“The Indy 500-Memories”

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They sing ‘Back Home in Indiana’ on Sunday.
Gentlemen start your engines will be replaced by the roar of engines
The Green flag will see guys leading the pack who posted 234mph laps.

The Greatest Spectacle in Sports will be run before 250,000-fans this weekend.

The storylines are amazing this weekend, just like the history of years and decades gone by.

Alex Palou, one of the hottest drivers the last couple of years,starts on the pole.  His storyline is not just speed, but what happened last season, when he wound up in court trying to escape his contract from Chip Ganassi racing.  He was trying to go to the new Arrow-McLaren team.  The courts ordered him to drive for Ganassi.

Starting across the front grid is Felix Rosenqvist, the guy he was supposed to replace till the court case was settled.  Rosenqvist will likely leave McLaren-even if he wins, to be replaced by Palou.

Starting in between them will be the Dutch driver Rinus Veekay, who is fast and who crashes alot.  Pay attention at the start.

Each year somebody shows up you didn’t know and does really well, and maybe wins.  That guy might be the guy who starts 4th on the grid, Santino Fertucci running for the under financed AJ Foyt team. He is fast, he is unheralded.

Legendary New Zealander Scott Dixon starts in that second row, and might be the best Indy veteran who gets littls respect despite all those wins.

Former 500-winners, like Marcus Ericksson, Alexander Rossi, Takuma Sato start further back in the traffic.

Keep an eye on Roman Grosjean, the displaced F-1 driver from Team Haas, has run well in Indy car racing and seems on the brink of winning here, why not now.

Ditto for great veterans like Ryan Hunter-Reay and Josef Newgarden.

It might be the year the Mexican driver Pato O’Ward gets the win, for he has run upfront alot here.

The Indy 500 has become a global event.  The field is so international, it has a different feel and flavor now than a decade ago, than 30-years ago, than when Ray Harroun running in an old roadster won the first ever.

There is so much tradition come Sunday.  It is a slice of Americana as they run for the 107th time.

It’s a race now just of speed and guts and luck and craft, it is a race of personalities.

AJ (Foyt) and Lone Star JR (Rutherford).
The Gas Man (Sneva)
Big Al and L’il Al (Unser)
Mario and Michael (Andretting)
The Boys from Brazil (Castroneves-Kanaan)
Vukie and Tony (Vukovich-Granitelli)
Spin and Win (Danny Sullivan)

It’s the brilliance of owners and visionaries like Roger Penske

It’s a race of heartache, late race crashes, blown engines and ever changing track conditions.

It’s daring last lap passes and brutal 1st lap crashes.

It’s airborne cars and terrible fires from back in the day with Swede Savage and Salt Walther..

It is everything you would ever want in the race, and we get it on Sunday.

The Indy 500…speed, speed and more speed.  Safe run guys.

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