Oilpressure

Sometimes history dims some memories of an Indianapolis 500. I attended the 2010 Indianapolis 500, but if you were to ask me about what all happened – about the only two thing I could tell you about it is that Dario Franchitti won, and Mike Conway crashed into the catch fence in the north end near the end of the race. Other than that, it’s just a blur. The 107th Indianapolis 500 does not fit that category. Whether you agreed with the three red flags in the last fifteen laps or not – those last fifteen laps were unforgettable, and we will be talking about them for a long time.

For the record, I did not agree with them. I won’t rehash my rant about it here. I wrote the reasons why in my post immediately following the race, which you can read in the post just below this one.

The controversial finish will not mar Josef Newgarden’s victory. History remembers that Parnelli Jones had a leaking oil rank in 1963. A few drivers, including Eddie Sachs, spun in that oil, yet Chief Steward Harlan Fengler chose not to throw the black flag and Jones went on to his only Indianapolis 500 victory. Sixty years later, people remember the story, but no one questions the legitimacy of Parnelli Jones as an Indianapolis 500 winner. If anything, it makes his win more memorable.

It will be the same with Newgarden. Years from now, no one will look at his 2023 Indianapolis 500 victory and say “Yeah, but…”. In all honesty, if you dig deep enough – you can say that about almost every Indianapolis 500 winner, going all the way back to Ray Harroun in 1911 and including at least three of AJ Foyt’s four wins. I don’t think anyone questions Foyt’s legacy at The Speedway.

If you’ve read this site for a long time, you know that I am a Josef Newgarden fan – and not just because he and I live in Nashville. IndyCar asked me to interview Newgarden in 2011, when he was still in Indy Lights. He was doing a media blitz in Nashville one day, and I was his last appointment – The Cheesecake Factory at the most upscale mall in Nashville. His handler with IndyCar had a sister who lived in Nashville. They went shopping and left the two of us sitting at a table for two and a half hours. If you know me, you know I don’t really do interviews. I never have any good canned questions on-hand. Instead, we just sat there that whole time and talked about racing.

At the time, Newgarden was twenty. Mentally I was comparing him to my then-twenty-one year-old son and his friends. No offense to my son, but it was like Newgarden was from a different universe. He didn’t have the demeanor of a twenty year-old. He was more like a savvy thirty-five year-old. We talked about his one-time dream of racing in Formula One, but how he was beginning to shift his attention to IndyCar and one day winning the Indianapolis 500. His enthusiasm for racing in general, as well as his obvious focus and determination had me leaving The Cheesecake Factory thinking that I just spent two and a half hours with a future Indianapolis 500 winner. Since then, he has always been good to remember me (and Susan) as his Nashville connection.

Newgarden was obviously a very talented driver and had success earlier in his career with the teams owned Sarah Fisher and Ed Carpenter, his career took off when his talents were noticed by Roger Penske and he joined the fabled team in 2017. He won the IndyCar Championship that first year with Penske, and again two years later. He has finished second in the championship for the past three years, but one thing that had eluded Newgarden, until Sunday, was an Indianapolis 500 victory. Now that weight is off of his shoulders.

Not to brag (but I guess I am), but when Newgarden finished his post-race press conference in the IMS Media Center late Sunday afternoon – I went up to the small gathering of people that were going over his hectic schedule for the upcoming week. As they were leaving I called his name and he looked over at me and his face lit up, as if he too remembered that day at The Cheesecake Factory. I just told him “Congratulations! You made Nashville proud”. He beamed, gave me a thumbs-up and simply said “Thanks, man!”

TV Coverage: When Susan and I finally got back to our hotel last night, we put on the replay on Channel 13. The race is blacked out locally, so they always show a replay of the race broadcast the night of the race. After such a long day, we never stay awake longer than about twenty minutes before we are both sound asleep. I had seen a lot of comments about constant commercials with a little bit of racing mingled in. I have to say, I noticed a lot of commercials in that time. One time, they broke away for about five minutes of commercials, came back to the race for about a one-minute recap, then went back to another block of commercials. We will watch the replay this week after we get back, but I hope that is not a sign of what the entire broadcast was like.

I did see where there was a dispute between James Hinchcliffe and Townsend Bell that went beyond some good-natured ribbing. I’m not sure when that was, but I’m curious to see what that was all about.

