Post-Indy Deflation

The Indy 500 is a bubble in many ways. At its most obvious, it's a bubble due to the enormity of attention it gets compared to the rest of IndyCar. The Indy 500 is hyped up as this huge thing, which it is, but a few days after it's over? Silence from the rest of the world, and once again, it's just us diehards following this thing.

I imagine that because of this, the 500 feels like a bubble to those most directly involved: from the drivers to the teams to IndyCar personnel to the regular IndyCar media. For those two weeks, it's more attention and demands on one's time than many of them probably get the whole rest of the season. Maybe I'm projecting, but that has to be a somewhat surreal feeling. There have been many debates on whether all this attention on one race is good for the series as a whole (almost certainly not), but for the moment, that's the reality of the situation.

The 500 also feels like a bubble to the city of Indianapolis, at least it felt like it to me as a visitor. I was staying downtown, and throughout race weekend, it was definitely a party atmosphere. The streets Thursday through Sunday night were packed. Then came Monday and it was a ghost town. While the holiday surely had a lot to do with it, the place had the feeling of sleeping off a giant hangover. The bubble had deflated and the party was over. By Tuesday afternoon when I left town, things had a "back to normal" vibe about them.

For me, the bubble deflated today, as I went back to work. That was the official "Vacation is over, back to real life" moment. While in Indy, all my worries and anxieties melted away, as if they no longer existed. The race and everything around it had become an escape in a way I didn't even notice until it was gone. It was truly a different world for me.

Luckily for us, there's racing this week. Yes, 90% of those who watched the 500 are gone. Yes, it's at Belle Isle, which is liking going from filet mignon to high school cafeteria Salisbury steak. However, it's IndyCar and it's two races in one weekend. There are worse things in this world.