This year’s audience, judging by the people wandering the streets Thursday night and walking through the turnstiles Friday morning for Carburetion Day, feels like a homecoming, a family reunion.
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“Listen, every time we don’t win, that’s part of the sport, but you remember it for a long time”, Castroneves said with a fearless smile. He’ll run the No. 24 Gas Monkey Energy Chevrolet for Dreyer & Reinbold – Kingdom Racing.
But the 1992 failure stands out in my list of Indianapolis 500 memories for several reasons.
Montoya has turned 40 since the last race and is one of seven drivers in this year’s race over 40 years old. “You nearly feel like it’s the end of the world because you put so much into it”, he says. It handles great in traffic.
“The biggest thing I really remember was sitting up in the grandstands of Turn 1, and you are just enjoying the time with my mom and dad and the handsome weather and watching cars”, Hornish said.
Now, it’s the countdown for the world’s biggest race. No matter where you live, you get in your auto, you start it up and drive away, and while you’re doing it, practically everything was filtered through an Indy vehicle. In a survey of the 27 living winners of the Indy 500, The Associated Press found the 1992 race won by Al Unser Jr.to be the greatest in history. I have become accustomed to it now.
Tony Kanaan was so frustrated during qualifying that he was simply relieved once it was over. I don’t know if it’s our vehicle or setup, but it is good in race trim.
“I’m happy with my auto. They are real gladiators and I think that’s what the fans have respected”. “I said, ‘What the hell am I singing?'” It’s hard to pass.
The race lures the biggest names, the biggest crowd and can make or break a career.
“Our estimate is 400,000 who will race into Indianapolis for the best part of the weekend”.
It’s amusing how things change here over the course of the month.
“I think this track will pick the victor”.
“Anybody counting us out, those were big mistakes”.
I told our guys that we need to go back to the vehicle we had on Monday. And we always went there to win it. My dad was in the Air Force and we moved around quite a bit when I was growing up. I was passing on demand! I could drive behind all five Andretti cars. This is a great race vehicle. “If we could win it, obviously it would be a great platform to do even more of that”, Rahal said.
“I’ve never, ever rated drivers openly in my whole life”.
“People are standing up, sitting down, waving their arms, going through the fence, trying to yell at you”. He won it in 2000 and didn’t compete in the race again until 2014.
And we have a strong team too. Rookie of the year is a good goal for us. “Every time I got in traffic, it’s getting better and better”. “Whoever wins this thing needs to be on top of their game and promote like insane and work hard”. His last win as a team owner came with driver Kenny Brack in 1999. We got a tough call when we were put in the right lane – the asphalt lane. There wasn’t any grip there and I spun the tires out of the pit stop. The crew was fast but tires spun. They’ll be laser sharp focused for Sunday. Ten times more chances to make mistakes and have something happen. I’ve been nervous since Monday.
What do you remember about your first Indy 500 win?
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During World War II, however, the Indy 500’s organizers didn’t have time to make a similar decision: the USA banned automobile racing.
