Good finish Indy500
 

Congrats to Tony K for the win!!! Very humble guy in victory lane. Pretty good Indy500

Posted via Mobile Device

Re: Good finish Indy500
 

I have to agree one of the better Indy 500 in many years.
Congrats to TK and a good run for A.J Allmendinger.

Really good race, would have liked it to stay green. Happy for TK, he deserves it.

Posted via Mobile Device

Great racing
But hardly a good finish when its under a caution.
:/

Posted via Mobile Device

Re: Good finish Indy500
 

The last lap could be any of the last fifteen laps, BETTER BE RACING TO WIN

Don't change a freaking thing, BEEN THAT WAY OVER A HUNDRED YEARS and I heard fans going nuts the whole last ten laps even though only two were green.

Didnt say change it.
Just an observation the best are always when they are under the green flag.
IMHO

Posted via Mobile Device

Re: Good finish Indy500
 

Agree a green finish would have been great, but to see TK win was great. Loved the racing all day long.:8:

Re: Good finish Indy500
 

Green-White-Checkered

Get with the program Indy.

Re: Good finish Indy500
 

You mean follow NASCAR's lead? USAC tried that with the Silver Crown Series. You see where that is today.

Nope. 200 laps is the distance. No more. Don't need no more gimmicks.

Anyone else think Jim Nabors was a little "off key" this year? Even at 107 years old, or whatever he is now, that song is still something I look forward to every year.

Great race. If you've seen a better 500 let me know. Off to Anderson i love indiana

Posted via Mobile Device

Re: Good finish Indy500
 

i do believe NASCAR got Green-White-Checkered from your local saturday night race track. Sprint cars were doing that well before NASCAR began running it in their programs.

Re: Good finish Indy500
 

Among the very best if not the BEST Indianapolis 500. As a native Hoosier now displaced in Dakota I still miss my home state when 'Back Home Again In Indiana' is sung. I wish Bob Jenkins was at work with a microphone at the 500.

Re: Good finish Indy500
 

Ahhh... not to argue a point, Beercloud buddy, it's just my opinion on it.

There are certain things I don't like, and I can put them all under the heading of gimmicks. They are:

Green-white-checkered
The Lucky Dog
The Wave Around
Restrictor plates
Double file restarts
Debris cautions
Lapped cars to the rear on restarts

The best way a green-white-checkered finish was ever explained was to think of it as a marathon running race. A marathon is 26 miles, 385 yards. To me, that is like going 26 miles and stopping (caution) and then lining everyone back up, after a breather, and having a 385 yard sprint for the win. The race is a MARATHON, not a sprint.

You have to keep the overall perspective of the race clear.

Here is a good example for this past 500: The Penske team with Allmendinger got out of synch with the pitstops due to his belts coming undone. The networks were playing it up. Anyone who can count backwards from 200 laps in 28-30 laps chunks knew the whole rest of the field had to make the same number of pitstops as A.J. he was essentially out nothing. Now, his only problem would have been had it gone G-W-C, for he only had enough fuel until about Lap 201. Now you have teams having to deal with some outside influence such as that vice dealing with what the race is billed as - The Indianapolis 500. I never read anywhere where it was called the Indianapolis 505.

And on a sidebar, as far as I can recall, no short tracks/weekly shows count caution laps. Hence every finish where a caution comes into play late will be a G-W-C, for the caution laps do not count, thus CANNOT count for the last lap. Sprint cars in every category used this method. It was never a USAC thing. It was a product of short track weekly racing. Long races, like Champ Cars, count the caution laps, and always have, for they run long races. Short races at your local tracks cannot, or never really did. It would ruin the 30 lap features (make them 10 lap features at times).

In the mid 80s, ARCA started using the G-W-C for their races. They (ARCA) are longer races than your weekly shows wherein the caution laps are counted. NASCAR copied this idea after the Talladega beer can throwing incident back in the early 00s when Gordon won under caution. Richard Petty, a long time advocate of not drinking, chastised NASCAR for giving in to the beer drinkers. But, unfortunately Richard Petty has been long forgotten by many for what he achieved.

Don't even get me started on the Chase where NASCAR copied that from the USAR Hooters Pro Cup Series.

