Emptying the Notebook on the 99th Indianapolis 500

My apologies for the radio silence this past week. I am the possibly the last person of my generation to not own a smartphone or tablet. Thus, I was unable to provide updates while in Indianapolis. I’m back home now, and my first thought is: What a race! There’s no need to recap the race, so below are thoughts that popped into my mind during the race and things I’ve developed in hindsight. I did attempt to watch the rebroadcast in Indy Sunday night, but mostly was too exhausted to gain much insight there.

It feels like a contradiction when you look at the box score. From my position at the track (on the front stretch just past the yard of bricks and the pylon), it felt like the cars could separate themselves more, especially during long green flag runs. It also felt like the lead car was capable of getting somewhat away, at least compared to recent years, and lead 10-20 laps in succession. In the end though, there were 37 lead changes, second most all-time after the insane 2013 race. This points to the early separation (again, in comparison to the rest of the DW12 era) possibly being a result of the leaders racing patiently in the early going. That clearly went out the window in the frenetic closing laps, and by closing laps, I mean the final 50. It will be interesting to see how the racing is next year as the aero kits further develop.

What a job by Juan Pablo Montoya. Even after his crew replaced his rear wing and he fell to 30^th, did anyone doubt that Montoya would charge through the field and be a player at the end? For a while, he was gaining a position a lap, and suddenly, there was Montoya in the top 10 again. It was a fantastic drive, especially during the white knuckled conclusion, and a well deserved second Borg-Warner Trophy. Was JPM the first person I would have picked to win the 500? No, but that has nothing to do with it.

This is a different Montoya than the guy who won 15 years ago. The young man who won in 2000 was cocky and brash. Of course, when you can back it up in the form of 167 laps lead, it works. This Montoya is now a husband and father, and while I’m guessing he’s still confident, there appears to be some more humility and wisdom in him now. There’s also something to someone who wants to win as bad as he still does despite having to be a millionaire many times over. This win makes it clear, not that there should have been any doubt, that Juan Pablo Montoya is one of top racing talents of the last 20 years.

(As an aside though, it was tough realizing that Montoya’s 500 win was literally half my lifetime ago. Oof.)

It was sometime in the middle part of the race that I realize that Penske and Ganassi had a lock on the top seven, and 8^th was well back on the track. Using that invokes quite a bit of moaning, but on this day, it was cool to see these two titans duke it out with everything on the line. Would I like to see that every 500? No, but this time it was fun to watch. On the other side, it was another difficult day for Honda, with Graham and Marco often being the only Hondas running in the top 10. They certainly earned their 5^th and 6^th places respectively. The third best Honda drive of the day in my opinion was Gabby Chaves. He had quietly worked his way into the top 10 before some late issues dropped him back to 16^th. At 21, add another one to the pile of exciting young guns in IndyCar.

The best car doesn’t always win, and add Scott Dixon 2015 to that list at Indy. The late pass by Montoya where it appeared the cars touched (shades of 2000 at Michigan) killed Dixon’s momentum and took him out of the final battle for the win.

Auto racing can be a cruel, cruel sport, as the fates of Sage Karam and Conor Daly attest. This tweet from Karam’s dad describes Sage’s day in a nutshell. For Conor though, to work that hard for that long and not even take the green flag…I can’t even imagine the heartbreak. It was good to see him get the #5 ride for this week at Detroit.

After the drama of the past few weeks, the most important thing is that there were no flying cars. That said, we still had the close call for Sebastian Saavedra. He’s very lucky that a dislocated foot was his only injury after being hit nearly broadside by Stefano Coletti (who had nowhere to go it must be said). We also had Dale Coyne Racing crewmember Daniel Jang suffering a broken ankle during the three way DCR tango in the pits. The race was overall a win for safety, but as always in this sport, the margins are very very tight.

The thing about the Hawksworth/Saavedra/Coletti crash was that at the time it sure felt like a wreck was coming. Just before, the front of the field had collectively turned insane and was dicing all over the race track. It was a litany of hold your breath moments, and there were still 30 laps to go! The final restart to the checkered flag was comparatively tame. I’m still not sure what caused that crash, but Hawksworth took full blame at the banquet.

I went to the race wearing my Tony Kanaan hat and Simona de Silvestro shirt, and that clearly brought neither of them luck. Simona ran into the back of Montoya at the beginning to set up his charge, but was otherwise a complete non-factor (and sadly, not for the first time at Indy on race day). As for TK and his crash, the only good part is I didn’t see it live because I was in the bathroom. Before then, he looked as prime to win as anyone at the front. When he went from 3^rd to 1^st in less than a straightaway, I turned to my companion and said “Want to know why TK is so beloved here? That’s why.” So at least there was that.

I’ll leave my non-race specific thoughts for tomorrow, because this has gotten long enough as it is.