It’s been quite an adventurous two weeks. But I am back home, safe and sound with a great many memories…not the least of which was the 100th running of the Indy 500, “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.” It was a special three days, capped off with the big race on Sunday. As previously mentioned, I’ve wanted to go to an Indy 500 race since I was a little boy listening to the race on the radio from my home in the Bay Area. After listening and watching the race for all these years, I finally made it…how fitting it was the 100th running of the race.
The photo above is not from the race. It was taken two days before the race at the very last practice. The Friday before the race is called “Carb Day,” which is short for carburetor. Even though these fast cars no longer use that device, the name and the tradition continues on. On this day, at the start of a one hour practice, all 33 cars charge out of the pit area on to the track at once, which is what you see here. They come out mostly in order of their starting positions, previously determined on the weekend before the race during two days of qualifications.
So, the first car you see here has the pole position of the race. It is driven by James Hinchcliffe, a driver who came close to death last year and watched that race from a hospital bed. He was critically injured in a crash during practice run. Because of that, he was a sentimental favorite for this year’s race and excited everyone by going the fastest during qualifications and winning the pole position. He beat out the second place car by 1 ten thousandth of a second.
Behind him in the blue car is Josef Newgarden…and directly behind him in the yellow car is Ryan Hunter-Reay, a former Indy winner. These three cars would battle for lead on Sunday for the first half of the race. Hunter-Reay would collide with another car coming out of the pits and would finish way down in 24th position. Newgarden would eventually finish 3rd while Hinchcliffe finished 7th.
So who won on Sunday? It was a 24 year-old rookie named Alexander Rossi. He started in the middle of Row 4 (11th position). I am not 100% sure where he is in this photo, but I am pretty sure he is the blue car directly behind the silver car and in front of the yellow car.
It was an exciting moment when all these cars came roaring out the pits at the same time. While this was only a practice, you would have thought it was the race itself. These cars roared around the track at close to 220 miles-per-hour…pushing their cars to the limit, passing other cars when possible and testing the cars for final adjustments. The fans in the stands could feel this practice was very close to a real race and the drivers all said afterwards they felt the same thing. They all want to win the 100th race as for them it would be the pinnacle of their racing careers. Alexander Rossi has little idea how his life will be changed forever.
During this practice, cars came in and out of the pits so their crews could make minor adjustments to improve the cars speed and performance. On race day, the cars start on the track, not from the pits. That is what makes the Carb Day Practice so special, especially for first-timers like me…seeing and hearing the cars live and close up for the first time. It was definitely goose bumps time. Wow!!
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