, he was visibly moved by it and said he was honored to have the first four-time winner say such a thing.

Castroneves and Alex Palou battled back and forth for the final thirty or so laps. While other cars were leading during pit stop shuffles, the focus was on them because everyone knew they were the effective leaders. When last year’s winner, Takuma Sato, finally pitted on Lap 193 – Castroneves and Palou were finally atop the scoring pylon, but not always in that order. In the end, Castroneves used his wealth of experience to out duel the eager second-year driver to win by less than half a second, kicking off the biggest celebration I’ve personally ever witnessed at that track.  While any driver is ecstatic to win the biggest race in the world, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anyone so happy to win a race, as Helio Castroneves was yesterday.

TV Coverage:  Since the race was shown live here locally, there was no delayed broadcast here last night, despite hearing rumors to the contrary. Maybe it came on after NBC’s playoff hockey game, but I was long gone by then. That’s a long way of saying I haven’t seen any of the broadcast. That doesn’t mean I didn’t see all of the complaining on social media about NBC’s coverage. Was it really that bad, or was it just the vocal minority of IndyCar fans that have to gripe about something?

I’m not sure perfect event coverage really exists. What may be perfect to me, may be abhorrent to you. It wasn’t long ago that IndyCar fans were cheering when NBC pushed ABC/ESPN out the door. Be thankful while you have NBC. I don’t think there are too many major outlets beating Roger Penske’s door down to try and steal the rights away from NBC. Overall, I think they do a pretty good job, and I hope they return when the current contract is up at the end of this season.

Lots of Silver Linings:  Alex Palou looked and sounded completely deflated in yesterday’s post-race press conference, and rightfully so. He had come within a half-second of winning the Indianapolis 500 in only his second try. History is littered with drivers who came that close early in their career, but could never reach the top. Scott Goodyear comes to mind, as well as Michael Andretti.

Even though he wasn’t thinking about it at the time, there were a lot of silver linings to come from Palou’s day yesterday. First of all, like Helio – his being there at the end was no fluke. Palou started sixth and led thirty-five laps, second only to Conor Daly’s forty laps led. With little oval experience, he came ever so close to outdueling a twenty-year veteran with multiple wins. He may not yet realize it this morning, but he will learn from this experience.

Alex Palou also woke up this morning as the NTT IndyCar Series points leader. With Scott Dixon finishing seventeenth, and Palou second; once you add in the double points, Dixon finds himself in second place trailing Palou by thirty-six points.

Youth was Served: Although a forty year-old Scott Dixon won the pole and Helio Castroneves won the race at age forty-six; the young chargers continued to charge on Sunday. Twenty-four year-old Alex Palou finished second on Sunday and now leads the points. Twenty-two year-old Pato O’Ward drove a heads-up race, led seventeen laps and finished fourth. O’Ward now trails Dixon by a single point in the championship. The most recent winner going into Sunday was Rinus VeeKay. He started on the front row, and took the lead away from another promising young driver, Colton Herta, on Lap Two. Altogether, VeeKay led thirty-two laps, albeit early in the race. He still finished a respectable eighth and sits fifth in points.

The only disappointment of the young drivers was Colton Herta. He led the opening lap after starting on the front row, and ended up leading thirteen laps  on the day. But when it was all over, Herta had slipped back to a forgettable sixteenth place finish.

When You Know it’s Over:  First of all, I offer a sincere apology to Alexander Rossi for picking him to win yesterday. My ability to curse drivers continues, as the drivers I pick end up dealing with the most bizarre circumstances. The Stefan Wilson crash in the pits dealt a lot of drivers low on fuel a crushing blow. Rossi was one of many drivers who came in for emergency pit service for a splash of fuel. Like Dixon, Rossi coasted in on fumes and could not get the car re-started, pretty well ruining his day early on.

Before the season started, Rossi proclaimed that after last year’s rough season, anything less than a championship will be unacceptable. To rub salt in Rossi’s wounds, here’s a stat that tells you how bad Rossi’s season is going and how far gone his championship hopes are – Six races into the season; Helio Castroneves started his first IndyCar race of the season yesterday, while Rossi started his sixth. Helio is now ahead of Rossi in the points. Not good.

The Crowd:  I’ve never been good at estimating crowd sizes, but I’m thinking there was more than 40% capacity on the grounds yesterday. I’m not complaining, mind you. I thought Mayor Joe Hogsett was being totally unreasonable by having IMS officials agree to that number when other major sports venues went to 100% capacity in early April, with no lingering effects. I also thought it was no coincidence that he set June 7 as the date to remove the county-wide mask mandate. Even locked-down Nashville did away with it weeks ago. Roger Penske wanted to make sure that this race would happen with fans, no matter how many hoops he had to jump through. I sense that the mayor and Penske had locked horns many times over this during the past fifteen months, and the continued mask mandate was Hogsett’s last way of sticking it to The Captain.

Well…I’m thinking The Captain got the last laugh. Our section in Stand A appeared to be more like 80% full. As I gazed across the track from our seats, the place looked practically full down to Turn Four, and all the way into the Short Chute between Turns One and Two. I know the infield crowd, which was not allowed to come this year, accounts for a lot of the 60% that supposedly was not allowed in – but I think IMS officials may have sold more seats than they originally agreed to.

