This year's edition (my 17th race believe it or not) did not disappoint... the weather was movie-script-perfect, the field was as strong as it has been in 12 years, and the crowd (which makes the 500 the world's largest single-day sporting event) was noticeably the largest in that time period as well, over 300,000 came to Speedway, IN to enjoy the 92nd running! All in all, it was just a fantastic day.
Well check that, I was disappointed in one regard. It is a yearly tradition to discuss matters of the Month of May with friends and Beauford in particular... in one of these conversations, we always make obscenely early and often mostly uninformed picks for who we'll think will win the race... Mine this year was Tony Kanaan. This brings me to my disappointment:
Scott Dixon drove a nearly flawless race, I take absolutely no credit away from him and his very Rick Mears-esque victory, it was surgical. It would not have happened, however, were it not for a very un-teammate-like move by one Marco Andretti on Tony Kanaan. The first half of the race unfolded with both Ganassi cars and two of the AGR cars basically in lock step at the front of the field. Strategy and fuel conservation was in play, and it was clear that there were a number of very solid cars at the front of the pack, Kanaan in particular seemed to be waiting and biding his time.
After the half-way point, TK "put the spurs to 'er" as I said at the time and blew the doors off of both Dixon and Wheldon and charged into the lead. After several laps out front, the leaders started coming up on lapped traffic, getting caught up at the end of the backstretch. Dixon made a great move on TK to the outside as Kanaan came up on a slower car, at the same time, Marco Andretti charged in late and deep to the inside, hanging Kanaan completely out to dry and up in the gray out of the groove. A few blinks later, he was trying to save the car out of a spin and was T-boned by a helpless Sarah Fisher. Cue up the rage of many TK fans in the stands, including yours truly. These sorts of breaks sadly are the rule in Kanaan's career thus far at the Brickyard... Seven starts, seven straight years of leading the race (a new record, besting Mears and his 6 in a row), and zero wins to show for it. Far from a sob tale I know, but he's been nothing but solid and has yet to really catch a break in his favor at the hallowed track.
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!There are many stories of this kind of struggle at Indy however, and Kanaan's barely scratches the surface of suffering. Michael Andretti has lead over 600 laps at the place, with exactly ZERO wins to show for it, Mario won in 1969 only to come up short time and again for the rest of his career. The entire Bettenhausen family put their lives into the 500, also no wins to show for it. Scott Goodyear has finished 2nd in the closest race in history and lost the race on a ruling based upon passing a pace-car in a snafu on a final restart. And Roberto Guerrero... I can't even mention the guys name without feeling for him, his struggles are the stuff of legend, no one else can make the claim of crashing the fastest car in the history of the race (to that point) on the warmup lap... The stories of those who haven't tasted the milk are sometimes even more compelling than those of the guys who took the checkered flag. It is all part of the pull of the track and the event that make Indy what it is: The Greatest Spectacle In Racing.
That said, I'd also like to plug for the greatest driver on the circuit that still is a relative unknown: Vitor Meira. All Meira has done is finish no lower than 12th in six Indianapolis 500 starts, and finish second twice... all while driving for teams that are not on the level of Penske Racing or Chip Ganassi or even Andretti-Green. His 2nd on Sunday was an impressive drive in a one-car effort for Panther Racing... and his pass on the second to last restart for the lead was one of the greatest pieces of driving you will ever see... seriously, the guy is phenomenol.
Oh, oh yeah... 92-0 ladies, 92-0.
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