For all the Indy 500 provides, the raw emotion is what makes it most special
INDIANAPOLIS – There’s nothing quite like 325,000 people falling silent in an instant, waiting for the somber notes of a single bugle playing “Taps” in the biggest sports stadium in the world on a weekend dedicated to fallen American heroes.
The moments before the Indianapolis 500 are a strange mix of emotions – excitement, gratitude, hope – as well as a sense of interconnectedness felt even by people who wouldn’t hang out if they weren’t elbow to elbow.
Then chaos breaks out. Maybe not right away, but to some degree at some point.
Then the emotions change.
At their best, we get what the 107th running of the Indianapolis 500 gave us Sunday:
- Winner Josef Newgarden, who was partway out of his car almost before it stopped, who crawled into the stands to celebrate with fans, who ugly-cried as the relief washed over him as he was hoisted onto the victory podium.
- A runner-up, Marcus Ericsson, who was hot, not just disappointed but straight-up ticked off over the way the finish of the race was handled that kept him from a second straight victory.
- A.J. Foyt, a legend of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway – no, the biggest legend of the speedway – smiling the way he hasn’t on race day in decades, at a time in his life he could use a good smile.
- Two veterans who account for five Indy victories, Tony Kanaan and Helio Castroneves, racing for position the way they have since 1987, even if that position was 15th place.
It also gave us a fright, when a wheel bounded over the fence, but then comfort to learn it hit a car in a parking lot, not a fan in the stands.
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“There’s no denying that Indianapolis, this is the most difficult motor race in the world to win," said Newgarden, the 2017 and ’19 IndyCar Series champion. "It’s the pressure that builds this entire month. You have so much time to potentially get it right, and it comes down to really one day to be perfect.
"I think that’s what has made it special today to win it. I just feel overjoyed for the amount of work we put in this month.
"On the flipside, when you don’t win it, that’s what makes it so demoralizing. You pack up, you say, we lived here for three weeks and we put everything we had into this and it didn't work out. It just breaks your heart. It's broken my heart every year. And so … I just feel amazing now that it didn't break my heart this year."
Behind Newgarden and Ericsson, Santino Ferrucci finished third. The pintsized 24-year-old with the outsize personality had the 88-year-old Foyt’s No. 14 car near the front all day, and that felt good all around.
After four Indy victories as a driver, Super Tex last won at the Brickyard in 1999 as Kenny Brack’s car owner. Last month he lost Lucy, his wife of nearly 68 years.
"It was emotional getting in the car, which was kind of strange because you feel like there’s a lot of people that really want this, the team really wants this," Ferrucci said. "We worked so hard to be where we were. … We definitely, all three of us could have won it at any point in time."
By all accounts, Indy is back, having slowly recovered from the split of the 1990s to the point only a few thousand seats went unsold for Sunday, and some 75,000 people showed up Friday for Carburetion Day practice and concerts. It’s a different crowd from a generation or two ago – the DJ in the Snakepit is a dead giveaway – but the energy was palpable.
It took some time for that to be rewarded. Nearly half the race was gone before rookie Sting Ray Robb’s crash brought out the first caution flag and then contact in the pits took early leaders Alex Palou and Rinus VeeKay out of contention.
By contrast, the final 16 laps were mayhem, with Kyle Kirkwood flipped on his head, Pato O’Ward pinched to the grass in a battle for the lead and then a crash behind the leaders on a restart after the second red flag.
With two just two laps remaining, IndyCar officials could have let Ericsson coast to the finish under the yellow but again stopped the race to provide an at-speed finish. Drivers would leave pit lane, pack up on the back stretch and launch in Turn 4 for a one-lap shootout.
Initially angry, Ericsson accepted his fate and cooled down as the interviews continued, but he’ll forever believe he was robbed.
"I don't think it's safe to go out of the pits on cold tires for a restart when half the field is sort of still trying to get out on track when we go green," Ericsson said. "I don’t think it’s a fair way to end the race. I don’t think it’s a right way to end the race."
Newgarden drafted past on the backstretch and then weaved inside, outside and inside again – the way Ericsson had to beat O’Ward a year earlier – and held off Ericsson by 0.974 seconds in the third-closest finish in Indy history.
Aerodynamics being what they are, the following car has an advantage, and the leader’s only defense is to try to break the draft. Drivers were told the pit road commitment line wouldn’t be enforced in that situation.
"Today we had an opportunity to win the race, and I wasn’t looking to take anyone else out of the race, but I was going to put my car on the line to win. I was either going to win the race or I’d end up in the wall. I wasn’t here to finish second, third, or fourth today. I was here to win."
Distracted by the spectacle, fans may have overlooked the battle between Kanaan and Castroneves, possibly the final time.
After flirting with retirement last year, the 2013 winner Kanaan insisted this race was his last in an Indy car, whereas Castroneves will keep trying for a fifth win as long as someone will provide him a car. At 48 either Brazilian could have become Indy’s oldest winner; instead Castroneves finished 15th to nip his friend and rival by one spot mid-pack.
"We both went side by side on the backstretch after the checker and we saluted with each other, and I just told him actually I dropped a tear because of that. And he said, I did, too," Kanaan said.
"This is it," he added a short time later. "And the emotions are just there. I cried 400 times."
Newgarden wasn’t counting, but he may have given Kanaan a challenge if he had.
Freed from the burden of 11 years of unfair, unrealized expectations, Newgarden thought of his parents, Joey and Tina, who set him on his path in racing. He thought of his wife, Ashley, who has shared his heartbreak. He thought about team owner Roger Penske, who had won 18 previous 500s but none since taking on the additional burden of owning the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the series.
His family and teammates had to wait, though, when the time came to celebrate. Newgarden had scouted the passageway from the racetrack to the bleachers beneath the flag stand and had every intention of sharing his exuberance with the fans. He’d been one. He knew they’d appreciate it.
For the first time in hours, the track was the safer place, and that’s where Ashley stood, near her husband’s car, waiting for a kiss and embrace.
"I planned to go higher in the stands, but it quickly got a little out of control, and I thought, maybe the best thing is for me to leave again," said Newgarden, who was still wearing his helmet when he hopped the fence and disappeared in the impromptu mosh pit.
"But it was really cool. You just can’t beat the Hoosier hospitality, the energy that people bring here. It is second to none when it comes to a sporting event. …
"It was always something that would be a dream come true to be able to do that."
All of it. The winning. The memories. And most of all the emotion.