(Photo: Joe Skibinski/INDYCAR)
By Aaron Bearden
The Greatest Spectacle in Racing is upon is – even if it may not seem like it.
The 104th Running of the Indianapolis 500 has arrived, and it figures to be one of the most surreal and strange events in more than a century of racing at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Fans will be gathered outside of the track or watching at home in a rare 500 that isn’t blacked out in Central Indiana. Many of the festivities that conclude a traditional Month of May will be held, but they’ll be done in the heat of August amid the hollow echo of more than 200,000 empty grandstands.
The Indy 500 is going to be a race that looks like a surrealist parody of the standard event off-track, but the 500 miles on it promise to provide the same high-speed intensity that every 500 has elicited from the 33 drivers contesting it.
There’s going to be a lot to follow today in the small town of Speedway, Indiana. Here are a few of the biggest stories to track.
The Curse
From the moment Marco Andretti showed pace early in practice, the Andretti Curse figured to become a talking point for this year’s Indy 500. Those talks only ramped up when Andretti toppled Scott Dixon to claim the pole for the race.
Andretti’s teammates and colleagues celebrated as he streaked across the line and took the top spot. His grandfather Mario beamed with pride, noting that he beat out Dixon – the best driver of the past era – to pull it off. Marco himself even shined with a smile and confident swagger that hadn’t been seen from him in some time.
“I’m not sure I expected that,” Andretti said of the support. “I’m super humbled by it. It felt so amazing. I have a lot of friends in the sport, and a lot of them know what I go through when it doesn’t go right. A lot of them know how hard I work at it and how much I care.”
It’s all been well and good, but now comes the moment of truth. Can the third generation driver end the famed curse?
The last time an Andretti triumphed at Indianapolis was in 1969, when a young Mario scored his lone victory in the annual showcase.
In the years since the Andretti family has become synonymous with the event. Michael Andretti dominated editions of the race. John Andretti became the first to complete “The Double,” contesting the Indy 500 and NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 on the same day. Mario contended multiple times, and Marco even came nail-bitingly-close in a loss to Sam Hornish Jr. at the end of his 2006 debut.
But a return to victory lane has never come.
Whether the 51-year winless streak in American open wheel racing’s grandest event constitutes a true “curse” moniker is up for debate, but the term has come to stick over time. Andretti jokingly implied that the curse doesn’t exist in August, but he’s all-too aware of the hopes and expectation placed upon him going into today.
The Boston Red Sox overcame the Curse of the Bambino in 2014. The Chicago Cubs ended the Curse of the Billy Goat in 2016 and Toyota finally toppled its Le Mans Curse in 2018.
Marco Andretti seems to have a chance to do the same for the Andretti family today, and in doing so he could provide a rare reprieve to the trying circumstances brought about by COVID-19. An Andretti in victory lane could make all feel right in the world for a large portion of the IndyCar fanbase, if just for a fleeing second.
Now the time has come to see if the No. 98’s pace is a sign of things to come or merely fool’s gold.
Fernando’s Last Shot (For Now)
The Triple Crown of Motorsport isn’t an officially-recognized entity. The tours and races that make it up are varied in country, track and discipline. Very few drivers even have a chance to compete in the three series that make it up, let alone contend for wins in each of the marquee races.
But a select group have an opportunity to pull it off, and at the moment that includes Fernando Alonso.
A two-time Formula 1 champion, Alonso has already secured two legs of the Triple Crown – F1’s Monaco Grand Prix and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, contested by the FIA World Endurance Championship.
The only thing remaining is Indianapolis.
Make no mistake – Alonso wants it. Badly.
This could be the last time Indiana is greeted by the spectacular Spaniard. With his career set for an F1 return with Renault over the next two seasons, Alonso knows for certain that he won’t be back until at least 2023.
Should he win, he likely won’t come back at all.
“If you want me back, hope I don’t win,” he said during media day.
He nearly pulled the feat off on his debut. In a shock McLaren Honda Andretti entry during the 2017 race, Alonso led 27 laps and seemed poised to contend until a blown motor after 179 laps ended his run in heartbreak.
But Indy has a way of choosing winners and providing expected contenders with heartache. Even a 32-time F1 winner couldn’t avoid it.
Alonso missed 2018 amid what seemed like his final F1 season. He returned with McLaren in 2019, but was given a humbling lesson in the magic of Indianapolis when he failed to qualify for the race, knocked out by Kyle Kaiser and Juncos Racing on the final run of Bump Day.
Despite only being in his third year at Indianapolis, Alonso has already experienced both the soaring highs and crushing lows of the event. Now he’s back with the newly-formed Arrow McLaren SP – eager to find redemption and history with a victory in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.
