110th Indianapolis 500
This year marks the 110th running of the Indianapolis 500 and it will be the fifth time that Jack and I have attended the race. Traditionally, the field for the race is set during qualifying which is held the weekend prior to the race. I have never attended qualifying before and this year I decided to arrive in Indianapolis a week early to check it out for myself. In addition, I decided to try camping at the racetrack for the first time as well figuring it wouldn’t be as crazy as a race weekend. When I arrived at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Friday morning, it was raining so I got settled into my campsite and waited out the rain. My spot was in Lot 2 which is just across the street from the racetrack, literally 100 yards walk to the entrance. Surprisingly, the camping area wasn’t that full and it was very quiet which was awesome.
After eating some lunch, I entered the racetrack and walked around while they dried the track for an afternoon practice session. I got to watch them warming up Pato O’Ward’s car in the Arrow McLaren garage and also checked out some of this year’s merchandise in the track store. Finally, around 2 o’clock, they opened the track for practice and I sat in the pit row bleachers to watch various teams conduct final testing for qualifying which was scheduled for the following day, Saturday. Many of the top teams did not run in practice, but most of the field was on track during some of the practice session where the #60 car driven by Felix Rosenqvist being the fastest with a lap speed of 233.372 mph. Other drivers who were fast on “Fast Friday” included Alexander Rossi, Scott McLaughlin, and Marcus Ericsson.
Unfortunately, it was raining Saturday morning and that started to jeopardize the qualification schedule almost immediately. So, qualifications were set to run from 11:00am to 5:00pm during which every car would initially get one qualifying run based on the order drawn on Friday evening. Once all cars had their initial run, any car could get back in the qualifying line to try and improve their time up until 5:00pm. The fastest twelve cars would compete again on Sunday afternoon to set positions #7-12 followed by the fastest six competing for positions #1-6 in a final round. As the rain ended in the late morning, I entered the racetrack with the hope that some of the qualifications would happen in the afternoon, but that was short lived. Just as the track was almost dry enough for racing action, another set of showers arrived along with a severe weather watch. I finally gave up around 3:30pm with the track still wet and no relief in sight, I went back to my campsite. It was around 4:30pm when the announcement was made that qualifying was scrubbed for Saturday and an abbreviated version would run on Sunday.
The weather was dry and warmer Sunday when qualifying got underway at noon. Each of the thirty-three cars got a single qualifying attempt which consists of a warm-up lap followed by four laps at full speed. A driver’s qualifying speed is determined by averaging the four laps. After every driver had a qualifying run, the cars with the top 12 speeds moved on to the second round while the other cars filled positions 13-33 (rows 5-11). The Top 12 round consisted of numerous Indy 500 Champions including Scott Dixon, Alexander Rossi, Alex Palou, and two-time winner Takuma Sato. Once again, each driver got a four-lap qualifying run with the top six average speeds moving on to the final round and the other six cars filling out positions 7-12 (rows 3 & 4). The final round, Fast Six, was extremely exciting as drivers were pushing their cars to the limit to win the pole position. During a typical race, Indy cars appear to be traveling extremely fast but during qualifying their speeds are ridiculously fast typically topping 240 mph heading into Turn 3. The die-hard fans know what I learned this year: qualifying weekend is a pure speed rush. Following all six cars having a qualifying run in the Fast 6 round, Alex Palou (No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing) posted a speed of 232.248 mph to win the pole position for the 110th Indianapolis 500. The rest of the front row included Alexander Rossi (No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing) who posted a speed of 231.990 mph and David Malukas (No. 12 Team Penske) with a speed of 231.877 mph.
Since nothing really happens in Indianapolis between qualifying and the Friday of race weekend, I decided to go camp on Lake Michigan for a few days. I stayed at Warren Dunes State Park which has huge sand dunes that rise from the eastern shores of Lake Michigan and tower over the landscape. Camping up in Michigan also put me closer to Chicago where I had to go Thursday to pick up my son Jack who flew in for race weekend.
Friday of race weekend is Carb Day which kicks off in the morning with final practice for all the race teams. All thirty-three cars were seen on the track during the two-hour practice session and there was plenty of drafting and race conditions on displayed. The fastest lap posted during final practice was 228.342 mph set by Josef Newgarden in his No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet. For the second year in a row, Carb Day hosted the Wienie 500 which is a two-lap race of the world-famous Oscar Mayer Wienermobiles. This year the race was won by the “New York Dog” who’s crew received the Borg-Wienie Trophy and got doused with mustard. Unfortunately, the traditional Pit Crew Challenge was cut short when rain arrived during the first round. On Saturday, Jack and I attended the Driver’s Meeting and then visited the fantastic Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum.
The weather forecast for race day had been questionable all week, but Sunday, May 24th arrived with a dryer weather outlook and better chance of getting the 110th Indianapolis 500 completed. Once again, Jack and I sat just to the right of the flag stand and yard of bricks. We had great views of all the iconic pre-race traditions including driver introduction, the playing of taps, the singing of “Back Home Again in Indiana”, and the command to “start engines” given by Roger Penske. The field of 33 cars was led to the green flag this year in a pace car driven by Indiana University’s head football coach, Curt Cignetti, and the field was once again joined by a pair of Blackhawk helicopters on the parade lap.
After a clean start, polesitter Alex Palou led the field into Turn 1. The first half of the race was highlighted by Ganassi teammates Alex Palou and Scott Dixon trading the lead a total of 26 times as they worked together to save fuel. At Lap 106, the track was placed under a red flag for a rain shower passing over the 2.5-mile track, but it was short lived and racing quickly resumed. With only four laps remaining in the race, rookie Mick Schumacher brought out the caution flag when he slapped the wall. Fortunately, the caution was brief and a restart was setup for an epic one-lap shootout for the win. David Malukas led the field to the green-white flags (one lap to go) and he had Felix Rosenqvist right behind him. All down the backstretch, Malukas was protecting his lead which he maintained into Turn 4. However, coming out of Turn 4 Rosenqvist made a move to the inside which Malukas went to block and then Rosenqvist swung to the outside heading towards the historic yard of bricks. The finish was so close (remember they are moving close to 230 mph) that is was unclear initially who had won the race, but they quickly posted the result: Felix Rosenqvist had beaten Malukas by a mere 0.0233 seconds!!! After 500 miles, the margin of victory was less than then the time it takes to blink an eye. In addition to being the closest finish in Indianapolis 500 history, this year’s race also had an all-time record 70 lead changes involving 14 different drivers which contributed to this being one of the most exciting races in Indy 500 history. We can’t wait until next year!
