Oilpressure

The 108th Running of the Indianapolis 500 is now in the books. Some said the race would be pushed to Monday and possibly finished on Tuesday. Others (including myself) said the race would start on Sunday and run the required 101 laps to make it an official race, but would eventually be shortened by rain. Few said it would start on Sunday and run the full 500 miles, but that’s exactly what happened.

IMS President Doug Boles came into the full Media Center at 6:20 am to brief the media on the latest info with the approaching storm. He spoke like a veteran meteorologist as he talked about the latest models and how the storm had picked up speed in the recent hours. I had heard that the storm would not hit until around 2:00 or 3:00. Boles said it would be around 12:30 – about the time Jim Cornelison would be singing “Back Home Again in Indiana”. It hit at 12:45 pm.

At 10:45 am, Boles returned to the Media Center with an update, and the plan to begin evacuating the stands at 11:15 am. They knew there was lightning associated with the storm, and with so many people already in the stands, they did not want a last-minute panic to ensue if they waited until lightning was eight miles away (like they do in other sports). The plan worked, as fans left the grandstands in an orderly fashion. They even allowed fans to leave the grounds and return to their cars, something that normally does not happen. That’s what both of my brothers did, and it worked out nicely, as they didn’t have to take cover under steel grandstands during lightning.

Fans were given the “all clear” through radio, social media or friends calling friends, when the storm had passed and fans were allowed back in. Credit Boles and his team for being very proactive and not waiting until the last minute to make a decision.

In between the two briefings, Susan and I wandered through the garage area around 7:00 am, as things were proceeding normally. Teams were scurrying around making last minute preparations, as fans were holding onto the outside of the chain link fence, trying to steal a glimpse of a random driver. After completing our trip through the garage area, we headed over to Honda Hospitality for our traditional Race Day breakfast consisting of Eggs Benedict and French Toast. Honda puts on a great spread at various races and they allow Honda teams and the media to eat in there. Their food is fantastic and we have been regulars for years. Had I known that was going to be our last meal for 17 hours, I would have eaten more.

Once we learned of the upcoming evacuation, we planted ourselves in the Media Center for the duration. Everyone else even remotely tied to the media had the same idea. They had already planned to bring lunch in, but not for this many people. The fourth-floor of the Media Center holds 400 people. I’d guess there were closer to 600 in there. The food disappeared quickly, and probably a third of the folks in there (including us) never got fed. We were not allowed to go out to the concession stands, so I took the opportunity to get in a quick map at my desk.

When the storm passed and things got rolling again, it happened quickly. The track seemed to dry at a rapid rate. They quickly put the cars on the grid, as fans found their way back to their seats. We left the Media Center and went through the tunnel to get to the other side, and met my brothers and their crews in our seats in Stand A.

They breezed through the pre-race ceremonies and the next thing you know – Roger Penske was giving the command to start engines. At around 4:45 pm, the race was beginning about an hour and a half after it should’ve ended.

The Start: After several years of clean starts at the Indianapolis 500, the law of averages caught up with them. Tom Blomqvist, Pietro Fittipaldi and the 2022 winner, Marcus Ericsson, were all caught up in a Turn One incident on the opening lap. The replays I saw at the track, made me think that maybe Graham Rahal got into Blomqvist to initiate the whole thing, but I’ve never heard anyone else suggest that. Keep in mind, we do not have great views of the video boards from our seats – and I have not seen the replay of the race, so some of my live and in-person observations may be far from the truth.

Fitting End: The fact that Marcus Ericsson was taken out in the first lap, was a fitting end to a terrible Month of May for the former winner. During Thursday of the week of practice, he crashed his primary car in an unforced error coming out of Turn Four. He was forced to qualify his backup car, and they could never get it up to speed. His own mistake in Last Chance Qualifying, put him in the middle of the last row. Who knows, had he been on the inside of the last row where Katherine Legge was, he may have missed the accident entirely as she did. The early exit just put a bow on what was a terrible month for the Swedish driver.

Honda Woes: With the plenum events that haunted Chevy teams during qualifying, many thought that the Chevys were faster, but the Hondas would be more reliable in the race. That was not the case. Yes, the Chevys were faster, but it was the Hondas that had problems in the race. Marcus Armstrong’s Honda started spewing smoke, while under caution for the starting incident. He was out by Lap 6. Katherine Legge’s Honda lasted until Lap 22, before smoke started pouring out from under her cowling. Felix Rosenqvist was having a good run, before his engine failed on Lap 45. As far as I know, none of the Chevy engines failed their drivers.

