I watched the entire Indianapolis 500 for the first time in many years; actually turned in on the radio while out garden shopping. I thought about watching it on TV but muting the TV and listening on the radio , as the radio broadcasters just give you a better feeling of being there, than the the TV boys.
Listened on the radio to the point of hearing - Back Home Again, In Indiana - as good as the dude was, no one will ever be as good at it as Gomer Pyle was.
A goodly number, very early on , of bone-head move wrecks; one n the pace lap, and two in the pits, but after those snafus, it was a pretty good race with a Spanish dude winning, and, Praise the Lord, none of Roger Penske boys running up front.
As they all run spec. chassis , with a spec. engine from either Honda or GM, it was still interesting but it will never be as good when it was when different engines, different chassis was just as who were driving the cars.
Car companies were there to prove who made the best engines.T
Still remember the 1980 race, before the days of if you are not a millionaire or born to a rich father, with connections you could get in the race with talent and damned hard work; Roger Rager, a self funded sprint car driver, qualified on the 4 row of of 33, with a rebuilt school bus Chevrolet small block.
Now money rules, the rules.
At that it was still far, far, far better than the farce the Daytona 500 has become.
Roger Rager 1980
2025 Rookie Pole Winner
Israeli Robert Shwartzman