Bottom line: I understand and respect your view. Honest. I just like an advertised 500 miler being just that - a 500 miler. It''s not the fastest car that wins races. It's the first car to take the checkered flag.

And I don't like gimmicks.

Re: Good finish Indy500
 

That was a great race, a church in town was offered the opportunity to display the flag for the race (since the military couldn't do it) as a fundraiser for a mission trip. I personally do not go to this church but did take them up on chance to do it. They bused us up there and among other things, gave us a ticket to the race. Here is the neat thing to me. The guys in charge of the flag needed 33 people to do something else flag wise. When they said that we would be holding flags next to the cars as the drivers were introduced, I got over in that group. When it came time to do the flag stuff, I went to my row (row 4) and waited. In the back of my mind I thought it would be neat if the driver of the car I held the flag for won. I ended up holding the flag for Tony Kanaan's car.


The race itself was pretty awesome (wish it could have finished under green), but the lead changes and relatively clean race was nice. I walked away from the brickyard 400 a few years ago with no desire to go back ever again, I have every intention on going back to the 500 again. The funny part I laugh about today was when Mario Andretti was in a golf cart behind the pit row stands, he floored it and went about 50' to the Honda racing trailer and slammed on the brakes. I thought to myself, once a racer, always a racer.

Another observation I made was that at Indy, I would venture to say 90-95% of the seats were filled. I was watching a video from the NASCAR race and they put a giant American flag over part of the stands (guess they couldn't sell enough tickets) to make it look like they are losing fans in the stands.

Re: Good finish Indy500
 

Yes!!! It may well be the only thing NASCAR has done for the fans that's actually right!! There is never a good reason to end a race under yellow!! NEVER!!!! The race was a good one to be sure but ending it under yellow took a lot away from the show! Oh please don't use USAC and their rules when trying to make your point..my god there is just to many rule failures to use them as a justification not to have or to have a certain rule.... It was a sad ending to pretty darn good race!!

Posted via Mobile Device

Re: Good finish Indy500
 

I heard DW on the the pre race show say "Indycar should take a lesson from NASCAR on green, white, checker finish."The 500 had 68 lead changes, 45 were on track, and not in the pits. I think NASCAR could take a lesson from that.

Re: Good finish Indy500
 

Dumbest thing ever said.

Exactly!! Record number of cars finished all 500 miles w/ 2 cars only 1 lap back and another only 2 laps. All of this w/ very few cautions including one segment going ~120 laps without a caution. Best part is NO LUCKY DOG rule. I'm willing to bet DW left that stat out because MASSCAR couldn't accomplish that in their wildest dreams.

Quite honestly I find this GWC conversation happening so quickly to be utterly ridiculous considering how action packed the entire race was. That somehow a yellow finish overrides anything that happened laps 1-199. But if you feel that strongly in GWC, there will be a series come through later this summer where fans get excitement the first 2 laps and the last 5. Plenty of time to visit w neighbors, grab concessions and souvenirs. When you hear a caution though check the scoring boards. Dramatic increase in chance of a new leader...

Posted via Mobile Device

Re: Good finish Indy500
 

It was a great race, wouldn't change a thing.

I don't like G-W-C, most of the time it ends up with a bunch of damaged equipment.

Re: Good finish Indy500
 

I can honestly say that the GWC & lucky dog are the 2 main reasons I have lost a lot of interest in Nascar. It creates a scenario where investing 3 hours into watching a race becomes pointless when the dominant car loses because the race goes extra distance.

Green flag finish works for the short tracks because of the shorter race distance. For the longer races of the top level series, if you haven't gotten yourself into position to win by the last few laps, you shouldn't get extra laps to get the job done.

I go to a lot of basketball & football game. A lot of those games end up one sided & sometimes boring. However, the occasional great games I see & the enjoyment of the sport itself is what keeps me coming back. Those games don't come with a guarantee of a close finish. Racing shouldn't either.

Re: Good finish Indy500
 

One thing I like best about the Indy 500 is the tradition. Over the years some of the rules have changed about qualifying but a lot has stayed the same. When you go there still it seems you can just feel the tradition looking at the stands, thinking about all the drivers that have won, the drivers that gave everything to take part, some their lives. Yesterdays 500 finish gave people a chance to honor Tony K, and he deserved it. I think the strong racing tradition in Indiana is what makes the sprint car racing so good also, a little bit holding on to tradition, a little bit of high tech change, a lot of competition and enjoyment. I believe the folks in Indiana know the right mix.