Jumping In: In the post-race press conference, Newgarden was asked if he had practiced, planned or rehearsed any of his Indianapolis 500 celebrations or speeches. He said he had not, except for his unique celebration with the fans. He had come to this race as a kid, while he was karting. He said (paraphrasing) that he had always enjoyed the energy and passion of the fans in Indiana. If he ever won here someday; he was going to stop on the Yard of Bricks, get out and go through an opening in the fence to celebrate directly with the fans. That was a special moment when he was able to carry those plans out.

Fate Sealed: If there was any chance that Felix Rosenqvist might have a long-term future at Arrow McLaren, I’m afraid that chance went away for good, when Rosenqvist stuffed his car into the fence on Lap 185. The crash also took out innocent by-stander Kyle Kirkwood, whose tire flew over the fence and onto the hood of a parked car. Fortunately, no one was injured on the track or out of it. I think by this time next year, Alex Palou will be driving car No. 6, and Felix Rosenqvist will be elsewhere.

Front Row Curse? All three drivers on the front row suffered misfortune on Sunday. Rosenqvist led late in the race, but crashed on Lap 185. Pole sitter Alex Palou was hit by front-row starter Rinus VeeKay, as they were both leaving the pits. Palou managed to make his way back to fourth place at the end, while VeeKay climbed back to tenth after being assessed a penalty for avoidable contact. Rosenqvist finished twenty-seventh.

A Sign of Things to Come? It’s a good sign when a team finishes third in the Indianapolis 500, and they are not ecstatic. That means they expected more. When you expect more, you push yourself to get more. I saw Larry Foyt in the garage area after the race. Someone went up to congratulate him for Santino Ferrucci’s third-place finish. Instead of high-fiving them, he graciously thanked them, but his demeanor showed he was very disappointed.

Ferrucci drove a heck of a race, and could have just as easily been the one drinking milk at the end of the day. I told my brother just before Ferrucci’s first pit stop that his team’s performance on pit stops could be his undoing. Sure enough, when Ferrucci made his last stop, he pitted from the lead. A crew member allowed a tire to get away from him and it took precious extra seconds to retrieve it before being assessed a penalty. By the time the pit stops cycled through, Ferrucci was in fifth. That was the difference between his stop and the other leaders.

Ferrucci, engineer Michael Cannon and Larry Foyt finally have this team headed in the right direction. Sunday was no fluke for this team and I think we will be hearing a lot more from them for the rest of the season.

Drive of the Day: Looking beyond the obvious, with winner Josef Newgarden – there were several drivers that warrant consideration. Marcus Ericsson put himself in position to win his second consecutive Indianapolis 500, after starting tenth. He finished a very close second on Sunday. Callum Ilott had some well-documented struggles throughout the month, but almost finished in the Top-Ten – started twenty-seventh and finished twelfth. The only reason I don’t give him the nod is that a lot of it was luck and timing, and not so much skill.

The one I give Driver of the Day to is Alex Palou. He was taken out by VeeKay leaving the pits, and Palou was nothing more than an innocent bystander. After a front-wing change, he was relegated back to (I think) twenty-eighth. He steadily worked his way up and was there at the end. Palou finished fourth. He didn’t win the Borg Warner trophy, but I’m sure in his eyes, the Oilpressure.com Drive of the Day is almost as good.

All in All: There aren’t many bad Months of May in my opinion, but this one was very enjoyable. I felt very connected all month long, going back to attending the Open Test in April. I really enjoyed being up here for the entire week of practice, and pretty much being onsite anytime there were cars on track (except for that final Monday Practice). It was also a relatively safe race, although Stefan Wilson may not agree.

Except for the first day of practice being rained out, the weather could not have been better. It was never too cold, nor too hot; and rain for Race Day was never even a consideration.

There were compelling storylines, some leading up to the month, and some that developed as the month progressed. The end result was a very popular winner in Josef Newgarden, winning in his twelfth try. He was already a great driver. Now he is immortalized.

I have been keeping with the Every Day in May theme, but tomorrow is May 30 and I need some rest. I will take off tomorrow, but will have a post of mostly photos from the entire month on Wednesday May 31. Then I will return to three days a week on Friday June 2, with a preview of the Detroit Grand Prix. The Memorial Day post-race depression is beginning to set in, but it won’t last long. We have attending Road America to look forward to in less than three weeks. Thanks to all that followed along all month. It has been a blast covering this race through this site for the fifteenth consecutive year. We will keep on going for a while longer.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on May 29, 2023 at 8:44 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.