50th Indianapolis 500

 

June 1, 2022

50^th Indianapolis 500

This year marked the 106^th running of the Indianapolis 500 and was a pretty special one for me personally as it marked my 5oth year of attending in person, I only missed the 2020 race- which was run in August of 2020 with no fans in attendance due to the Covid pandemic. With that single exception I have been present for every race since my first in 1973.

I have been going to the speedway even longer as the first documented visit I had was for a practice session in 1968 when I was just three years old. An old 8mm movie exists that shows me with my father and grandfather walking around the outside of the old garage area, but I don’t have much memory of that at all.

Anyway, this year marked a return to normalcy as the race was held at full capacity and the full complement of affiliated activities returned, with the exception of,the balloon release, which I believe has been relegated to the historical dust-bin due to environmental concerns.

I had my usual ten seats, high in the SE Vista overlooking turn three and along with Kathy, James, Deb and Matt and my sister Michele, I gave a pair of tickets to my friend Amanda’s son and left the others empty to give us all some more room in the stands.

We arrived fairly early, deposited our lunch and coolers in the stands then I took James, Matt and Deb down through the pit lane with passes that my friends had given me. It is always a pretty cool scene on the pit row and then out on the grid as they line the cars up prior to the start of the race. 

As usual, we were able to see the celebrities that were on hand including this year the star of the biggest summer movie, “Maverick: Top Gun”, Miles Teller. I would not have even recognized him if not for the excitement that he caused among the 500 Festival Princesses, who were all agog. After asking one of them who it was, he actually came over and posed for a photo with James and was really, really nice.

We also saw almost all of the living former race winners as they were driven through the pits and onto the track with their families and even met the Governor of Indiana who was milling about the pit area. I think my guests were really excited to be down on the grid amongst the excitement prior to the start of the race. There really is nothing quite like it, except maybe the prerace festivities which we always have to be back in our seats to witness.

The weather was terrific, a bit hot, but not oppressive and the race got underway without any large wrecks or distractions as the field was led to green by polesitter Scott Dixon. Early on Dixon and teammate Alex Palou battled it out and throughout the day those two along with McLaren teammates Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenquist would all feature in the race.

Sadly, Palou got caught out by an untimely yellow that dropped him to the rear of the field and Dixon made a very uncharacteristic mistake by getting caught speeding on pit lane. The ensuing penalty dropped him out of contention where he finished 21^st.

Marcus Ericsson drove a brilliant race, hanging around the top ten all day until the final 30 laps when he surged to the front and started driving away from the field, only to have a crash by Jimmie Johnson with six laps remaining bring out a red flag, erasing Ericsson’s lead. The green came out with three laps to go and Ericsson held off a furious charge by Pato O’Ward to win his first Indy 500 in what was a great finish.

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