Editor’s Note: This column was written and published prior to the Indianapolis 500 being postponed until Aug. 23 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
CONCORD. N.C. — Next month, we’ll reconvene at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the annual classic that is — still and always — the Indy 500.
Well, that and a lot of other stuff, if the schedule is to be believed.
I’ve always been a purist about Indianapolis. You know that, those who have read this column all these years. Old school is still the best school, I always say. Well, maybe not.
Indianapolis has always been the center of the universe for me as a racer. I say racer, even though I am most decidedly not one, because I grew up around them, moved among them and have spent a better part of my ever-increasing years following them.
I thought, wrongly as it turned out, that the Hulman-George family would always own that magnificent speedplant and the world would spin on as it had since the day Tony Hulman bought it from Eddie Rickenbacker and turned it into what it is today.
Roger Penske owns it now and hide-bound traditionalist that I am, I am glad he does.
The fun is back at 16th and Georgetown. The buzz is back, too, and that does my heart good.
One thing Mr. Penske has always been is first-class, and he has the ability, the foresight and above all the team to bring the old place not just back to where it used to be but past it to new heights.
The changes are coming fast and furious and I can’t seem to stop grinning. The 500 is, without a doubt in my mind, the greatest race in the world. Sorry, NASCAR, but Daytona’s 500 is at least No. 2 in my heart. Others will feel differently, of course, but that is the way life is. If you lived it, breathed it and felt it, it was your jam, whether it was Daytona, Sebring, Eldora or Ascot Park. For me it was Indy.
The ceremony, the pageantry and all the glitz were part of it, but more than that it was the feeling that you were standing on years and decades of history. Well into its second century as a venue, IMS has adapted to the times and Penske’s influence makes it move faster.
The Hulman family had it for more than 70 years and they moved it light years ahead from where they picked it up. When Mr. Hulman passed in 1977, some of the light went out of it, but Mari George and her son, Tony, kept it going for a long time. When it was announced that Penske had purchased the speedway, I knew it would be just fine.
The secret to his considerable success is pretty simple. He picks great people to implement his ideas, and they always succeed. Always. Carve a race track out of the Inland Empire, in California, the hardest place in the universe to get anything built? Roger is your guy.
Take an old dirt track and make it a showplace in Mario Andretti’s hometown? Check.
Build a push-rod V-8 engine that put paid to the stock-block era at IMS? Roger again.
If he builds it, they will come, and it will be a success.
That’s why I am excited to see what Indy will be like this year. Maybe it is because I have spent so long away from its friendly confines, but I really feel the need to get back there. Something tells me that this year’s event will be akin to the first Brickyard 400, in terms of what it will do for Indy car racing.
I loved the Hulman-George era at IMS. It was all I ever knew. I’m starting to love the Penske era at IMS, and it hasn’t even gotten started for real yet.
May can’t get here fast enough for me.