Graham Hill is the only driver to have completed the Triple Crown of Motorsport, having won the three events between 1963 and 1972. Only two active drivers, Alonso and Juan Pablo Montoya, currently have a chance to do the same. Montoya needs Le Mans to complete it, while Alonso needs only to drink the milk in Indianapolis.
He’ll have a chance to do just that today – possibly for the last time.
Penske, Chevrolet Trying to Rebound
For the past two years, it’s been easy to find the eventual Indy 500 winner. Just look at the Team Penske camp and try to pick the best car.
That could still prove to be the case this year, but if it happens it’s going to come from deep in the field.
Honda owned qualifying for the 104th Indy 500, claiming 11 of the top 12 positions with only fourth-place Rinus Veekay cracking the Fast Nine for Chevrolet.
Among Honda’s contenders are four previous winners, led by five-time series champion and 2008 victor Scott Dixon. He’ll roll off in second, alongside 2017 winner Takuma Sato. Ryan Hunter-Reay (2014) and Alexander Rossi (2016) will also be among the contenders up front.
If Team Penske hopes to bring team owner Roger Penske a win in his first Indy 500 as the owner of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the organization is going to have to bounce back from its worst qualifying effort in years.
Josef Newgarden led the group in 13th. Will Power was a distant 22nd, and defending winner and pole sitter Simon Pagenaud was relegated to 25th. Part-time returner Helio Castroneves was the worst of the group, slotting in 28th for his 20th run in the annual crown jewel.
Three of the group’s four drivers have won the 500 before, and the other is the defending series champion. But if any among the quartet – or any Chevrolet driver outside of Veekay, for that matter – hope to kiss the bricks this year, they’re going to have to rise up from deep in the field.
Rookie Sensations
This year’s Indy 500 rookie class brings an unusual flair and swagger into the strangest debut in the annual event they ever could have imagined.
Rinus Veekay and Alex Palou were among the top stories of qualifying for the Greatest Spectacle in Racing, with the 19-year-old Veekay scoring the best-ever result for a teenager at the track in fourth.
There are five drivers in total making their 500 debuts today, ranging from various locales. Palou is Spanish and comes by way of Super Formula in Japan. Veekay hails from the Netherlands and counts Jos Verstappen, former F1 competitor and father of current Red Bull phenom Max Verstappen, among his supporters going into today. A.J. Foyt Racing’s Dalton Kellett hails from Canada, home of 1995 Indy winner Jacques Villeneuve.
Arrow McLaren SP is bringing a pair of Indy Lights champions and newcomers to the race, with Mexico’s Pato O’Ward and American Oliver Askew set to challenge for strong finishes. The pair each contended for the win in their virtual IndyCar debuts at Indianapolis during the IndyCar iRacing Challenge.
Each member of the group has potential to contend for more than just rookie of the year honors. O’Ward failed to qualify last year with Carlin, but has already contended for a win in a runner-up run at Road America. Palou is as fearless on-track as he is charismatic off it, and Veekay has already shown pace not other Chevrolet could manage. Askew and Kellett each have Indy experience from their Road to Indy, with Askew winning last year’s Freedom 100 and Kellett finishing as high as third.
They might succeed, or they could struggle as many rookies have before. But this quintet promises to be worth following in their unusual Indy 500 debuts.
It’s Still Indy
Another story worth following is the surreal nature of the race itself.
There won’t be the traditional screams of fans gathered en masse when a driver rallies to the race lead, nor the deep bass thumping from the infield as the Snakepit shuffles through another set from a famous DJ.
The scent of tenderloins, Brickyard burgers and race day beers won’t permeate the Indiana air. The familiar whistling of yellow shirts will be faint and distant, as will the questions of media members sent over Zoom instead of ringing out from in the midst of a pit road media scrum.
Thirty-three drivers will still roar past the start-finish line in eleven rows of three. Teams will still contest 500 miles of racing, and the winner will surely want the long-desired drink of milk and gritty taste of kissed bricks afterward.
But the sound of cars and whatever noise plays over the loudspeakers will be the only thing heard on the day at the Brickyard, reverberating through the 2.5-mile oval in a haunting cacophony that showcases the dire situation that 2020 has forced on the racing industry and entire world.
The general hope around the paddock is that this will be the only Indy 500 that ever runs like this. No one wants to hold the event without fans – the hundreds of thousands of eager attendees are part of what makes the Greatest Spectacle in Racing live up to the name.
But just this once (hopefully) the race is going to be an entirely different spectacle. It’ll be one worth watching, if just for the sake of remembering the surreal experience none among us ever thought they would experience.
