The 100th Indy 500 Has Potential to Be Something Colossal
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The 100th Indy 500 Has Potential to Be Something Colossal
By: Pete MacDonald
Images Courtesy: IndyCar Media
I was sitting there watching Indy 500 practice the other day and I thought to myself, I’ve probably paid more attention to IndyCar racing this year than I ever have. I don’t know why I’ve never hardcore followed it before, I just haven’t. Yeah I used to watch it for background noise or whatever but now I make it a point to follow along with the series.
I really think that this Sunday’s 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500 will go down as one of, if not the biggest motorsports event ever to take place on American soil. The race is sold out at 350,000 seats, the parking is sold out and hotels have been completely booked since who knows when. This event is truly shaping up to be something of historic proportions.
I mean, how many times in history has an event been run 100 times? Not many.
There has only been 58 Daytona 500’s, 55 Knoxville Nationals and 44 Super Dirt Week’s ran, hell there has only ever been 49 Super Bowls so anytime there’s a hundredth of anything, the ending of it is going to be big.
Wrap your head around that for a second, only 99 times prior has someone been able to say “I’ve won the Indianapolis 500”.
This is truly turning into something colossal.
I know I even kicked around the idea of making the 20 hour round trip trek to Indiana just for a practice session to say that I was a part of the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500. This is a part of American motorsports history that won’t be duplicated for at least another 40 years.
IndyCar couldn’t ask for better stories heading into Sunday’s 100th running with James Hinchcliffe sitting on the pole after returning to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway a year after his near fatal accident at the very same speedway which caused him to miss the rest of the 2015 season.
Another strong story line which I think is being very under looked is the fact that there are two American’s sitting on the front row in Josef Newgarden and Ryan Hunter-Reay. That seems to be a lot of peoples complaint when it comes to IndyCar is that there isn’t enough American talent involved, now there are two Americans on the front row.
Then there is Bryan Clauson who I think has rejuvenated every short-track driver’s dream of running at Indy. Bryan who is about as much of a throwback as you can get running anything he can sit in, anytime, anwhere.
One thing I will say about The Month of May is, how much can you practice? There was what, 30 hours of scheduled practice last week followed by another 8 or so this week?
Hopefully this is the shot that IndyCar needs to keep going forward to compete with the likes of NASCAR. I know for sure I’ll be paying attention.
As far as a prediction goes I think I’m going with Marco Andretti get the win. Could you imagine how big that would be if an Andretti were to win the 100th Indianapolis 500?
Who do you have?
I can be reached at racersguide@gmail.com or found on Twitter @PMacDonald51. Thanks for Reading!
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