Re: Good finish Indy500
 

The fans of Nascar are the ones that wanted the rule changed to a green white checker finish so, Nascar listened to it's fans and made the change. Nascar is only doing what it's fans wanted and lets face it it's made for some very interesting finishes. Most people hate to see a race finish under caution and the race yesterday was no different. but all in all it was one of the better races in the history of the indy 500 just not one of the better finishes.

Re: Good finish Indy500
 

:15: Leave it alone, and don't EVEN go g-w-c. It's not the Indy 505, just because you can't satisfy "some" people. A bunch of torn up IndyCars is a whole different thing to torn up stock cars, and that's all GWC will do. So you'll still get a yellow/red finish. I'm sure many would want Christmas every day too - we call them children - but we don't do it! :22:

Re: Good finish Indy500
 

I'll pile on, PLEASE no G-W-C at the 500!

Ever since NASCAR started it, the number of races that need it have escalated to the point where you can pretty much count on it. With a G-W-C, if you spin someone, it can help you, you line back up and have a chance to advance your position.

Without it, like at Indy, you cause one and you are frozen in that position. I think it makes for cleaner racing. NASCAR now days is a crash fest.

Re: Good finish Indy500
 

A record 68 lead changes, and that's just counting the ones that were scored at the start/finish; some laps there were two and three lead changes between two or three different drivers.
A record average speed for the 500 miles, eclipsing the record set in 1990 (the alleged "good old days").
A record number of drivers who led the race.
A popular win by one of the nicest guys in the sport. You really had to be there to experience it all; there was hard racing every lap, all through the field, and I'll never forget the roar that went up as TK crossed the line to finish the scheduled, established, traditional 500 miles. Last year's tace ended under caution too, but does anybody remember what color the flag was? No, they remember Taku's dive-bomb in turn one. The race ended under caution in '89 but nobody still whines about that, because everybody remembers Little Al and Emmo touching in Three a few laps before, and only Emmo coming out the other side. I sure won't remember the yellow at the end of this one, because there was way too much other great stuff. Anyway, the rules are the rules; 500 miles, unless it rains after half-distance. Same as it ever was...
Congrats, TK; you earned it. Thank you, everybody involved for making this year's race truly the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

Re: Good finish Indy500
 

I'm not for changing the rules at all for the indy 500. I say leave it alone. All I said was about the fans of Nascar wanting to see the races end under green and the officials in Nascar changed the rule because that's what their fans wanted. And the races in Nascar would not be a wreck fest at the end under a G W C if they would restart the race single file but, yes that was one of the best indy 500 in a long time.

Re: Good finish Indy500
 

I have always loved the sound the engines make on these cars so I made sure to get some video yesterday.

Re: Good finish Indy500
 

GWC serves only one purpose and that's to add to the crash high-light real! IndyCar does not need a gimmick like that!

Re: Good finish Indy500
 

GWC has no place in Indycar racing. Its to dangerous and honestly isn't fair to someone getting the lead and taking that advantage away. The only thing I didn't like is passing before the start finish on the start and restarts but man for Indy that was the best race I'm happy I was there to witness the event I'll be coming again for sure.

Re: Good finish Indy500
 

I like how some of you call it a gimmick. It's not a gimmick. it makes for some good finishes that's for sure.

They need to Keep doing what their doing... Don't change a thing! The empty seats don't mean anything either... I have to add that the Indy car deal not having a solid TV deal doesn't mean anything either... For gods sake don't change a thing keep going down the same road.. Eventually things will turn around and they'll start packing the stands again during qualifying and carb day.... I have faith... Don't change a thing because a format based on tradition from an era when Indy cars were #1and the only real game in town has to still work today..rrrrrrigghht.... Not even close to reality guys..common...

Posted via Mobile Device

Re: Good finish Indy500
 

Say what you want about GWC and change or anything else. Sure the 500 was a great race. It was our 1st time attending live. But I have followed the 500 as long as I was old enough to listen. The only thing that has diminished the race in either interest or attendence has been the clowns in charge of the speedway, the sanctioning bodies, and the car owners. Tradition has nothing to do with it.

