“I have learned that to be with those I like is enough.”- Walt Whitman

 

May 26, 2022
 

“I have learned that to be with those I like is enough.”- Walt Whitman

As much as I love attending the Indy 500 and the entire month of May in Indianapolis, what makes it truly special is the time I get to spend with friends while I am there. Old and new, the friendships that I have with so many people in the city that I called home for half of my life, remain a major reason that I so much love to return year after year.

This year I wanted to check in on a friend and former classmate of mine from the cathedral High School class of 1982 who has just released a new book. I new right where to find him as he has been working for years at the very school we attended back in the day.

Kenny Barlow and I have been friends since we met in freshman year and I followed his exciting career as he starred at CHS, then at Notre Dame and finally enjoying a long and successful professional career playing basketball overseas. His new book, “First Round Pick; The Path Least Chosen” documents this career and his personal choice to forgo the money and fame of signing with an NBA team and choosing a different path. He remains the only first round pick in NBA history to voluntarily not sign a contract to play.

He is as grounded, intelligent and fascinating a person as I have the good fortune to know,and I spent a fast moving few hours in his office catching up. I wish I lived closer so that I could spend more time with this man, it is truly a joy and a blessing to share intelligent, thoughtful conversation of any number of subjects. Check his book out if you want to read a fascinating story.

I spent a lot of time at the Speedway with friends as well. My friends Brent, Tammy, Jordan and the crew at the Suite make each May an absolute pleasure. It is almost like they become my family during the month as I certainly spend more time with them as I do anyone else during the month. They make hanging out a pleasure even when there is no activity on the track.

I had the good fortune and surprise to walk into the suite one day to find Indiana based singer-songwriter Clayton Anderson and his band playing in the suite. I had literally been on the beach in Key West a week previously with Clayton as he was one of the featured performers at the Key West Songwriters Festival. 

He was playing on one of the rain-out days and it entertained the folks in the suite and even a couple of drivers, Jack Harvey and Marcus Ericsson came up to hang out. Marcus and midget car driver Maria Cofer both actually sang with the band, which was really fun.

I took in my annual visit to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum as well, though I am pretty sure that I will be visiting again when my friends from Key West arrive to attend the race, I always like to check out the new displays on my own, so I can take the time to really explore the exhibits in detail. There were two new exhibits, one on the evolution of the cars in the race and the other on Speedway traditions.

https://claytonandersonofficial.com/

Practice and Qualifying

 

May 23, 2022

Practice and Qualifying

Practice for the 106^th Indianapolis 500 began on the Tuesday following the Indy Grand Prix and the day after I returned from my quick visit to Chicago. I spent as much time as possible during the week, watching practice, hanging out in the suites eating fried chicken and other delicious catered menu items from the famous Jug’s catering- which has been at the Speedway as long as I can remember.

It is just a pleasure to me to be able to roam the garage area and pit lane, greeting my friends who work with some Indy Car related job or who just happen top love Indy Cars as much as I do. Being able to head up to the suite with food, drinks and always full of friends is pretty cool too.

The suite is actually a double suite and includes two bars, plenty of comfortable couches and seats, as well as seating outside overlooking the pits and main straight. There are multiple close circuit televisions and timing and scoring directly from the track, so you are always up0 to date on what is happening and you are under cover when it rains, which is great as are the private bathrooms,

The practices were pretty intense, especially since one of the practice days was a complete washout due to rain. There was a lot of pack running with 15-25 cars zipping around continually passing and repassing each other. This made the speeds of some of the cars shoot up due to the tows that they were getting from the train of cars in front of them. It seemed like every day, Takuma Sato would end up at the top of the speed chart, but if you looked behind the numbers at the non-tow speeds, you would not find him on that list at all.

 The fastest 12 drivers included Scott Dixon, Marcus Ericsson, Jimmie Johnson, Ed Carpenter, Pato O'Ward, Alex Palou, Rinus VeeKay, Romain Grosjean, Will Power, Felix Rosenqvist, Tony Kanaan and Takuma Sato. Rinus VeeKay was the fastest on Saturday and all five drivers from Chip Ganassi Racing made it through to the final 12. 

I split Saturday between being in the pits to get in on the official qualifying photo taking and relaxing in the suite to watch the action. Then watched almost the entire show on Sunday from the suite. Sunday they had each of the top twelve drivers qualify in reverse order from slowest (Sato) to fastest (VeeKay) with the top six each getting one final shot for the pole and top six spots.

It is a rather convoluted way to determine things but I guess it created enough simulated drama to keep fans happy who may have been missing bumping. Four Ganassi cars and two from Ed Carpenter Racing advanced to the fast six, with Scott Dixon grabbing the pole with the second fastest qualifying speed ever, and fastest for a pole sitter, of 234.046 mph.  Alex Palou and VeeKay rounded out the front row as Dixon captured his fifth pole position.

Finally I was able to take in my annual dinner with the ladies on Friday evening. This annual tradition has been ongoing for about 15-20 years or so and is one of the things that I always look forward to the most each year as I get to catch up with some of my oldest and dearest friends. This year we made a repeat visit to Half Liter restaurant, which is rare as we seldom revisit the same place, but it is good and easy to access. My friends Amanda, Jody, Kristi and Stephanie joined me this year and we had another awesome evening sharing stories, catching up and having fun.