Postcards from the Paddock - Indianapolis 500

My favorite day of the year is whatever day the Indianapolis 500 happens to fall on within that given year. My least favorite day might just be the day after. The anticipation that has built for the last year grows into a crescendo each May when the green flag falls on the field of 33 and every year when I start the drive home the despair of knowing it will be another 12 months until we get to revel in this sporting treasure again starts to set in. Each year the angst for next May to come around seems to be stronger than ever before.

For me it was the dream of Indianapolis, and specifically of joining many of my professional heroes as members of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network, that started my pursuit of a career in this field. This year marked my fifth as part of the radio team and it was as much of a thrill as it was the first time in 2018. 

My day started earlier than intended when I woke up at 3:30am, an hour before my alarm was set to go off, and immediately knew there was no point in trying to go back to sleep! I was at the track a little after 6:00am when it was still mostly deserted. Over the next few hours I was able to watch the largest sports venue on the planet come to life as over 300,000 fans filed in for the first Indy 500 without COVID-related capacity restrictions since 2019.

The hours before the race felt like a celebration of a return to normalcy. By the time I took my annual race-morning walk around Gasoline Alley at 8:00am the Speedway was already a hive of activity with fans reveling and team members scurrying around going through their final check lists. After two years, this finally was what an Indianapolis 500 should feel like!

One special part of this year's race for me was that I was able to have my friend Clay Carter along to serve as my pit spotter. Clay was my co-host when I hosted my first motorsports shows on my college radio station. As my spotter, he helped monitor radio communications and was an extra pair of eyes as we tried to chronicle the goings on in pit lane. It's not an asset we get very often but it's a big help and it was wonderful to get to share the experience with him.

My section of pit lane included the eight cars from Scott Dixon at pit exit to Romain Grosjean who was pitted near the entrance to Gasoline Alley. The “500” is the busiest race for us in the pits with teams typically making seven or eight stops and pit strategy being a major component in this era of the race. My hope is that we were able to convey the the goings-on from the pits and provide insight directly from the race strategists to our listeners and then capture the wide swathe of emotions in our interviews with drivers after the checkered flag that only Indy elicits.

One of the many things I love about the morning of the race is the knowledge that in a matter of hours someone will have their life totally transformed for the better. Whether it's a multi-time winner like Helio Castroneves last year or a first-timer like Marcus Ericsson this year, winning at Indy will shape your legacy as a racing driver. It's been a unique privilege to stand on the victory podium for the winner's interview these past two years and what a contrast in personalities between the two latest champions! 

Helio is gregarious where Marcus is more reserved but also as a multi-time winner I got the sense that last year Helio knew exactly what his win that day meant. Watching Marcus accept the victory wreath and sip the famed bottle of milk for the first time, both excitement and overwhelming awe were on display as he took it all in. I have no doubt he will still be learning just what his accomplishment means when we get back to IMS next May for the 107th running of the race.

I wrapped up my day at my parents' house on the north side of town where over a dozen friends and family members had gathered. I've had a block of tickets in Turn 3 for at least 10 years now and each year friends from various points in my life come join us for The Greatest Spectacle in Racing. This year's group was a fun mix of veteran “500” attendees and newbies attending their first races. I capped off the night learning about their experience that day over good food and cold drinks with the tape-delayed race replay airing in the background, all the while looking ahead to getting to do it all over again next year.

There's not much time for a post-Indy 500 hangover, though! This weekend it's off to Detroit for the next round of the IndyCar season for IndyCar Radio and I'll be back on the Formula E beat as well with the next E-Prix from Jakarta, Indonesia on CBS Sports Network. Talk to you from the Motor City!

--Ryan