Personally, I loved it. I consider the almost full stands of maskless fans to be a collective middle-finger to Mayor Hogsett and his like that suddenly want to ignore the CDC guidance, because it doesn’t fit their narrative. End of rant.

The Crowd II:  Whatever the number in attendance for Sunday’s race was, those that were there were excited to be there. They were loud and boisterous, without being rowdy or obnoxious. When the crowd is limited to those paying for higher-priced seats in the stands, the chances are higher that there were more hard-core race fans in attendance and fewer that were there just for the party.

When Helio Castroneves crossed the yard of bricks for the 200th time, the crowd unleashed a cheer that would be hard to surpass. Even as Castroneves extended his victory celebration by climbing the fence and running north toward Turn Four afterwards, the crowd loved it. When he finally made it to Victory Lane for the “official” celebration, the crowd loved it. It seemed that few had left, when Helio was ridden around the track on the back of the pace car. The crowd stood and cheered, and even climbed the fence in his honor as he passed by.

Yesterday’s crowd seemed very knowledgeable and appreciative of what they had just witnessed.

Pre-Race Ceremonies: Many of the customs and traditions we’ve grown to love over the years were scaled back or eliminated this year, presumably due to the pandemic. The colorful balloons that have been launched just before the command to start engines since 1947 were not there yesterday. This was not due to the environmental concerns that seem to surface every year, but instead due to the pandemic. It was explained that they did not want to put additional staff in the infield. That explanation sounds a little lame to me.

I’m hoping the balloons return for next year, but I’m not sure they will. I don’t hate the planet as some claim, but I’m not convinced that the so-called facts and data to prove that the balloons do great harm to the environment are valid. There have been too many holes shot in the arguments made by groups such as Balloons Blow and other fringe groups like them. One thing we’ve learned in the last few years – there is fake news on both sides of any argument.

I was happy that they played the video of Bob Jenkins narrating the traditional Memorial Day homage that PA announcer Jim Phillippe used to recite each race morning for decades. The playing of Taps brought the usual chills as everyone in attendance suddenly went silent, showing respect for our veterans that paid the ultimate price. Jim Cornelison did another stirring rendition of (Back Home Again in) Indiana; proving once again that he is worthy of being brought back, year after year.

One thing that fell completely flat was the contrived Drivers, to your cars. Years ago, Tom Carnegie would give a dramatic, but downplayed Drivers, to your machines in that magical voice that seemingly spread throughout Marion County. Yesterday, two guys from “social media sensation” (the Speedway’s words, not mine), something called Dude Perfect, gave a very imperfect, ear-piercing, over-the-top screech telling the drivers to report to their cars. I think PA announcer Dave Calabro could do a much better and less-obnoxious job of this.

The traditional Parade of Bands did not take place at 8:00 am like it normally does. I am assuming this was due to potential COVID issues as well. Hopefully, this tradition will return next year.

All in All:  It’s hard to say I’ve ever been to a bad Indianapolis 500. Then again, I wasn’t there in 1973, the first year I missed in quite a while. All that were there say that was a race that everyone wanted to forget. Some races sort of fade into my memory as not being overly spectacular compared to others, while others stand out as being outstanding. I think I can safely say that when I look back at the 105th Running of the Indianapolis 500, I will remember it as an outstanding race.

First of all, I was very happy with the winner. Secondly, it was a picture-perfect day. Everyone was happy to be back after missing last year’s race that ended up taking place in August. There was just a very upbeat and happy spirit about the place all day.

It was a very safe race, with only two cautions – both for single car accidents that caused no injuries. There were thirty cars running at the end, that had to be a record (but I don’t know that), while twenty-two cars were still on the lead lap when the checkered-flag fell.

Most of all, I got to sit and enjoy the day with family. My older brother came over from Virginia with his wife and sat with us. Susan’s oldest son and his friend drove up from Nashville on Saturday and sat with us.  All that was missing was my oldest brother, who normally comes, but chose to opt out this year and take the credit for next year. I’m thinking he may be regretting his choice today.

I will share three self-indulgent photos from yesterday. One of Susan and me in the pits before the race, another of the two of us in our seats during the race, then the last of the two of us, along with my brother Jack and his wife Karen while we were at Dawson’s on Main last night after the race. Paul Dalbey joined us and was kind enough to snap it for us.

This past weekend was one of the best race weekends I’ve spent at IMS in a while. I’m not sure exactly which one was the absolute best, but the 2021 Indianapolis 500 ranks up at the top along with a few others. Thanks to those that followed along with us throughout the Month of May. It served as a reminder how special this whole experience truly is.

George and Susan Phillips

Please Note:  Posting every day in May takes its toll. Being away from home for three straight weekends leads to neglected yard work and household chores. With a rare off-weekend following the Indianapolis 500 this year, I am going to take advantage of that and take an extended break from here. Therefore, there will be no posts here for the remainder of this week, nor next Monday – unless something major happens. I will return here on Wednesday June 9, refreshed and ready to go as we head into the summer stretch for the NTT IndyCar Series. – GP

This entry was posted on May 31, 2021 at 9:26 am and is filed under Indianapolis 500. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.