IndyCar: The Indy 500 is full of Traditions
Tradition is a word that describes the greatest spectacle in racing, the Indianapolis 500. For 105 years, tense qualifying, the parade, the drivers’ meeting, the bagpipers, Back Home in Indiana, and eleven rows of 33 cars have been a part of the world-famous race.
Back before May of 2010, the month of May in Indy was truly the month of May. The teams were at IMS for almost the entire month. There were 10 days of practice and two weekends of qualifying. The pole was set on the first day of qualifying and bumping happened as soon as 33 cars were qualified.
This year, the 33rd car was not even registered for the race until the first of May. According to Stefan Wilson, driver of the no 25 DragonSpeed/Cusick Motorsports entry, he had to compete against eight other drivers just to get the chance to be the driver in that 33rd entry. Wilson, the younger brother of the late Justin Wilson, said those eight other guys had backers and were also trying to get something together.
“We did not know where some of these other deals were at.” Wilson told the media. “The other drivers were constantly trying to improve the chances of getting the ride. You could make a reality TV show out of this. It was almost a competition to be in the seat. It was entertaining just to be a part of it. The general public would eat this up.”
Graham Rahal, driver of the no 15 Rahal United Rentals Rahal Letterman Lanigan entry, is disappointed with the way the tradition has changed, not having enough practice days and missing out on the things that used to be done in the May that have slowly gone away.
“Right now, we run Wednesday to Friday. If we went back to the old format, then when there is a rain day, it does not kill you.” Rahal commented.
‘Having more days here, gives us more time to build up the momentum for the Indy 500. Get the energy in the city and surrounding areas going. Now, it is like bam, bam, done. You are here, it happens, and then it is over. Which is pretty intense.”
“We do not need to run until 6 pm. Stop at 5 pm and let us get home to our families. But if we had 2 more days of practice the week prior, we could do those things. I think it may have been 11 am to 4 pm back in the old days.”
“Going back to those days, I do remember a lot more events going on. The golf tournament was here at the Brickyard and almost every team participated in it. We had a lot of different activities around town that were very big, like the Fashion Show. They may still be going on, but I don’t even know about them. Because there is no time anymore to activate around the city.”
Ed Carpenter, the only driver/owner in the series, does not feel that more practice days are the answer. The favorite Indiana native admitted that we did see a lot of weather in the four days of practice last week, but his team was fine with their cars.
And the opinion on whether to have more days was interesting to hear. The rookies that did not have a good qualifying effort would like to have more days to practice. But some drivers commented that we have more time to do setups when we have more practice days. And most weekends, we only have two or three hours of practice time before we qualify.
With this year’s qualifying in the books, most drivers are happy with their cars. Friday is Carb Day, the final two hours of practice before the 200 lap race. Providing the rain does not produce a wet track, the IndyCars will take to the track at 11 am.
Lucille Dust reporting live from Indianapolis