Homers' Corner: Greatest Spectacle in Motorsports Racing: A Primer for the Indianapolis 500

Is the hyperbolic title of The Greatest Spectacle in Motorsports Racing truly apt? First, is it important to decide what a great sporting event is defined by; the culmination of a season’s worth of wins/losses that pit the two best teams for a winner take all finale, fans of those teams packed into an arena or stadium (or bar, or home, or backyard) to cheer together for their respective team to win, a hail Mary pass, a walk-off home run, a last-minute goal to win? 

While to the uninformed viewer, a car race may simply appear to be a series of left-hand turns, a waste of gas, a redneck pastime, boring, dumb, stupid, or whatever dismissive term is most easily and readily applicable – indeed it is much more than that.

The Indianapolis 500 is different in every way. It is an event in the first half of the race season, with very few of the cars or teams are based in Indianapolis. Real loyalties to teams or drivers are only a fraction of the draw. And yet, it has been said, what heaven is to Catholics, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is to race fans – and everyone should experience that thrill at least once in their lifetime.

Why? 

The Car

The typical Indy car weighs about 1600 lbs and the engine is approximately 650 horsepower. The car sitting in your garage is twice as heavy with 170 ponies under the hood. The top speed for a large oval, such as the 500, is about 235 miles per hour (down from a staggering 244). The average lap time for the polesitter[1] in recent years has hovered around 228 mph. The aerodynamics of an Indy are so good that if you were able to turn the track upside down, while traveling at these speeds, the cars would stick to the track and not fall off.

Another important factor to these cars, is that the Indy car – like an F1 car – is considered ‘open-wheel’ racing. Unlike NASCAR, where, “if you’re not rubbin’, you’re not racin’”, Indy cars are pretty precious and any contact will, best case scenario, mess up the aerodynamics, worst case and most likely, crash the car. The tension and beauty in this danger is extreme and intoxicating.

The Team

Each race car has a team, the most notable member of that team is the Driver. The athleticism and bravado it takes to drive a car as fast as it can possibly go straight at a 90-degree corner, only to lift your foot off the gas at the last milli-second, to beat the driver inches to your right or behind you or in front of you is something regular people cannot fathom[2]. The nerves, the training, and the skill to process so many computations so quickly and precisely are nothing short of surgical.

Behind every Driver, is the team. Do not overlook these people. Over the course of the 500, the cars will make 5-6 pit stops. At each pit stop, the cars get 2-4[3] new tires, each tire has five nuts that need to be unscrewed and re-screwed (tightly), and the car gets about 40 gallons of fuel – in 6-10 seconds. All these movements and actions are choreographed to take 6-10 seconds. A mistake in the pits can cost positions on the track and easily alter the outcome of the race. The chess match of when and how to pit, combined with the risk of human or mechanical error in the pit crew is true athletic theatre.

The Venue

The Venue is what makes this race better than any other race on the planet. The track itself is a 2.5-mile oval and there is not a seat in the house that has a view of the whole track – that is how big it is.[4] Upwards of 400,000 people attend, although no official attendance is reported, there is seating for 235,000 people. This racetrack is huge. But it’s not just the track that makes this place what it is. 

It’s weird to think Jim Nabors[5], The Snake Pit[6], and pounding a quart of milk[7] have something in common, but these are just a few of the numerous official traditions that take place every Memorial Day weekend in Indianapolis, more specifically Speedway Indiana. I say ‘official’ because every racegoer has their own set of odd traditions for race weekend[8] and a large majority of the fans travel from out of state and surely have their own unique race day road trip rituals.

Individually, The Car, The Team, and The Venue are all unique and special organisms, all worthy on their own of pilgrimage and fandom. It’s when you combine them that the Indy 500 becomes the Voltron of sporting events. The starting grid of thirty-three cars does their warm-up laps and then when the green flag flies, all thirty-three launch as fast as they can into Turn One. That single moment is the Greatest Spectacle in Motorsports Racing. Having sherpa’ed several first-time racegoers, that is the moment you see them lose their breath. Forty seconds later the cars are back around again. Before you know it, two hundred laps later the entire crowd is whipped into an ecstatic frenzy on their feet cheering as loud as possible on that last lap for the winner of the race who chased the dragon around the oval for 500 miles, and arrives at the checkered flag unbitten and victorious.

[1] Every race has a qualifying run prior to the race. This is usually a 2-4 lap average. The grid, or starting position of every race, is determined by the qualifying. The fastest qualifier “sits on the pole”. The pole being very literal at the Indy 500 in that it is a pole on the inside of the track at the start/finish line and is the most advantageous starting position in that the inside line around a track is shorter than the outside line.

[2] Try it – take your car out, put your foot down on the gas (all the way), head toward a corner and see what you do. I don’t think I have ever even tried to drive my car as fast as it can go – and I doubt many have. (the Under Review is legally obligated to state that it does not condone the suggestion/dare set here by the author.)

[3] The 2 vs 4 tires strategy usually comes in later in the race because a 2-tire pit stop is significantly shorter than a 4-tire stop.

[4] Apparently, the inside of the track is big enough to hold Churchill Downs, Yankee Stadium, the Rose Bowl, the Roman Colosseum, Vatican City, the White House, the Taj Mahal, and Liberty Island and still have room to spare.

[5] Jim Nabors sang “Back Home Again” In Indiana for over 30 years as part of the pre-race ceremony.

[6] The Snake Pit began as an un-official gathering in the infield of the track, mostly populated by a crowd that leaned more towards SMYT sorta vibe. Now it is an official EDM concert that goes on during the race – hard to say which version is worse.

[7] Milk – yes milk – is provided to the winner of the Indy 500. After a long hard hot car race, Milk.

[8] For the last 5-8 years my group makes sandwiches, make fun of the guy who makes tuna salad, drive to park on the lawn of Ms Rose’s house (leave her some smoked fish), have some cocktails and beers, go to the track with our coolers, sit with the same people (we are in season ticket territory), someone takes a nap for 50-80 laps, and we all go swimming after the race.

SAM VINZ is the co-founder of Volume Gallery, an event-based gallery with a specific focus on American design, and an emphasis on emerging contemporary designers. Sam graduated with a BA in art history with an emphasis on 20th century European architecture from UW-Madison. He completed his MA in art business from Sotheby’s Institute in London, writing his dissertation on an analysis of the contemporary design market. Prior to opening Volume, Sam worked at Phillips de Pury, Carpenters Workshop Gallery, Wright Auction, and Chase Art Companies. Other than art and design, his interests pertain to anything loud and fast – rock-n-roll and NASCAR being at the top of the list.