FOX Sports broadcaster Will Buxton found himself standing in the renovated Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum earlier this week with his wife and daughter when the magnitude of the impending moment struck him. Not only will Sunday be the Englishman’s first time calling the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge, it will be the first “500” he has attended.
Amid the throngs of people who about to fill IMS – all 350,000 of them in just the second official sellout in the event’s 109-year history – are the most loyal of Indy fans. For years, these men, women and children have trekked to the Racing Capital of the World with their families as their families did before them. Coolers will have been packed, traditions followed, memories shared.
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This is Indy.
If you know, you know.
Buxton will soon know, too.
“With ‘(Back Hone Again in) Indiana,’ the playing of the national anthem,” the Englishman said with a crack in his voice. “I’m not going to lie to you: The hairs on the back of my arm stood up, and I got a bit emotional.
“There was one tear, so I’m going to be in pieces, I think, on Sunday when this actually happens for real.”
The sounding of the morning cannon will wake Indy’s ghosts. This 500-mile race has been staged since 1911, with more iconic moments than even a historian like Donald Davidson can recall. Forty years ago, Danny Sullivan did a complete spin trying to pass Mario Andretti for the 1985 lead in between the first and second turns. Somehow, both escaped contact and within a few laps their duel resumed, Sullivan driving away with the victory.
Twenty years ago, Danica Patrick brought a similar roar to this grand, old place. On a restart 11 laps from completion of the 2005 race, she took the lead in what was the first true bid by a woman to win. Patrick couldn’t hold on, of course, but she showed that a race car knows no gender, and it stands to reason that one day a woman will take Indy’s checkered flag.
Today, historic opportunities abound. From the 22nd starting position, Helio Castroneves will take his fourth shot at becoming the first five-time winner. Two other members of the four-time club – A.J. Foyt and Rick Mears – will be on hand to witness it. Castroneves is one of six drivers in history to have won two “500s” in succession, but no one has ever won three straight. Josef Newgarden can do that in a most historic manner.
Newgarden and Team Penske teammate Will Power will start this race from the last two positions after their cars were deemed to be outside the rules. To win, Newgarden will need to claw to the front from the 32nd, and no winner has ever marched from so far back. Ray Harroun (1911) and Louis Meyer (1936) won from the 28th starting position. A win by Newgarden, Power or Scott McLaughin would extend Team Penske’s event record to 21 wins. McLaughlin starts 10th.
Robert Shwartzman has already accomplished a rarity. In addition to becoming the first Israeli-born driver to earn a starting position, he did so in the most stunning fashion, earning the pole position as a rookie, one of only three drivers since 1950 to do so. Indy also happens to be the first oval race of Shwartzman’s life. The sport’s modern era has no comps.
Milestones here are revered. Winners are legends, those with multiple wins are legendary. Like Castroneves, Takuma Sato is already one of the latter, but a win from the second starting position will give him three. Do the math. There are only 10 drivers in that club. And should Sato win, he will do so in what will be his only race of the season.
Sato is a rock star in Japan, but Mexico’s Pato O’Ward is the most popular driver in this event. Call it a takeover in the most glorious way, and if the driver who lost last year’s race in a last-lap shootout with Newgarden wins this one, well, hold your ears. The roar of approval might top any moment in this race’s history, including Patrick’s. O’Ward starts third, his best look he has ever had at the initial green flag.
The 33-car field has storylines aplenty.
Scott Dixon, who starts fourth, has done everything here but return to Victory Lane. He’s a six-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion who holds Indy’s record for laps led (677), races led (16) and most times led (74). Even Dixon, who has finished second a record-tying three times, can’t believe it’s been 17 years since he earned a likeness on the Borg-Warner Trophy.
Alex Palou is off to the largest points lead this series has seen in decades, with four wins in the first five races (he finished second in the other). But anything short of a win Sunday will feel like a loss. Who says? He did. More than once in recent days.
Marco Andretti will make his 20th start in the “500,” longevity that his father, Michael, didn’t achieve. Graham Rahal also wants to give his family another Indy win, though like Andretti, it will be challenging. The latest-generation stars will start side by side on the 10th of 11 rows, Rahal in the 28th position, Andretti the 29th.
Kyle Larson could become the first NASCAR regular to win Indy, and he will make history even if he doesn’t. Only Tony Stewart, who will join Buxton on the FOX Sports broadcast, completed all the laps at Indy and Charlotte Motor Speedway, site of the NASCAR Cup Series’ Coca-Cola 600, in the same day. Larson’s bid last year was thwarted by Indy’s four-race rain delay and rain in Charlotte.
Fourteen nationalities are represented in this driver group, but the number of drivers who believe they can win this race is higher than that. That optimism is well-founded, as 19 of them have won series races in their career.
Given the depth of this field, it’s worth noting that the record for the closest 1-2 finish is .043 of a second (Al Unser Jr. over Scott Goodyear in 1992). In three other instances, the separation at the finish line was less than a tenth of a second. In the past 10 years alone, 11 drivers have led in the final 10 laps but did not win the race.
There is so much to like about what’s at stake as we honor on this Memorial Day weekend the men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice defending this nation. Now it’s time to race, to enjoy, to make history.
The command to start engines awaits. Buckle up, Buxton.