Bad Day to be a Qvist: This year, there are three drivers whose last name ends in qvist – Tom Blomqvist from the UK; and also Felix Rosenqvist and Linus Lundqvist, both from Sweden. Blomqvist and Rosenqvist are fulltime teammates with Meyer Shank Racing, while Lundqvist drives for Chip Ganassi Racing. As mentioned above, the two Meyer Shank teammates experienced engine failures, while Lundqvist crashed on his on in Turn One on Lap 28. By Lap 145, all three qvists were gone.

The Cautions: I’ve seen on social media various explanations for the eight caution periods. Some say the track was still damp. Others claimed the odd shadows racing at that time of day threw the drivers off. A few said that drivers were afraid more weather was coming, so they were more aggressive than usual. I don’t thing any of those theories are true. Sometimes these things just happen, and I think that’s what happened yesterday.

Was it a Block? Ryan Hunter-Reay had a decent race going for his Dreyer & Reinbold one-off ride. On Lap 107, Scott Dixon was passing Will Power on the backstretch. He had just completed the pass on the inside, when Hunter-Reay attempted to make the same pass on Dixon. From my limited viewpoint, it appeared to me that Hunter-Reay was making a too-aggressive move on Dixon. Hunter-Reay’s nose went into the back of Dixon and Hunter-Reay caught the worst of it – doing a 360 in the grass. Not only did he have front-wing damage, but his steering assembly suffered damage as well. He nursed the car back to the pits, but his car was terminal.

Apparently others saw it much differently, saying that Dixon blocked Hunter-Reay and caused the spin. I though Dixon had already established position. I guess it’s like basketball. Some see it as a block, while others see the same play as a charge. Regardless, Dixon was not penalized and Hunter-Ray’s day was done.

A Clean Fourth Quarter: There were eight cautions by Lap 147. When the track went green on Lap 154 for Will Power’s crash in Turn One, I feared drivers would get even more aggressive in the closing stages – leading to even more yellow flags. Instead, the track stayed green for the remainder of the race.

That is not to suggest that there was no action. There was plenty – especially up front. Scott Dixon had worked his way from starting twenty-first, up to the lead. He was swapping positions with Arrow McLaren teammates Pato O’Ward and Alexander Rossi for several laps. At one point in the last forty laps, I thought any of those three drivers was going to win.

After what appeared to be a miraculously last pit stop, Josef Newgarden was suddenly up there in the mix. Dixon and Newgarden were swapping the lead until they came upon the car of Augustin Canapino, who was running twenty-second. He was fighting not to be lapped, which was his right – but at that point in the race, I felt he should’ve let the leaders race. Instead, Newgarden was able to get by him and use him as a pick. Dixon could not get by him and Newgarden was able to stretch his lead over Dixon. Rossi was able to get by Dixon as Canapino fought to get past Newgarden and get back on the lead lap.

Rossi set his sights on Newgarden and appeared to have the faster car. Pato O’ Ward got back in the mix and passed Dixon and Rossi, who was eventually passed by Dixon. O’Ward gave it all he had as he and Newgarden both took turns at the point in the closing laps, but he could not hold off Newgarden after they both took the white flag with Pato up front. Newgarden got a massive run going into Turn Three on the final lap and O’Ward had nothing for him.

Newgarden won over O’Ward by 0.3417 seconds – an amazingly close gap considering the last 46 laps were run under green.

Love him or hate him, and there are plenty in both camps, Newgarden drove hard and clean at the end and earned that win – his second in as many tries. Had O’Ward been able to hold him off in Turn Three, we would be saying the exact same thing – hard and clean at the end – about him. He drove a heck of a race too. But credit all of the drivers for racing clean at the end.

By doing so, they avoided the dreaded red flag that has marred the end of many 500s in recent years.

Select Company: It’s odd that Josef Newgarden didn’t win his first Indianapolis 500 until his twelfth try. One year later, he has won his second in a row and is now obviously a two-time winner. There aren’t a ton of drivers that have done that, The first was Tommy Milton back in 1923.

But by winning back to back Indianapolis 500s, he is now only the sixth driver to do so: Wilbur Shaw in 1939-40, Mauri Rose in 1947-48, Bill Vukovich in 1953-54, Al Unser in 1970-71, Helio Castroneves in 2001-02 and now Newgarden in 2.23-24. Those are some big names in that group, and Newgarden has put himself in some select company.

