The 2018 Indianapolis 500 and World 600 capped a month of May that brought out a genuine sense that racing, a sport struggling for years, has begun a turnaround.
Indianapolis has seen a renaissance of the 500 the last several seasons, most notably in 2016 with the 100th running. The explosion in lead changes in the 500 in the 2012-17 period - the period of the Wheldon-12 racecar - began the renaissance, and the surge of darkhorse winners added immeasurably to the race's renaissance. It thus has truly reclaimed the title as Greatest Spectacle In Racing.
Indycar debuted a lower downforce body in 2018, and the loss of 300 pounds of downforce has been credited in some circles to an increase in passing - but in the 500 the loss of downforce was a manifest mistake with a weak drafting effect, cars running poorly in dirty air, and numerous spinouts. There was some very tense racing nonetheless, but clearly the 2012-17 package is far more raceable for superspeedways, and Indycar would be well advised to add downforce and thus drafting effect for the bigger ovals.
The 500 was the story of three teams - Ed Carpenter's self-owned #20, AJ Foyt's team with former 500 winner Antoine "Tony" Kanaan and rookie Matheus Leist, and of course Penske Racing. Carpenter stole Penske's thunder by grabbing the pole, but in the end it was Will Power grabbing the win after the upset bids of Oriol Servia and Stefan Wilson - adding a poignancy to the race is that Wilson is brother of Justin Wilson, killed at Pocono in 2015 - ran dry in the final five laps. Power led 59 laps to Carpenter's 65 but in the end Power had too much of a lead for Carpenter's bid. Kanaan was the big wildcard bidder, posting the fastest practice at least once and leading nineteen laps, but his bid was first frustrated by a cut tire near halfway, then as he'd clawed back into some contention the car spun out and hit the wall with thirteen to go. His rookie teammate Leist soldiered home 13th.
Those were the dominant angles of the 102nd 500, but of course there are others - Schmidt Peterson Motorsports had a solid if mind-boggling week as James Hinchcliffe somehow missed the 500, due in part to a forlorn qualifying effort by Pippa Mann, who also didn't make the race; the botched qualifying effort is the most bizarre since Jigger Sirois blew his chance to make the 1969 500.
Carpenter entered two cars, and Danica Patrick ran his second car - why anyone thought she warranted any ride remains perplexing, especially as she ended her racing career the same way she personified it - she wrecked.
Other notable contenders were Alexander Rossi - fourth in this 500 - Ryan Hunter-Reay - fifth - top race rookie Robert Wickens in another Schmidt Peterson car, Graham Rahal after leading twelve laps from 30th and finishing tenth, and Marco Andretti, finishing a respectable 12th in the Curb #98, still looking for his first win since 2011 and first since losing his ride with his dad's team.
With the 500's drama wrapped up, the racing focus switched to Charlotte and the Coca-Cola 600, and there seems a palpable sense of renewed love of racing in the sport, shown in a consensus of positive fan reaction on the postrace shows on satellite radio. While the 600 was hardly all that competitive - the 600 saw fewer lead changes (23, official and otherwise) than the All-Star Race and All-Star Open (38, official and otherwise) - and Kyle Busch, among the most hated drivers in recent NASCAR history, led 377 laps - there was surprising attention paid to intense racing outside the top five.
There seems to be several reasons for this positivity -
- the biggest angle may be that people's perspective changed when Kevin Harvick crashed, for the expected blitz to yet another Harvick win disintegrated and suddenly the race became radically different.
- the All-Star Race's competitiveness may have provided drivers an unconscious motivation to race harder.
- having seen such exciting racing in the All-Star Race, fans may have come into this 600 with a generally more sated attitude and greater sense of gratitude for the effort by drivers.
- Dave Moody noted on Sirius Radio a subtle shift by the FOX telecast in its broadcast focus; long has been the complaint that TV ignores racing in the back and doesn't scan the field to better promote all the racers, and the focus on the leader certainly seemed noticeably lower this time around.
- the racing outside the top five - and some of the racing within it - featured a plethora of darkhorses and productive finishes as a result. Alex Bowman in particular showed a very respectable effort a week - finishing a solid ninth - after criticism of his racing during All-Star weekend. Ricky Stenhouse - tenth at the end - also showed noticeable improvement with veteran Matt Kenseth replacing Trevor Bayne as a Roush teammate. Veterans Jamie McMurray - the target of some running social media abuse of late - and Kurt Busch, both largely lost in the shuffle of the season, salvaged top-ten finishes. Bubba Wallace clawed from the back of the field - result of a post-qualifying change and resultant penalty - and ran in the top-15 for awhile, then passed several cars late to salvage 16th. Michael McDowell had a respectable night as well salvaging 18th.
- Chevrolet has taken it on the chin all season, but this time around put four cars in the top nine, including Jimmie Johnson, who reached his fifth top-ten finish of a season where he and the entire Hendrick fleet have been outclassed by the SHR Fords and the Toyotas. Certainly this 600 was a race of progress for the Chevrolets after so poor a beginning of the season.
Hovering over the 600 of course is the success of the All-Star Race restrictor plate-draft duct package, and monitoring the scuttlebutt the consensus seems to be the package will be used at Indianapolis in September, with one curious sub-rumor being that New Hampshire will also use this package come July. Certainly there is no credible reason not to begin integrating this package into NASCAR's varied fendered classes at the most propitious possible moment.
It all added up to a racing weekend where a genuine sense of renewed love of the sport can be felt, in a sport where positivity isn't so easy to detect.
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