Re: Good finish Indy500
 

It's the Indy 500, not the Indy 502.5, 505, 507.5, 510...etc. Teams base strategy on 500 miles. If the top 5 drops out because of fuel and 6th place wins, that's better? I'll pass on adopting anything Nascar does. If you can't get on board with 68 lead changes, then I'm not really sure you are much of a race fan. Would a green finsh have been better? Of course, but that's racing as they say. The Brickyard hasn't seen 68 passes in 19 years of existence.

All I know is I'll be there for a 31st consecutive year next year.

Re: Good finish Indy500
 

Im another one for green flag finishes!

Re: Good finish Indy500
 

How can green white checkered be good when NASCAR limits it to 3 tries. Why is ok to finish the final green white checker on yellow but not to finish the race at its advertised distance on yellow? What is fair about that? Without a limit the race could conceivebly go for ever! Green white checker was a Political Correctness cave in by NASCAR and was brought about by a bunch of P.O.'d Earnhardt fans when Gordon was delclared the winner under yellow at Tallagega. I was a NASCAR fan back then and I was there at the track for that race and saw with my own their reprehensable conduct.

Re: Good finish Indy500
 

Enjoyed Indy 500 for my 34th time.

Enjoyed the steak 'n' eggs breakfast. It was better than ever.

Enjoyed the "Guys day out".

Did not enjoy the long wait to get through the gate. I figure if some nut wanted to ruin my day with a pressure cooker he could done it at the gate and not pay to get in.:14:

Enjoyed watching Ed Carpenter race. I don't know what happened the 2nd half of the race but he had one of the fastest cars out there in the first half.

Enjoyed a race with MANY lead changes.

Enjoyed Tony Kanaan's win. He sure paid his dues.

Made it back at 6:01. Another record.

Lots of empty seats. Will the price increase for 2014 hurt. I think so.

Some food for thought. 68 lead changes, pass and repass, possible GWC future, that's all well and good. But there is something to be said about a dominanat performance, like Vukovich winning by a couple laps over the likes of Tony B., Ruttman, McGrath and Gentleman Johnnie. Some say the Mad Russian was the greatest ever because of his dominant performances. If he was born 50 years later would they still say he was the greatest or would aero packages and push to pass render him just another good driver? Are today's victories as solid or less solid than the ones by Vukovich? Is bunching them up with the aero packages great for the fans or does it penalize the better driver/car every yellow and for not being able to pull away from the pack?

Re: Good finish Indy500
 

The only deterent from this years race that I can see is that Indy is no longer a endurance of both man and machine race.

Indy 1000 anyone? Maybe after they get the lights?

Re: Good finish Indy500
 

I was happy about the finish and no complaints about the rules, but then again, I'm biased. I, like, so many people think TK is a great asset to the sport because of his talent, drive, eternally positive attitude and sense of humor. I also think 500 miles is plenty and if I wanted to see a sprint for the finish, Kokomo is not far away.

My husband, a MotoGP fan, was disgruntled at the finish, I smiled and said too bad, the race is over and Tony Kanaan just won :)

I have to wonder though, if the winner had been someone not so likable, for example if Penske entered one of his NASCAR drivers into the race that wasn't exactly a fan favorite, someone who recently made Forbes top 10 most disliked athletes, a list Kurt Busch has made more than once, would I be singing the same tune? Probably not! I'd probably be screaming for rule changes out of sheer disgust for a winner I did not care for.

That being said, it seems like most of the current Indy drivers are fairly likable characters. Seems to me like a solid foundation for regrowth, and I hope this is a new tradition that Indy will maintain. We've had some not so likable drivers show up in the past that get press for their attitude rather than their skills and accomplishments. I know some people say it's good for ratings, but it turns me off to TV coverage, personally.

I know races are not won on sheer charisma alone, but it can encourage people to go to the races, watch them on TV, and follow their success.

Congrats TK! The racing gods have spoken and your face will be on that trophy! :22:

Re: Good finish Indy500
 

"Lots of empty seats"
The Rolling Stones have three concerts up here this week, plenty tickets are still available. Same for the Cubs/Sox tonight. Indy is not the only one having trouble selling tickets.