Twenty four hours after the 97th running of the Indianapolis 500 race I’m still catching my breath and processing what happened on the famed two and a half mile speedway.
A record-setting race in number of leaders and lead changes with one of the IndyCar series most popular drivers winning it all.
If it were possible to hold your breath for just under three hours watching the race from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway most would have been doing so. Following the second caution period of the day the race returned to green flag action on lap 61. Cars continued to race through several rounds of green flag pit stops for 133 laps before the next caution period. That’s a testament to the superior skills of the teams and drivers are to perform when the stakes are the highest.
Last year’s race set a new mark for lead changes with 34 over the 200-lap event. This year’s race smashed that mark with 68 exchanges of top spot during the race. A thrilling display to watch as drivers worked their way to the front.
While the drivers are trying to go as fast as they can they are also working with their teams and strategizing how to get themselves into the best position for the closing laps. With each circuit of the track they add a little knowledge about their cars along with the track conditions and where their competitor’s weaknesses might be.
Eleven previous attempts to win the Indianapolis 500 by Tony Kanaan were unsuccessful. He’s come agonizingly close to winning and crashed and not been a factor. Kanaan has won an IndyCar championship and as we spoke earlier in the year you could see how desperately he wanted to win the Indy 500.
T.K. told his crew on the radio just before the restart that things were either going to work out really well or not very good. When the race returned to green after the third caution he wasn’t about to wait for it to select him as the winner, he chose to determine his own fate. Kanaan pounced immediately getting to the front and had taken over the lead when the caution flag was again displayed after his close friend Dario Franchitti who’d been making a bid for his fourth Indy 500 hit the wall.
Tony Kanaan completed the race behind the pace car, drove to the winners circle to accept the championship wreath, drink the milk and accept the Borg Warner Trophy as the winner of the Indianapolis 500.
Standing in pit lane you could really sense how popular a win this was for Kanaan. When he circled back to the start finish line with the lead on his way to victory you could hear the crowd roaring above the noise from the cars. The cheering continued again and again as the checkered flag waved and as Kanaan knelt down to kiss the bricks.
This was the fifth race of the 2013 season — the fifth exciting race with a great story for the winner. Many described last year’s season as one of the best in recent memory. It’s very likely we’re on our way to another.