The Exit: As much praise as IMS should get for executing their plan for such a safe and orderly evacuation of the stands, someone needs to answer for the cluster on getting out of the track last night. As we were leaving the Media Center around 9:30 last night, I got a text from a friend leaving the media lot, which is part of Lot 2. He said he had been in line to get out for forty minutes and had never moved. I heard from another friend parked in Lot 2, and it took them an hour and a half to get out, long after the race had ended.

When we got to the media lot, we encountered much of the same. We were eventually routed through a muddy quagmire through the trailer park off of Turn One. We followed cars in front among the mobile homes and port-a-potties as we drove through mud with the fear of getting stuck. When we finally goy dumped onto 16th Street, the police in charge would only allow us to turn left (east), the opposite direction we wanted to go. We finally made our way to 10th Street, where we saw every street blocked by police cars with their lights flashing. We were finally able to turn south on I-465 to get to our hotel. We saw entie exits blocked (Rockville Road and Washington Street) where you could not get off.

Susan’s son parked outside of Turn Four. He was still stuck in there trying to get out at 11:00 pm. My brothers were not able to get out of their parking lot south of the track until well after 10:00, when the race finished around 7:45 pm.

I don’t know if things got backed up because of cars getting stuck in mud, or if the four-hour delay gave fans four extra hours to get drunk and rowdy or what. I know that the police did not help by routing cars in the opposite direction of where they needed to go. One friend told me that he needed to get on I-465 North to get to his hotel, but was routed south on 465 and could not turn around until Sam Jones Expressway to go back north.

Monday morning, I saw countless stories from fans saying the same thing. It was a nightmare.

It seems that every year, the police come up with a totally different plan to route traffic. Some years it works, sometimes it doesn’t. This year was a complete and total failure. Whatever they did in 2023, they need to do it again. Change is Bad!

Non-factor: There was tons of hype for Kyle Larson going into the month, and it was well-deserved. The 2021 NASCAR champion has proven he can succeed driving anything. Well, he held his own for a while, but got shuffled back to fourteenth on a restart. He had a pit speed violation that ultimately did him in. He completed all 500 miles, but finished a forgettable eighteenth.

I did not like all of the attention he was getting in the month and did not want him to win in his first try. But he was a good citizen all month and came across as a really good and humble guy. He also seemed to get the enormity of the event and appreciate his opportunity. I salute him for choosing to stay, instead of jetting off to Charlotte for his day job. I hope he comes back next year, and the weather cooperates more.

Drive of the Day: Conor Daly moved up more spots than anyone, starting twenty-ninth and finishing tenth. He also led twenty-two laps. That was impressive, but not as impressive as Ed Carpenter Racing’s rookie driver, Christian Rasmussen in their third car. For a rookie to move up from twenty-fourth to twelfth should earn him Rookie of the Year, but it has definitely earned this site’s Drive of the Day award.

Personal Notes: Many of you have seen and read comments from “Oliver W”, who has been a longtime reader from the UK. Oliver flew over Friday and flew back today, just to attend this year’s 500. We met up in the Pagoda Plaza Sunday morning before the rains came. He was an interesting fellow and we enjoyed meeting and visiting with him.

Since our mother died in 2020, the only time I get together with my brothers is in Indianapolis every May. We three were together for my first 500 in 1965 and have been getting together in May off and on since 2003. It was good to get together and sit together again at this year’s race.

I always treasure each And every Indianapolis 500 I am able to attend. When Susan received her cancer diagnosis in 2020, we weren’t sure she would ever attend another one, much less even be alive. Four years later, she is still cancer-free and doing better since her initial diagnosis. Here is a photo of us in our seats prior to the race.

All in All: Given the uncertainty going into the day, those fans patient enough to stick around were rewarded with a great and entertaining race. It was a long and sometimes frustrating day, but the race was one of the better once we have been treated to in a while. Now we wait for another year…

George Phillips

Please Note:  After posting every day for the past month, I am going to take a break. The daily posts are done, and I am also going to take off this Wednesday May 29. I will have a "Detroit Preview" up here on Friday May 31 and I will have a "Random Thoughts on Detroit" next Monday. From there, I will resume my three times a week schedule then. Plus, we will be traveling to Road America the following week. Thanks to everyone who followed along all month. Another may is in the books, and it has been a blast – GP

This entry was posted on May 27, 2024 at 10:59 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.